Editor's Note: First off, I wanted to say that I'm fine. I have shopped at that Whole Foods, but they were not my bananas.
I truly believe we are entering the Silver Age of Right-Wing Hypocrisy. Oh, sure, they may never reach the heights of hubris, bad faith and deceit that they turned into an art form in the post-Sept.11 Bush salad days, but Obama derangement, unfiltered demagoguery and sheer electoral floundering is giving rise to a new heyday of Republican sanctimony.
As the first exhibit in this carnival of intransigence, I present the wingnut reaction to President Obama's appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. They say it is beneath the dignity of the office. It is not befitting a sitting president to do this, you see, because the president should not sully his great stature by sitting down to speak directly to the unwashed and allow himself to be introduced by a common comedian.
Excuse me, "dignity"? Where was your dignity when you were swooning over how charming and cute Sarah Palin looked, "raising the roof" over at Saturday Night Live, another NBC show that features comedians?
This is dignified?
What about this?
Or this?
Sock it to me?
And I'm not even going to touch this...
These are all people who have held or sought (either officially or in Sarah's case in her own mind) the office of the president. Where is their dignity? I know you don't care much for the Chief, but at least try to keep some standard of internal consistency in your arguments against him.
The other thing I love about this is that Barack Obama now needs to become MORE elitist. This is hypocrisy so rich and thick you could heat it up in the microwave and drizzle it over a short stack. First he's a wine-quaffing, cheese-nibbling, opera -frequenting fop who probably knows how to pronounce the word "canapé," and now he's supposed to be more so?
Remember arugula? Remember orange juice? I know you remember guns and religion? Hell, Sean Hannity still opens every show talking about that one.
Maybe you'd have preferred a fireside chat? But then he'd be comparing himself to FDR. Would a primetime speech have been more appropriate? Oh, but then he'd beinterrupting the common folks' TV entertainment. Maybe a pre-recorded message of some sort? No, that would be called an infomercial.
Listen, the man is president. Each president gets to interpret the office in their own way. They individually get to decide what they want to do with it from a style standpoint.
George W. Bush thought that cowboy boots were black tie dress. OK, fine. Bill Clinton covered an Elvis song on the sax for Arsenio. Whoop-whoop-whoop. Nixon liked to bowl a few frames in the basement. All right, go for it, Dick. JFK preferred Tanqueray martinis. Right on, Mr. President. Chester A. Arthur enjoyed platform shoes when they were not in style. You go, Chet.
So now let the Chief have his turn. Let him define what the stature of the office means to him. Of all the jobs he has to do, this is a relatively unimportant one. But those are his choices to make. And your job is to sit there and like it.
At least, until he does something really undignified.