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Go Home Comment Of The Day: The Movie Star Candidate

THE PLANK JULY 30, 2008

Comment Of The Day: The Movie Star Candidate

In the comments to Mike's post about McCain's chief strategist calling Obama "the biggest celebrity in the world," bigfish suggested that McCain's strategy is to portray Obama as the Hollywood version of Gore and Kerry:

I think we're seeing an attempt to rebrand Obama by the GOP in a somewhat different way than they tried to brand Kerry and Gore.  If, to the GOP, Kerry and Gore were establishment career Washington Liberal Insiders, people who spent so much time in New York and Washington dreaming up big-government schemes that they only saw consequenses in the abstract for the Hard Working American.  Kerry and Gore were the East Coast Liberal.

Think of this frame: Obama is the West Coast Liberal. He is young, good-looking, and atheletic.  The press follows him around, and everywhere he goes, he is hounded by flashbulbs and people trying to shake his hand.  He is truly a celebrity, jetting around the world to speak to large crowds.  His wife and kids are interviewed by celebrity magazines, and his face is constantly in the tabloids.  The Barack-star is even going to turn the Democratic Convention into a Superbowl Halftime show!  He is a symbol of what American wants to be.  He's outgoing, comfortable in his own skin, and speaks eloquently.  He has millions of fans, many of them are young, and some people have even fainted at the sight of him!  But, there's a question.  Do we want him as President?  Where's the beef?  Obama would be someone your kids would want to meet, sure, and you'd also probably have a good time talking to him, but do you want him leading the country?  Obama is an actor, infinitely comfortable playing any role that's required, and he plays it with a smile.  Ask about his accomplishments, and supporters will tell you about his personality.  Ask about what he wants to do for the country, and he will tell you what you want to hear.  Unlike the East Coast Liberal, his positions aren't even determined by polls!  They're determined by how personally popular it makes him.  He hasn't spent enough time in the trenches of politics like McCain has been doing for a long time.  He hasn't had to compromise or get angry with anyone, except when he sees personal slights, like when he confronted Lieberman or kicked the New Yorker reporter off the plane.  It is vanity that is driving his campaign, not the good of the country.  You thought it was bad when the Clintons governed according to polls and the DNC.  How much worse will it be when Obama leads according to the editorial boards of Us Weekly and GQ?  Obama is a West Coast Liberal.  There's no substance behind the sunglasses and speeches.

Again, I don't agree with this frame one bit, but I think I see it coming into sharper relief.

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The New York Times front page profile today on his University of Chicago days told a somewhat similar story but in more sober terms.

Popular prof.  Kids dig him.  Great flash in front of the class.  didn't do much work.

- ChanRobt

July 30, 2008 at 5:46pm

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As Joe Cuomo said on the other thread, optimism sells, they said the same thing about Reagan. (except the Liberal part). Reagan was the true Movie star candidate. If Obama had inherited a few more of his mothers genes as it relates to skin color, making him more of a Halle Berry black person, then I think Obama would be running away with this right now.

- blackton

July 30, 2008 at 5:52pm

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Hmmm...

On second thought, hnhnhnhnhnnh...

zzzzzzzzzz...

- tomeg

July 30, 2008 at 6:07pm

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Chan, you may want to read the NYT piece again - it's pretty clear that Obama was a solid professor in the classroom, but didn't participate in the culture of the U of C law school much beyond that because he was also spending time building his political career, which seems to have worked out well for him.

- FWright

July 30, 2008 at 6:12pm

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Well I don't agree with the frame one bit either -- but I also don't see how it is going to work. Out here in California, Arnold Schwarzenegger won TWO TERMS as Governor in a couple of landslide finishes, portraying just that kind fo image. (And with Arnie, unlike Obama--the all style--no substance frame is actually true).

The fact is, people don't care. The more that McCain pulls his "grumpy old men" routine, the more comfortable people are going to be with Obama in contrast. And for those who actually bother to spend 5 minutes listening to the guy, the substance becomes quite obvious.

The point is, if the GOP is down to a strategy of trying to portray the guy as TOO likeable, that aint a winner of a strategy in any scenario.

- tjlinko

July 30, 2008 at 6:40pm

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Does anyone here feel sorry for Britney Spears who by all accounts is trying to get her act together, the McCain campaign do realize that Britney is a "real" person with documented mental issues.  I'm no Britney defender, but it's one thing to use a celebrity who is known for there political stances (Alec Baldwin, Streisand, Susan Sarandon, Jane Fonda), but Britney Spears is as apolitical as you can get, it just seems like in trying to get a dig in at Obama, they are also getting a dig at Britney's expense, and it kinda makes it more wrong for some reason.

As for Paris Hiton, I have no sympathy for her "spoiled litte rich girl" act.

- lamh31

July 30, 2008 at 6:48pm

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Obama has a new ad:

www.youtube.com/watch

Some might say that the ad was too late, or not strong enough, guess I was right.

This is a solid ad.  Instead of 3 or 4 contradicting ads the Obama campaign has released just 1, that can be used to combat all the previously released McCain ads.

Notice that the ad does not try to respond to any particular McCain ad.  It's aimed at all the attacks, and brings the issue back to the economy which as I said in an earlier thread is Obama's message for this week.

This is how you respond to these type of attacks, McCain has so many ads up that can be either debunked or totally dismissed that I tend to think it dilutes his message.

Anyway, good ad.

- lamh31

July 30, 2008 at 7:09pm

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Oh lawd, not Jane Fonda.  Conservatives trot out Jane Fonda  - you know, that was 2 generations ago.  Obama could counter that we was l9 years old when Jane made her infamous trip to North Vietnam.  

- dubyadoubte

July 30, 2008 at 7:12pm

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Chan:  I read that piece with a lot of interest, as I was one of the students in his classes -- though not a "groupie."  (I didn't even know he had self-described groupies.)  I agree with the article generally, from the student's perspective.  He was popular, but not because he was all flash.  Quite the opposite.  We were not a bunch of high school kids enthralled by an unconventional, charismatic teacher.  Law school isn't Dead Poets Society.  He led in-depth, serious, and invigorating discussions of legal issues at the highest intellectual level.  Nobody disputes that, and nobody -- not even semi-Obama-dissenter Richard Epstein -- says that he's a lightweight.  (He would not have been offered his senior lecturer position or a full professorship if anyone thought he was all flash.)  He's smarter than you!  Believe it.

As for Epstein's views, it helps to know where he's coming from.  He's a smart, friendly, and entertaining guy, but he's a true believer.  He's the sort who can't sleep at night without a comprehensive philosophy.  His is a pretty extreme libertarian.  He believes in it rigidly and as a matter of principle.  He is impatient with someone who is not an ideologue like him.  He probably has more respect for a thorough-going socialist than a pragmatist who frequently agrees with him.  This places him at odds with left-of-center pragmatists like Cass Sunstein as well as right-of-center pragmatists like Richard Posner.  It also, of course, places him at odds with Obama, who displays a pragmatic disposition in addition to a left-of-center orientation.  So, it makes perfect sense that Epstein would be impatient with Obama's not picking sides in a given dispute or declining to invest in a controversial theory of everything.  That's the sort of intellectual commitment he makes and wants to see.

As for the contention that he didn't do any work, it's true that he didn't produce any legal scholarship.  He had other jobs at the time.  He chose a political career over an academic one as his main pursuit.  If he had foresaken politics, I have no doubt that he would be a prolific writer.  (We know that he's a good writer from the books he has written.)  He would probably be, like Posner, a public intellectual.  But look at Posner.  He will never be appointed to or considered for the Supreme Court, although he's a big deal -- one of the smartest guys on the bench.  The reason is that he writes so damn much, and all of it will be offensive to someone, somewhere.  Epstein suggests that Obama didn't produce legal scholarship because he was preparing for bigger office where such work might be controversial.  Maybe he's right, or maybe he didn't really have the time.  (Not everyone can be as prolific as Posner.)  In any case, I don't think either explanation reflects negatively on Obama.

- jhildner

July 30, 2008 at 7:37pm

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That should have been "9 years old"

- dubyadoubte

July 30, 2008 at 7:40pm

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I feel like we're coming around again to those days in WV and KY when the white rural working-to-middle class voter didn't apparently feel "comfortable" with Obama and was cheering Clinton's "hey I know who the real white American workers are" shtick.

A speculative assertion:  the so-called "superficiality" is a way of offering, once again, an opening against Obama that doesn't ostensibly have anything to do with race.  I don't believe that everyone who believes that BHO is "superficial" is a racist, by any standards.  I do, however, claim that attaching the label "superficial" to someone who has written two books (by himself, as far as we know), mastered the intricacies of race in American without becoming bitter, and who generally gives the impression of thinking before opening his mouth (leaving aside the "clinging" deal), tends to lead to raised eyebrows at least.

The technical GOP problem in this election is finding a way for white guys to vote against Obama without them feeling as if the reason is that they are uncomfortable with him on racial grounds.  The deeper problem is that the Republicans have lost the will to govern, but the Democrats haven't quite found theirs.  Into that gap, fall Obama and McCain, tumbling over each other and trying to see where they are.

- ironyroad

July 30, 2008 at 10:49pm

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I also wanted to say again that I don't think this frame is correct, or even that it's going to work.  I'm just saying that I think it's coming.

...and tj, with all due respect, California isn't in play.  :-p

- bigfish

July 31, 2008 at 12:36am

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lamh31, good point about Britney, but I seem to recall she said we should all just do what the President says, some payback she got for that.

- blackton

July 31, 2008 at 10:52am

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