Friday, March 07, 2008

Re: Promise Fulfilled   [Mark Hemingway]

Speaking of powerful videos Stanley, I'm still getting emails over my comments about the Obama "dipdive" videos yesterday.

If anyone doubts that Obama's supporters engage in cult-like behavior, try pointing out that they engage in cult-like behavior. Apparently fealty so permeates Obama's hardcore base that not only are they glad to produce creepy, propagandistic tributes, but they're also more than happy to delve into insane justifications of same.

After I first expressed my distaste for the videos, I was contacted by a number of outraged supporters of the Illinois Senator. In particular, I had criticized actor Ryan Phillippe for claiming he was voting for Obama because he wanted a “better future” for his children when the only thing I know about Ryan Phillipe, private citizen, is that not that long ago he emerged from a messy divorce from his Academy Award-winning wife surrounded by tabloid rumors of an affair. If you care about your kids' future, not cheating on your wife and the mother of your children seems to be of far more importance than, say, who you vote for in the primaries.

Notwithstanding this, I received an e-mail from an Obama supporter, and aside from venting some irrelevant and noxious personal insults in my direction, his sole riposte to my criticisms of those involved with, as one reader dubbed it, "The Triumph of the will.i.am" video is this:

At least Phillippe and will.i.am (and Obama, for that matter) bed attractive women.

Touché, my good sir! I have to applaud his obdurate unwillingness grasp my basic point. But my correspondent also introduced a curious metric into the political process: How much support does your candidate of choice have from hot babes?

So we've learned from the will.i.am videos that Jessica Alba and Scarlett Johansson are supporting Barack Obama. Wow. No disrespect to those genetic lottery winners in particular, but I think I can generally say with a high degree of confidence that most Hollywood starlets have the brains God gave trout. Their political knowledge typically extends to thinking "bicameral" means their next scene is being shot from two different angles. (I hate to further dissapoint you here, Stanley, but internet camapign video pioneer “Obama Girl” didn't actually bother voting for the object of her YouTube affection.)

That Obama seems to be the celebrity candidate of choice doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Rather, it reinforces the very legitimate criticism that Obama is about image, not substance. "But he has policy papers on his website!" seems to be the predominant rallying cry among Obama supporters. Wake me up when somebody's locked Alba in a room with Obama's "Blueprint for Change." Perhaps given enough time and the help of her publicist, she can articulate coherently why Obama's health care plan, if largely the same as Hillary's, will at least postpone the Ragnarok for a few more years.

03/07 11:34 AMShare