Tuesday, December 10, 2013

AMERICA IS GOING TO SPEND THE NEXT COUPLE OF NEWS CYCLES BECOMING EVEN STUPIDER

Apparently, the most important news story in the world right now is OMG OBAMA SHOOK RAUL CASTRO'S HAND!!!!1!!
As President Obama made his way through a crowd of 90 other world leaders in Johannesburg on Tuesday, he shook a surprising hand: that of Cuban President Raul Castro.

Video cameras caught the handshake, which came as Obama reached out to dozens of other leaders during the song that preceded his eulogy of Mandela....


The right is going to howl, but all that means is that the right will have temporarily substituted "Obama Kowtows to Commie" for "Obama Wants to Kill Us All with Socialized Medicine and Benghazi." As for the Obama base -- well, there was that 2011 Pew poll in which poor people, African-Americans and the young had more positive feelings about socialism than capitalism. This was probably just a reflection of how little capitalism has done for all of those groups lately, but it does say that, among these groups, shaking hands with a communist isn't going to be seen as horrifying; it will certainly be seen as a gesture of reconciliation in the spirit of Mandela.

The problem is the middle -- not the Fox/Limbaugh audience, but the audience for Washington Post pundits and CNN bloviators. This will be discussed Very, Very Seriously for a day or two by all of these people. It will play on endless loops -- I guess it's already playing that way:

It's not going to be read by the middle as Obama goes Bill Ayers!!!, but it is going to be read as Obama reaches out to scary evil foreigners, which plays into a couple of messages the center finds at least somewhat credible: that Obama focuses on other issues when he should be focusing on the economy, and that the Obama foreign policy isn't always steady and stable and thus exposes America to danger. The right may not have gotten the middle to shriek about BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! every day, but the middle now regards Obama foreign policy efforts warily:

The White House and Iran face an uphill selling job to convince Americans to embrace the interim nuclear pact negotiated with Tehran last month, a USA TODAY/Pew Research Center Poll finds.

In the survey, taken Tuesday through Sunday, 32% approve of the agreement and 43% disapprove. One in four either refuse to answer or say they don't know enough to have an opinion.

By more than 2-1, 62%-29%, those who have heard something about the accord say Iranian leaders aren't serious about addressing international concerns about their country's nuclear program....

Too many people in the middle will regard the handshake as more ill-advised outreach. We'll forget all about it in couple of days, but it won't play well -- largely because centrist pundits will make it into a bigger deal than it is, and will talk about a mere gesture as if it's a major diplomatic initiative. Oh, by the way: Bill Clinton shook hands with Fidel in 2000. America survived.

****

ON THE OTHER HAND: I suppose Obama, intentionally or not, was giving fellow funeral attendee Ted Cruz a chance to overplay his hand. Surely Cruz will be asked about this. Will he do the tacky thing and attack both the president and the extending of olive branches while still in Mandela's South Africa? We'll see.

****

UPDATE: Oh jeez, here comes the frame-by-frame microanalysis:

These are Instapundit retweets, by the way. It's a shame there isn't a grassy knoll involved.

7 comments:

Victor said...

Roosevelt and Truman shook Stalin's hand.
So did Churchill.

It's a gathering of world leaders, what's Obama supposed to do?
Turn around?
Run away?
Spit at the guy?

Why must every move and gesture by President Obama be weighed as evil?
Oh yeah.
Our Reich-Winger's are stupid.
And scared.
Actually, desperate.
They want, need, Something to take this guy down.
Anything!

marieburns said...

Assuming your prediction is correct -- & it's unfolding that way already -- it just goes to show that neither those on the right nor the Very, Very Serious People are capable of understanding what Nelson Mandela was all about. Mandela shook the hand of his jailer, for Pete's sake, & invited the jailer to his own presidential inauguration.

Marie Burns

aimai said...

If Obama ws really playing 11th dimensional chess he would have had Bush introduce Ted Cruz to Castro and shake his hand first. Or done a group thing where he walked up to Castro with Bush, Clinton, Carter and Cruz and all had a "pose now" picture.

Philo Vaihinger said...

Not sure Bill Clinton ever equated Ho Chi Minh with Thomas Jefferson. But I suppose he might have.

Ten Bears said...

Looks to me like Obama grabbed the wrong hand, hence Raul's shit eating grin.

Paris Hilton's panties.

No fear.

Pops said...

Reagan and Bush shaking hands with Gorbacev and Yeltsin....Saintly. Obama and pipsquek Castro...
dastardly. Go figure.

Grung_e_Gene said...

Look, the Ultra-Reactionary Right is comprised entirely of people for whom civility is a sin tantamount to surrender.

There every hero does public displays of disrespect and their duped conservative drones cheer as if it's a sporting event and a cheer goes up 'Obama Sucks!'

From Joe Wilson with "YOU LIE!!!" to Sam Alito shaking his head and mouthing "No..." to Pete Sessions telling people during the Shutdown "We're not France!" or Randy Neugbrauer telling a Park Ranger she "Should be ashamed" for the Shutdown.

The Right's entire debating technique is "Booooo!"