Obamanocchio #1

by Michael Dawson / January 27th, 2009

President Obama made a “surprise visit” to the White House Press Room on Thursday. Undoubtedly, this was not an impulse or an accident, but a calculated attempt to create a new kind of photo-op. The idea was almost certainly to make news about the newness of this President not hiding from public-minded questioning. The assumption must have been that the WH press corp would be so bowled over by Obama’s entrance that they’d fawn and gush over him and pump out puff pieces proclaiming his newness and openness.

Turns out, the reporters took advantage of the unheard-of chance by actually asking Obama a question!

“Why, Mr. President, are you nominating the Raytheon Corporation lobbyist William J. Lynn III to serve as Deputy Secretary of Defense? Isn’t that an egregious violation of your campaign promise and subsequent Executive Order to stop doing this kind of thing?”

Obama’s answer? Not so new:

“The president brushed [the question] off, saying he would not return “if I’m going to get grilled every time I come.”

So, in other words, this “surprise visit” was old wine in a new bottle, a staged event all about coercive image-making, with no connection whatsoever to any new openness. If the Press Room is going to ask President Obama questions, then he’s not coming there. Simple as that.

No wonder Ronald Reagan, the figurehead-in-chief when political marketers perfected the art and science of photo-op psy-ops, is one of Obama’s heroes.

“Change you can believe in.”©®™

Michael Dawson is author of The Consumer Trap: Big Business Marketing in American Life (2004). He is the publisher of the blog The Consumer Trap, which aims to expose capitalism, marketing and market totalitarianism. Read other articles by Michael, or visit Michael's website.

This article was posted on Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 at 8:01am and is filed under Democracy, Democrats, Media.

20 comments on this article so far ...

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tony smith said on January 27th, 2009 at 8:19am #
why exactly, is this an irrational assumption:
The assumption must have been that the WH press corp would be so bowled over by Obama’s entrance that they’d fawn and gush over him and pump out puff pieces proclaiming his newness and openness.
bozh said on January 27th, 2009 at 10:36am #
ah,, that darn greater evil is back in town as predicted by at least me. godlikes turning out to be devil-likes.
ok, i am also devilish, (i have devil of my own) but i have no tanks, wmd, cia, army; just an old wife no lngr of kissing age.
actualy, as i have said before, it is not obama or bush; it is the uncle with ever ‘better’ weapons who represents the greater evil. thnx
Michael Dawson said on January 27th, 2009 at 11:41am #
Tony, my complaint isn’t that this was an irrational assumption by Obama and his handlers. Quite the opposite. The problem is that he’s fake, an operator, a calculator, a president who goes to the press room with no intention of answering questions, and every intention of manipulating the press, as a cover for the same old policies.
RG the LG said on January 27th, 2009 at 1:22pm #
… the same old policies …
… the same old empire …
… the same old electorate …
… the same old same old …
Getting old, isn’t it?
Change we can hope for …
Belief? That is a church thing …
RG the LG
Michael Dawson said on January 27th, 2009 at 2:00pm #
Why blame the electorate, RG? They’re being jobbed, and certainly not getting what they thought they were voting for?
The problem lies to the north, in our decrepit overclass and its two wholly-owned political parties.
rg the lg said on January 27th, 2009 at 7:33pm #
Jobbed?
Could be.
Could be that we have the system we have because we want the system we have. Wanting cheap gasoline causes government to provide cheap gas. Wanting cheap food causes Wal-Mart. What Sam Walton and that greedy spawn of his are onto is keep the masses happy and you can get rich and stay powerful.
But, maybe you are right.
I still maintain that the empire is NOT unwanted … and that the O’Bama deal is to ‘return’ the US to its former glory as the King Rat!
Trapped … ?
RG the LG
Pito said on January 27th, 2009 at 9:16pm #
I think the truth lies somewhere in between RG and MD. The public is lied to, deceived, coerced. Most people would be flabbergasted if they understood how they are being manpulated by the duopoly. There is also another segment who knows quite well what is going on, and only wants the cheap goods and raw materials from the rest of the world and doesnt care how many countries we had to devastate to get them. And many people if told the reality of what goes on would say “hey, just look out for my peice and I wont rock the boat.”
Brian Koontz said on January 28th, 2009 at 9:11am #
That article linked to, “Wrapping Reagan in the Flag One Last Time”, paints a terribly false picture. People don’t respond straightforwardly to that kind of imagery because it’s powerful, but for two reasons which are interconnected:
The American populace is apolitical. They literally have no idea what political reality consists of. In the absence of knowledge, they are vulnerable to imagery.
The reason they are apolitical, is that they recognize the benefit of such. Imperial benefits require imperialism, which in turn requires violence and domination. Since they would rather not think about these things, they prevent them from entering their minds in the first place. Since it’s difficult to be highly selective about which knowledge enters the mind, they shut down nearly *all* aspects of political reality from their mind, except for imagery, which is devoid of truth. This is the METHOD by which the American people retain their material status in the world while keeping a smile on their face.
The American people recognize *who* it is that is providing the imagery. High capitalists and their respective political parties are the ones responsible for providing Americans with imperial benefits. They know this and thus respond positively to whatever imagery is provided to them. That the imagery is *false* is irrelevant. Americans aren’t about truth, they are about wealth.
Americans detest the Bush Administration not because of it’s various travesties against truth, certainly not because they “took the American people to war on false pretenses” but because the Bush Administration played a big role in bringing down the American Empire. It’s the potential loss of that empire that the American people hate, and they will turn against anyone who threatens it, just like they turned against Al Qaeda on 9/11. Americans loved Bush when they thought he would dominate Iraq and hated Bush when that turned out not to be the case. They hate Bush not for his immorality, but for his *weakness*.
Far from showing wisdom at agreeing with the “smart White House”, Stahl merely shows her own willingness to comply with her imperial masters. See, she says, I can’t do anything because “the images are too powerful”.
If anyone questions my view on this, simply consider that same imagery shown to non-Americans. This supposedly “powerful” imagery would be laughed at and scoffed at.
This is just another day in America, isn’t it?
Michael Dawson said on January 28th, 2009 at 10:33am #
Amazing how deep and wide the ruling ideology of baseless disdain for ordinary people has penetrated. Pito has it right: “Most people would be flabbergasted if they understood how they are being manipulated by the duopoly.”
But they have almost no chance of learning this, given the maldistribution of education and the structure of our media and political arrangements.
Why people who blame all this on the commoners waste their time reading things like Dissident Voice is an interesting question. I assume it’s because they only half believe their own robotic recitation of elite excuses.
The job of the left is to try to deliver the real news to the people. If you think that’s a waste of time, why are you here?
bozh said on January 28th, 2009 at 10:39am #
brian,
you’re right about amers being apolitical. most amers saw until recently ‘progress’. they have not noticed regress, excepting green people.
even now, only about, is it, 5% of amers take into account the debits; they see only profits.
but it seems to me it is not that much different in most other countries. this shows , once again, we are all one specie and behave the same or similarly. thnx
Brian Koontz said on January 28th, 2009 at 7:11pm #
“Amazing how deep and wide the ruling ideology of baseless disdain for ordinary people has penetrated. Pito has it right: “Most people would be flabbergasted if they understood how they are being manipulated by the duopoly.”
But they have almost no chance of learning this, given the maldistribution of education and the structure of our media and political arrangements.”
That’s a myth. It’s a myth that serves imperial interests, as it allows Americans an eternal excuse for their complicity. “See, it’s not complicity at all, we just don’t know any better. Wahhh.”
This allows the left to “serve the people” by telling them the truth – all the evidence that the people circumvent whatever truth they happen to hear is disregarded by the left, precisely because this is a charade which the left, likewise for a desire to continue their imperial benefits, wants to perpetuate. In their own mind the left is educating the people.
If the left was really about educating the people, they would follow up on the education they are giving them. They would say, hmm… I’ve given them X and Y education, so why does nothing happen? Why do polls show the same attitude time and again?
Rather than do this and hold *themselves* accountable for the education they are giving the people, the left merely blames whoever is convenient for their own supposed failure. The mainstream media, who the left claims deludes the people, is a common excuse.
I don’t know a teacher in the world who when he has zero effect on his students blames others, and then teaches more students in the exact same way, supposedly expecting a different outcome this time! According to Einstein, that’s the definition of insanity. But it’s all part of the charade. And so the left repeats ad nauseum the same thing over and over and over.
The left loves to talk about their “failures” – but in order to fail or succeed one must actually try.
One of the purposes of the educational system is to allow people to pretend to be ignorant.
I’ve talked to lots of regular people about leftist issues, supposedly these truths that they don’t know. They know them! They don’t know all the details, but they know that the government is run by and for large corporations – they know that the economic system is not tied to knowledge or skill but to capitalist investment (a college diploma) – they know that America goes to war for profit, not for defense – I’ve been told a few times by people, “Don’t talk to me like I’m stupid” – that’s how BORING and well understood these issues are to regular people. The extent to which some people “don’t know” about these things is due to them not wanting to know, due to allegiance to imperial or capitalist interests. The most common people who don’t know that the “educational system” is simply a capitalist investment scheme are precisely those people who benefit from the system, the supposedly “educated”!
I don’t blame the Imperial West on “commoners” – I blame it on every single person who benefits from imperial western domination and who seeks to perpetuate those benefits. Unlike the foolish “left”, however, I recognize that the people of the West are utterly complicit in imperialism, and therefore it will not be the West that saves the world, but rather the victims of imperialism.
I was talking with a “commoner” just the other day. A 39-year-old woman with minimal “education”. I was denouncing a TV reality show (just one of many she watches) with a person nicknamed MILF and said “I can’t take this show seriously”.
She said, “That’s not the point”.
One additional problem with the left is that it’s insular. The left doesn’t talk to “commoners” – the term itself is ridiculous. In a world where the educational system is nearly useless (with respect to real knowledge) the supposed “commoners” are in many cases more knowledgeable than the supposedly educated. So the supposedly educated left ends up talking to other members of the “intelligentsia”, thinking that talking to a member of the “herd” is beneath them. This results in an in-bred society of pretentious know-nothings.
According to the TV reality-show watching minimally educated supposedly ignorant couch potato, to extend her statement, the West is not about seriousness or truth, it’s about manipulating it’s own mind and actions in order to feel good about itself while at the same time ensuring that those minds and actions do not threaten their material status in the world. According to her, the statement “The job of the left is to try to deliver the real news to the people” is par for the course.
While the Western left won’t be “saving the world”, I have some hope that they can do something positive eventually. I’d like to be partially responsible for moving the Western left in that direction, so that’s what I’m “doing here” with respect to this particular line of thought.
XavierOnassis(SaveYourOwn...) said on January 29th, 2009 at 5:48am #
Did the People fall, or were they pushed?
Answer: they fell.
Right after they were pushed.
Murder the idea to allow wealthpower giants…who can’t even see the “ants” they step on, and push around.
bozh said on January 29th, 2009 at 8:42am #
rg lg,
bears repeating: we are what nature (or god, if one wills) made us; perforce, OK.
people wld choose to do or behave more wisely if they wld obtain an enlightenment.
but children are mistaught and later as adults led astray by a mass of ‘experts’ (political, especially).
children are educated to be efficient producers and prolific (ab) users.
they, as well as adults, are taught a sanitized history and reality.
thus believe in or acccept fiction and no one can adapt to a fictitious reality.
no, this is not solely an amer trait; it is widespread. amers have, tho, perfected like no other salespeople.
they love selling you bridges! thnx
Michael Dawson said on January 29th, 2009 at 12:07pm #
Nice terrorist argument, Brian. Everybody who has the slightest inkling that things are wrong and doesn’t then fling him or herself onto something (what would it be, Brian?) that shuts down the system is co-equally to blame. Have you ever heard of the Nuremberg Trials? Obviously not.
And you aren’t any kind of a leftist, btw. You’re a confused nihilist.
Ramsefall said on January 30th, 2009 at 8:30am #
Thanks for your contribution, Michael.
The world, especially the US media, can lay their bets on more presidential issue skirting from the Prince of Hope.
The populace should be justifiably skeptical of this man and the system he represents, not romantically hopeful. Change does not come from the top down as came Obama, it comes from the bottom up such as 60s civil rights movements and leaders like Bolivia’s Morales. So much to learn, such little time to learn it.
Label me left, radical, impractical, whatever, it’s irrelevant and runs off my conscious like water. Trying to educate people on the reality of the farce is tiring. Inbred gullibility is resilient to reason or logic.
Regardless, it’s a fine time to be alive.
Best to you.
Robert B said on January 30th, 2009 at 8:05pm #
This bizarre notion of change beggars belief against the known fact that any American President is not the power but the frontman for the real power behind the throne. The moneymen of the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Warburg et al provide instruction via the CFR, Trilateral Commission and other such bodies. Without instruction from them on how to answer he remains as all US Presidents just a ‘puppet on a string’ so how can anyone with half a brain believe in his so called ‘Change’. This from a man who stated he had visited all but two of the US “57 States’ lol. The world is doomed and we only have ourselves to blame especially the abysmal Congress vote in support of Isreal which only proves conclusively what the rest of the world knows that the US stopped being a sovereign State and is merely the lap dog of Isreal and the Israelis brag about it constantly.
Brian Koontz said on February 1st, 2009 at 10:34pm #
In reply to Michael Dawson:
“Nice terrorist argument, Brian. Everybody who has the slightest inkling that things are wrong and doesn’t then fling him or herself onto something (what would it be, Brian?) that shuts down the system is co-equally to blame. Have you ever heard of the Nuremberg Trials? Obviously not.
And you aren’t any kind of a leftist, btw. You’re a confused nihilist.”
As someone who has lived with myself 24/7 for 34 years, I’m going to take my word for who I am over yours. I’m an anarchist and global socialist. Calling someone a nihilist is the last resort when someone can’t argue a point – it’s the equivalent of idly throwing out a Hitler reference.
I disagree with “co-equally to blame” – that’s a twisting of what I said – I said I blame “[everyone] who benefits from imperial western domination and who seeks to perpetuate those benefits”.
Unless every Westerner benefits equally from imperial western domination and seeks to perpetuate those benefits equally, I don’t blame all Westerners equally. A “good Westerner” then, according to this definition, is one who minimizes his own imperial benefits while fighting to end imperialism.
The Western left, especially the “educated” left, is terrible at both minimizing their own imperial benefits and fighting to end imperialism. Hence they are very much to blame and are not “good Westerners”.
I personally don’t respect the life of the typical Westerner – that doesn’t mean I find murdering them by means of terrorism very useful. However, the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist action was useful since it took advantage of an already self-destructive administration as well as a monstrous bloodthirsty people in order to rapidly hasten the end of the American Empire.
Terrorism is a tactic of war, and is more moral than most forms of war since it’s often used by people without the necessary capital to raise a standard army. Unlike most war, therefore, terrorism employed by the weak is not a matter of “might makes right”. It’s usually a matter of “we’re desperate so we fight however we can”.
Westerners of course, including the left, know that they have control of the lion’s share of the world’s capital and thus have no need for terrorism (although of course the West is by far the largest purveyor of terrorism), thus can happily condemn it as an atrocity.
It comes down to valuing some things more than life, and more than someone else’s life. The terrorist typically sees two futures for himself – one in which he is led like a sheep to slaughter or like a slave to chains or one in which he kills however he can. The terrorist makes the latter choice.
It’s very easy to virtually end terrorism – create an anarchic global socialist society. This monstrous capitalist world will always have vast amounts of terrorism – the only change in recent years is the rise of terrorism employed *against* high capital, rather than by it. Far from a bad thing, this form of resistance provides hope, like a lightsaber in Luke Skywalker’s hand.
It’s funny how movie heroes always use violence, but these same Westerners who cheer when Imperial civilians are killed by terrorists (Luke Skywalker was of course a terrorist who killed far more civilians than Bin Laden has) frown when Imperial civilians in the real world (such as Americans) are killed by terrorists.
Perhaps if the real world terrorist was only blond-haired and blue-eyed, or if they themselves weren’t the Imperial civilian…
How many Imperial civilians do you suppose lived on the Death Star? Given America’s $600 Billion military budget and ridiculously advanced weaponry, isn’t America the Death Star of the world?
Yet even I don’t suggest blowing it up – I must be corrupt.
Michael Dawson said on February 2nd, 2009 at 4:41pm #
Brian denies he thinks like a terrorist, but says this in trying to show that: “I personally don’t respect the life of the typical Westerner.”
Terrorists are people who don’t respect the life of whole groups, and decide whether to kill them based on how “useful” that act seems to the terrorist in question.
Meanwhile, you might try acquiring just a bit of the education you hate, Bri. As it stands, you sound utterly cracked, if not like an aspiring Pol Pot. The left controls the lion’s share of the world’s capital? Creating socialism is easy? What planet are you living on?
P.S. What could possibly matter more than life?
Brian Koontz said on February 3rd, 2009 at 10:02pm #
You’re deceitful – you know very well I said the West controls the lion’s share of the world’s wealth, not the “left”. This is my last reply to you.
Truth is always revolutionary – such is the world we live in. You seem little different from “mainstream” analysts who deride the left as “crackpots and loonies”.
In terms of violence and murder that’s a split within the left and will likely be for at least a few more years. It’s tragic that most of the left doesn’t use violence as the world suffers the consequences. How disgusting it is that a leftist defends his family by killing a burglar but won’t defend the world by killing the elite – if only the world was everyone’s family.
As much as I disagree with pacifism, I don’t call pacifists “utterly cracked”. They are misguided, and at worst that’s what I am.
More of your deceit – I don’t hate education – I wish I would have received education within the “educational system”. It was only after I left that system that my education began. Much of the corrupt left equates education with the educational system and equates ignorance with anything *outside* the educational system – this is part of the inbreeding know-nothing “intelligentsia” which serves elite interests, as the capitalist investment scheme called “higher education” is tied directly to the power structure. You know, that thing that leftists such as yourself supposedly oppose?
Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death”. Countless slaves have given their lives in the hope that one day humanity can be free from terror. If we don’t honor their sacrifice we don’t deserve to call ourselves leftists.
Humanity is a graveyard – we stand, sit, and crawl on the tragic remains of the results of corruption, greed, and terror. Soon we may all be buried by it unless, together, we save the world.
Michael Dawson said on February 4th, 2009 at 1:55pm #
Brian wrote: “Westerners of course, including the left, know that they have control of the lion’s share of the world’s capital.”
Now, amidst his shocking lunacy and hypocrisy about killing the elite and his Pol Pot ranting about all education being an elite trick, he denies what he wrote and calls ME deceitful.
Seek help and school, Brian, in that order.

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