Passive-Aggressive Behavior in Denver
| by Joshua Frank and Jeffrey St.
Clair
Courtetsy: Counter Punch
Courtetsy: Counter Punch
See the man with the stage fright
Just standin’ up there to give it all his
might.
And he got caught in the spotlight,
But when we get to the end
He wants to start all over again.
– “Stage Fright,” The Band
( October 4, 2012, Washington DC,
Sri Lanka Guardian) The manifestations of last night’s presidential debate have
finally set in and we can’t help but imagine how dull and annoying the
celebration inside the inner sanctum of Romney’s camp must be. We can only hope
that the lowly staffers and interns swarming around their Republican chieftains
were sneaking off with their miniature bottles of booze to indulge in safe
quarters away from the Mormon leader. We say this with experience as one of us
knows first hand just how mundane a LDS soiree can be, having flirted with
their offspring long ago.
Lunesta would have likely been
more stimulating than Obama and Romney exchanging handshakes on issues ranging
from Medicare to taxes. It was clear Obama, ill-prepared and perhaps on a
sedative himself, was not expecting much in the way of competition. Typically
reserved and aloof in front of the bright lights and big cameras, Obama was
cool to the point of frigidity. Lost without his teleprompter, Obama stumbled
over his talking points on numerous occasions. Romney on the other hand, with
no stately matters on his desk as he awakens except to worry about the
fluctuations of his blind trust, had been prepping for Obama for the past
month. But even that doesn’t explain his hyper-aggressiveness. Perhaps someone
slipped him his first cup of coffee in the Green Room.
As per usual, the Republican
primary debates were far more entertaining, especially the early set, with
Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul on stage – expanding the discourse
and humor far beyond the yawning Lehrer affair.
Which brings us to the moderator
Mr. Jim Lehrer. If Obama looked sedate, moderator Jim Lehrer seemed
pre-embalmed. This other Big Bird of PBS
was forced to smirk as Romney assured him he’d pull the public funds form his
salary. Less of a moderator and more
like a grandfather that has too much back pain to wrestle with the youngsters,
Lehrer put forth one of the worst performances in presidential debate history.
An inept and deferential interviewer, Lehrer failed to prod the two out of
their comfort zones. Several times Lehrer assured the audience that, yes,
indeed these two in fact differ (Even when, bizarrely, Obama admitted that he
and Romney shared the same position on gutting Social Security–true no doubt,
but you’d think that Obama would at least try to pretend their was space
between their entrenched neoliberal positions.). A lot. How? Just take their
word for it. Next question.
Real issues? Hardly. The topic of
the night was allegedly domestic policy. You know, all those things that impact
our daily lives. Romney loves coal. Obama supports it too, just a little less
so. The deficit? Bad stuff. Taxes, that’s a necessary evil folks, so suck it up
millionaires and let us spend. Is the economy on the rebound? We sure do love
Wall Street, anyhoo. Obama couldn’t pounce, or worse, wouldn’t. Romney was in
the driver’s seat for the whole 90-minute ride, with Lehrer and Obama in the
backseat passing each other the bong. Pull the plug on PBS? No problem, just
give me another pull on that thing, man.
Having more time to respond to
the ‘questions’ proved to mean very little. Obama had a whole four extra
minutes to attack Romney. But why didn’t he, you ask? Because Obama isn’t even
quite sure how to attack or on what grounds he should proceed. He’s a
passive-aggressive personality, with the emphasis on passive. (The aggression
Obama reserves for the left-wing of his party, particularly black left
wingers.) Typically Obama’s popularity and arrogance matter far more than any
sort of tangible substance. Last night Mitt was the new jock in town – more
arrogant and jacked up to drive his way to the hoop.
It’s certainly difficult to
imagine that we are going to be forced to suffer through two more of these
filthy galas – not counting the Biden/Ryan match coming up next week. Vice
presidential spars are always far more contentious and entertaining. With only
one outing they will have more to prove and a better arena to do it in. Issues
of course are of little matter, it’s pure fun and games.
Outside the debate last night in
Colorado, two well-meaning progressive presidential candidates spoke with Amy
Goodman in a mock debate format. Their
points were made clearly and articulately. Jill Stein of the Green Party, as
well as Mr. Independent Rocky Anderson, the former Mayor of Salt Lake City,
were full of concerns (dismantle the big banks and end the wars, for starters)
that need to be heard but never will as long as Jim Lehrer and the Commission
on Presidential Debates conspire to exclude reasonable dissent.
No, the first of the three
presidential debates was not a debate at all – it was a sign of just how tepid
and boring presidential politics in our country have become. In a sense we all
should to be with those young Republicans enjoying libations. We just ought to
be sipping ours for quite different reasons.
Joshua Frank is author of Left
Out! How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush (Common Courage Press, 2005),
and along with Jeffrey St. Clair, the editor of Red State Rebels: Tales of
Grassroots Resistance in the Heartland, and of Hopeless: Barack Obama and the
Politics of Illusion, published by AK Press. Hopeless is now available in
Kindle format. He can be reached at
brickburner@gmail.com.
Jeffrey St. Clair’s latest books
are Born Under a Bad Sky and Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of
Illusion, published by AK Press. Hopeless is now available in Kindle
format. He can be reached at: sitka@comcast.net
