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Politico Columnist Wants Pres. Obama to Stop Telling Her to Eat Her Veggies

by Frances Martel | 6:07 pm, February 8th, 2010

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Politico’s Carol Lee chronicled today the increasing desire among Washington elites to stop being told what to do. Apparently President Obama has struck a negative cord with his constant advice on eating, saving money and protecting the environment. In fact, his badgering has become so irritating, trite, and ubiquitous that Lee calls him a “very powerful Dr. Phil.”

“Obama is full of scolding. He shames members of Congress for partisanship. He maligns lobbyists for their influence. He shuns politics even as he advises Democrats how to keep their jobs,” she explains. Yet all of this is within his scope of commentary. Lee takes greater issue with the micromanaging side of our Commander in Chief:

He’s prodded people to get off the couch, eat healthier and exercise more. He’s even suggested Americans buy stocks, U.S.-made cars and energy-efficient light bulbs, while cautioning them not to max out their credit cards.

Lee stops short of calling the President a bully, ascribing a certain good will to his constant meddling, though she lets the Republicans fill in the blanks for her. Georgia Congressman Tom Price takes the whole “nurturing mother” paradigm from Lakoff‘s liberal metaphor to Orwell‘s: “They want to tell you exactly how to eat, where to live, what light bulbs to purchase, what car to purchase, what house to purchase — down to the minute detail.”

Instead of taking care of the Soviets, he’s telling people to “Just Say No.” And there is a good reason for this that Lee overlooks: unlike most of his predecessors, being a good father is one of the most prominent parts of the Obama identity and was central to the victory of his campaign. The Obama campaign succeeded on the “hope” and “change” talking points because it was specifically centered on the children and the future, rather than the past. One of the most important moments in the 2008 campaign was his Father’s Day speech addressing the problem of one-parent households in the African-American community.

His emphasis on “good living” and positive leadership in the most abstract sense prevented the campaign from veering in a negative direction by focusing away from the Bush administration and towards an administration of good role models, parents, and mentors. Whether they succeeded in this goal is up for interpretation, but to chastise Obama for being consistent in his political personality and emphasizing his role as a moral as well as executive leader is a fruitless path for the Republicans to take.

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JimW

Frances Martel has finally written the most ludicrous piece ever run on Mediaite, and that says a lot. “The Obama campaign succeeded on the “hope” and “change” talking points because it was specifically centered on the children and the future, rather than the past.” Obama’s “hope” and “change” were his way of saying he intended the change American capitalist system to a more socialist one where he would spread the wealth more evenly around to all citizens. He fully intended to hugely enlarge the size of the federal government to encompass the healthcare industry, the banking industry, federalize power companies and and the banking industry. “Hope” and “change” was never centered on children the way this phony article would have you believe.
Jim R

I’m afraid “Hope and Change” got sidelined by kowtowing to to corporate interests and their lap dog Republican army, who have no interest whatsoever of rolling back the gains they’ve made the last forty years selling our society down the river of unbridled power for the wealthy elites.

Dump the corporate lap dogs in your own administration, President Obama, and the Blue Dogs. And especially accept Republicans are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Corporate USA/INTERNATIONAL without one whit of desire to do anything they’re not instructed to do by their benefactors.

And start getting things done unilaterally (even though your administration has been fairly scored as one of the most productive in the first year of any in recent memory – facts, facts, facts – such troubling things).