The Last Last Election Thread II about the Last Election

[Darius871]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse


Uhhh....I didn't even get this interpretation until you said it. I thought he was referring to Nancy Reagan's rumoured (true?) interest in the occult while she was in the WH.

Interpreting it to mean that he was making fun of her for having a dead husband is a hell of a stretch.

I never said it was my interpretation. I said that it would be others' interpretation (actually it already is others' interpretation, otherwise Drake wouldn't have raised the "issue," Obama wouldn't have apologized, and it wouldn't have even been a news story).

It wouldn't necessarily be "making fun of her," but rather the thought of making any kind of joke about teh Reagan. The context of the question was what living Presidents he'd spoken to, and in that context he joked about having stuck to the living ones instead of doing a seance like Nancy Reagan did, an implication being the need for a seance to chat with her rotting corpse of a husband.

Not my interpretation, and I personally don't give a rat's ass, but obviously lots of people will pounce on that just like the pig-lipstick thing or any other gaffe.

Bottom line, if it wouldn't be widely perceived as insensitive/offensive/whatever, then why did he feel the need to call her and apologize?

[Ramo]

but it's misleading to call it "mandatory" as he had the choice of whether to waive it in light of the $100K price tag

It's mandatory in the sense that it's dictated by statute unless all but one relevant party drops out of the race. Coleman could've conceded, for example, ending the recount.

[Ramo]

Bottom line, if it wouldn't be widely perceived as insensitive/offensive/whatever, then why did he feel the need to call her and apologize?

I'd say that it was not particularly classy to make fun of Nancy's mysticism. Not the biggest deal in the world, but given Obama's position, apologizing was the reasonable thing to do.

As for the interpretation that you bring up, note that the article talks about Nancy holding seances in the WH. Are you suggesting that Zombie Reagan was running the country at some point?

[Darius871]

Originally posted by Ramo
It's mandatory in the sense that it's dictated by statute unless all but one relevant party drops out of the race. Coleman could've conceded, for example, ending the recount.

Exactly, meaning they both had a choice whether to proceed with it. I'd consider it more of a conditional procedure than mandatory (as in required regardless of opponents' decisions), but that's just semantics.

[Darius871]

Originally posted by Ramo
I'd say that it was not particularly classy to make fun of Nancy's mysticism. Not the biggest deal in the world, but given Obama's position, apologizing was the reasonable thing to do.

I don't disagree in the slightest.

Originally posted by Ramo
As for the interpretation that you bring up, note that the article talks about Nancy holding seances in the WH. Are you suggesting that Zombie Reagan was running the country at some point?

Stop thinking temporally and just focus on the context of the question asked and his answer. Someone actively looking for something to criticize would glean the subtext of "I've spoken to four of the last five Presidents, but it'd take a seance to talk to that fifth one, hey kinda like how his wife used to hold seances in the WH back in the day, ooh I made a funny."

To take it that way requires a preconceived notion and quite a leap in logic, but since when were Reaganiacs above that? I guarantee you the Limbaughs and Hannitys of the world will pounce on it the same way if they haven't already, and their impish minions will eat it up.

(But again, not that their opinion matters, at least this early.)

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Naked Gents Rut
Obama is really getting off to a good bipartisan start...

It hurts knowing your side lost the election, doesn't it?

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Darius871


I never said it was my interpretation. I said that it would be others' interpretation (actually it already is others' interpretation, otherwise Drake wouldn't have raised the "issue," Obama wouldn't have apologized, and it wouldn't have even been a news story).

I know it's not yours. And it doesn't even have to be anybody's. It's a manufactured issue.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Darius871


Not my interpretation, and I personally don't give a rat's ass, but obviously lots of people will pounce on that just like the pig-lipstick thing or any other gaffe.

Bottom line, if it wouldn't be widely perceived as insensitive/offensive/whatever, then why did he feel the need to call her and apologize?

You've proved my point. No reasonable person thought that he was calling Palin a pig by using an well-known expression to describe an ugly policy that's dressed up to look pretty. That was a manufactured controversy, as this is. He called up Reagan and apologised to put an end to it. If this is the level of political discussion we're going to see over the next 4 years then I'm just not paying attention to the news. I listened to the press conference live, and the joke was apt and not even close to uncomfortable. Everybody in the room knew what he was referring to.

Fake outrage

[Darius871]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
That was a manufactured controversy, as this is.

This I haven't denied, but you already know that.

[Barnabas]

Isn't Reagon popular with the Christian right? What do they think of Nancy and her "communication with the death"? Which is clearly forbidden for christians. It is an abomination, a word that makes spiritism as bad as homosexual sex or bestiality for christians.

[Naked Gents Rut]

Seance, astrologer, who cares? How is that a bipartisan problem?

Making careless jokes about the widow of the Republican party's most beloved figure probably isn't going to help you make friends on the other side of the aisle. Not that I think Obama really plans on trying.

Stop being a whiny ***** about ridiculous misinterpretations of a harmless joke.

You think I really care? I called Nancy Reagan the "best ********er in Hollywood" on this very message board a few years back.

Get mad at him for promising to pull GM's chestnuts out of the fire instead.

I can't really get mad at him for that, as I didn't expect any different. I'm glumly resigned to four years of bad economic policy.

[Lancer]

The guy who claimed that Palin thought Africa was a country stepped forward and said it was a hoax.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Lancer
The guy who claimed that Palin thought Africa was a country stepped forward and said it was a hoax.

No. Please learn to read properly. The hoax was that a third party hoaxed a different reporter into believing that he was the source of the story. According to the initial reporter this hoaxer had nothing to do with the story.

[KrazyHorse]

It's like if I called up CNN, claimed to be Deep Throat, and got them to report it on the air. That has no bearing on the verity of the Watergate story.

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Barnabas
Isn't Reagon popular with the Christian right? What do they think of Nancy and her "communication with the death"? Which is clearly forbidden for christians. It is an abomination, a word that makes spiritism as bad as homosexual sex or bestiality for christians.

Yeah, I don't know why so many 'christians' consider homosexual activity as some sort of 'special' sin while everything else is pretty ignorable.

JM