MC Rove ...
... said on Fox last night that using hip-hop to promote Obamacare is unseemly:
Karl Rove is not happy with a new rap parody of Snoop Dogg's "Drop It like It's Hot" that promotes Obamacare, saying it "crosses the line."Right, because no previous White House would have promoted a policy by promoting the president:
In the video, which directs viewers to Covered California-led efforts TellAFriendGetCovered.com and promotes #GetCovered, artist Alphacat is featured impersonating President Barack Obama rapping about the healthcare law in addition to other issues....
"I worry about something that seems aim to glorification of the commander-in-chief, the president of the United States as opposed to simply advocating young people go out and sign up for this entitlement program," Rove said Thursday on Fox News's "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren."
Rove continued, "This disturbingly gets too close to the line. I think it, in fact, crosses it."
But here's my favorite bit:
"Could you imagine if such a thing had been run by George Bush or Bill Clinton or Bush 41 or Reagan?" Rove asked. "'I have two terms, I'm really cool, I'm really hip.’ How much public outcry there could have been?"Oh yes -- can you imagine if Saint Ronald Reagan had tried to promote himself using black popular culture? It's unimaginable!
In 1984, Michael Jackson was approached to donate "Beat It" as backing music for a commercial on drunk driving. Jackson agreed and it was arranged for the singer to be awarded with an honour from the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan....And I'm sure it's just a coincidence that the elderly Reagan met with this young star in 1984, the year he ran for reelection.
The presentation took place on May 14, 1984, at the White House. Upon reaching the podium, Reagan remarked, "I hope you'll forgive me, but we have quite a few young folks in the White House who all wanted me to give you the same message. They said to tell Michael, "Please give some TLC to the PYTs." A reference to Jackson's Grammy Award-nominated song, "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)"...
The Nancy Reagan-Mr. T photo op had happened a few months earlier:
Now, here's the video Rove is pretending to be so horrified by.
Find anything objectionable in it? Me either. But it's rap, so Rove's audience on Fox will assume that it's shockingly obscene and full of nightmare scenarios of rape and pillage, and that it takes the centuries-old tradition of Western music and curb-stomps it in a dark alley. So of course this attack was irresistible.
8 comments:
"I worry about something that seems aim to glorification of the commander-in-chief, the president of the United States"
Now, flight suits, on the other hand.....
Hilarious. Does the man have absolutely no sense of self-awareness?
And let's not forget W's dance routine in Africa, where he also played the guy's drum:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqy91GnS-Bg&feature=player_embedded
THAT, was pure comedy gold!
Aunt Snow,
As for 'self-awareness,' it takes a brain willing to believe it can be wrong at least every once in awhile.
In his own "mind," Karl Rove has never been wrong, and can never be wrong.
Its not so much the black connection, to Rove, although his target market probably dislikes blackness as an attribute and Obama because he's black. Rove is simply alluding or calling forth the implicit right wing argument that Obama ("the One") is making himself into some kind of political messiah/hitleresque/mussolini/korean dictator style fetish object specifically to easily impressed youth. Its the same complaint about the "youth summit" at the White House and all youth outreach.
Rove and the Conservatives are doing it for two reasons--one: it scares the shit out of the older conservative crowd. It is a way of quantifying and explaining what is so scary about Obama and his voters--that they are relatively young and enthusiastic about voting for Obama (or they were). The argument, such as it is, is that these younger and female voters were both bribed by Obama and dazzled by him--that they didn't vote on policy (Dry and boring) so much as on passion which Rove et al liken to brain washing, drug addiction, sexual seduction.
Two: they are doing it because they can. Because the accusation that Obama is trying to be cool but should fail is a way of distancing Obama from younger voters. Rove et al cynically and naturally exploited models of the presidency in which Bush stood for America and Patriotism and Fatherly care etc..etc..etc... But theyr eally resent Obama stepping naturlaly into the same symbolic shoes. So now Obama claiming the right to interact with the voters, to ask them to do something (like stay in school) or to offer them something (like healthcare) has to be represented as an usurpation or even as a revolting, freaky, attack on normal presidentin' because...they've got nothing else.
Half the country has accepted that Obama or someone like Obama is president and gets to be president and gets to go potty in the white house and gets to play golf at Camp david or whatever the fuck. And Rove's voters just...don't.
Oh, I just watched the actual video. That is the cutest, dorkiest, thing imaginable. Its so cute I'd like to take it home and make a hello kitty cushion out of it. Rove has to be fuckin' nuts to think you can turn that into some kind of "cult of personality" charge against Obama.
"scares the shit out of the older conservative crowd"
After the 2012 debacle he should no longer be regarded as really involved with politics. He's really become pure huckster like Palin or Huckabee at this point. I'm cheered to note he calls the ACA an "entitlement" program. Sign they know it will live forever, and that's how long they hope to be dining out on it.
Barack should put on a Black Panther uniform and have himself CGI spliced into Public Enemy's "Fight The Power" video. White heads exploding like in Scanners in 3,2,1...
Conservatives are thrice blessed, they have no memory, they always vote Republican even if that Rep is a RINO, and they have no sense of shame.
Thus, Karl Rove, Grover Norquist or whomever is able to do what they always do, ignore despicable past actions of Republicans, fuel the conservative poutrage machine and dupe Americans into forgetting that Right-Wingers are always on the wrong side of history.
Barack should put on a Black Panther uniform and have himself CGI spliced into Public Enemy's "Fight The Power" video. White heads exploding like in Scanners in 3,2,1...
Totally. I predict this will be the last six months of this second term. Go for it, Barack!
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