Mr. President, Just Say No Comment
So I guess yesterday President Obama got caught slipping once again. Apparently, the President was having an “off the record” conversation with ABC’s Terry Moran and called Kanye West a “jackass.” Of course, Moran got so excited that he had the inside dirt that he lost his manners and tweeted Obama’s nonsensical statement to the entire world.
It’s not clear why Obama feels the need to address questions about Kanye West. By chiming in on such low priority things as the VMAs, Obama weakens his positions with both allies and opponents. (Not to mention that I don’t think that I want the busiest man in the world to even know about Kanye’s sophomoric antics.)
After all, while Kanye is a jackass today, 18 months from now Obama is going to need Yezzy’s and hip-hop’s support to get reelected. There are only so many beer summits, or in this case Hennessy summits, that he can host during his time in office to clean up his messes.
So Mr. President, next time you get asked a potentially controversially question about pop culture, just say no comment.
well whats true is the president has lots of off-topic convos with reporters about many things— most of which we do not hear because its the journalists’ responsibility not to break white house OTR rules. everyone agrees to them.
We were all so inspired the first time around, but the President’s street cred will become tarnished if he doesn’t keep a closed, stiff upper lip. I do remember how careful he was about open mics during the campaign. He’s gotta keep up that approach, otherwise we’ll all be stuck with a one term unfilled hopeful dream for change. (how many slogans can you fill into a sentence?)
I must say that I agree. I was a bit taken aback to see that he had commented on this trivia. There is an old adage that says something like ” If the fish never opened his mouth, he wouldn’t get caught.”
Yes exactly. We all know we got a real brother in the white house and with that territory comes our relaxed good natured cultural proclivities. Michelle shoulda been near by…she probably let him have it later.
I can hear her saying, “now you know you shoulda just not commented…you shoulda just left that alone…that stuff doesn’t concern you or us!”
Street Cred? are you serious Carolyn..Kanye has no “street cred” Kanye was a jackass for punking a lil white kid at the VMA’s..any man in his right mind would call it like he sees it. Obama is a man first, then the President. He’s been a man longer than he has been President. I don’t care what Obama’s says personally as long as he’s doing a good job.
Kanye would be the first talk crap if a white dude would have done what he did to a black female artist. As black people we have too many double standards. As a black man and Father I think Kanye’s actions were both sexist and racially biased.
This article is ridiculous. Obama’s positions are, if anything, strengthened by the fact that he humanizes himself by acknowledging these things that to him may be trivial, but he is fully aware the public fancy or at the very minimum, find curious.
I wanted to get back to you all to say that I have now educated myself on exactly what happened at the VMA’s and also, Kanye’s previous (and similar) behavior at various awards ceremonies as written up in an excellent Rolling Stone article.
I love it when West speaks out about Katrina and the Bush White House.
I don’t like it when any artist treats another the way he did- man or woman. And visually speaking, when a strong, powerful black man jumps on stage to drag the mic away from a diminutive white woman, country singer no less, the image just plays into people’s fears, their racism and their ability to use that video clip over and over to stir up trouble. WTF was he thinking? and apparently he’s done this type of thing with men and women so much that he’s going to get himself banned from awards ceremonies and lose his power to speak in ways that do make a positive difference.
With the initial question about President Obama, I just think it’s always in his (and our) best interest for him to take the high road and withhold character judgement, especially of pop culture personalities – it’s just not being a statesman.
AND I just want to shout our to Portia Cobb who (I think) was at the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry with Reggie Allen right about the same time I was, years ago . . .
Hey there Carolyn…I didn’t see your shout out until today…weeks after this discussion. Yes I was there then. And I agree with you comments about the president needing to take the high road and not run rampant with pop personalities or get caught up. What are you doing these days?
Portia,
Great to hear back from you!
I am operating as an independent with free lance work in video and
web site production that focuses on web 2.0 video approaches.
Currently I’m fascinated with the scope and type of stories you can tell by embedding video into Google Maps and Earth and am in the midst of a large scale proposal for this type of project. This will be a ten years later outgrowth of the work I was doing at the STUDIO.
And am putting together a 2010/11 group show focusing on environmental issues with water, which I believe is our collective blind spot in the evolving conversation on global warming.
If you can send me an email address, we can take this conversation off of 99 problems.
There’s 3 Portia Cobbs on Facebook, are you one of them?
C