So I forced myself to watch the O'Reilly/Obama interview. And here's what really, truly, sincerely pissed me off.
Obviously my ideology precludes me from liking O'Reilly much and while I took Obama in 08, I'm not some drooling devotee. One of the things this interview made quite clear though is that Obama is great at the subtle smackdown. He hit Fox News right in front of O'Reilly's face without raising some corporatist ire. And that was all good fun, but here's something I haven't seen the press pick up on.
At some point O'Reilly leads a line of questioning about media activity and the president comes back with a nuanced response laying out a lot of the ills of our current system and how it hinders honest discussion. At some point this must have pushed too far on the lefty button because O'Reilly cuts in and says "whoa whoa whoa, you're sounding like a professor."
Like it's a bad thing.
First off: NO SHIT. He was INDEED a professor. Dude taught constitutional law. Big surprise that he can rattle out words with more than 3 syllables and speak in paragraphs that are too long to write on your hand.
Secondly: WHAT THE FUCK? We NEED, desperately, smart people, intelligent people, elite people running the place. We just spent 8 years with someone we wanted to have a beer with. Didn't turn out so awesome. We had this freakout after Nixon and Watergate where we thought that our dipshit neighbor was a better replacement for "elites" and suddenly conservatives and southern democrats that sounded like conservatives were the only people who could get elected. I'm a southerner and holy crap I know that's not true. The country suddenly thought that there was no differentiation between poised and plain-spoken. Between thoughtful and impetuous. Between great and good.
There's this old bit from a comedian that I've appropriated and changed up through the years but am nevertheless forced to play in my head too often. I think of it every time I see a candidate running for office that rides around in a brand new pickup truck or buys flannel and goes hunting or disses people who speak in non-buzzwords.
Do you see the job you're applying for? If you get it, and you do it well, they might CARVE YOUR FACE into a FUCKING MOUNTAIN.
If you've never thought you were the smartest guy in the room then what the hell are you doing here?