We have 2 wars going on, the economy is in the tank, Citizens are living in tent cities, more people are talking about revolution in the united states than since the civil war, and this guy is cracking jokes. I wonder if George Washington, or Abe lincoln had these little comedy dinners. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mmm4UJgfrfg&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mmm4UJgfrfg&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Self-deprecation is key to successful political humor - for example, when Abraham Lincoln was accused of being two-faced he replied, "If I had two faces, do you think this is the one Iâd be wearing?".
I was just reading criticism of Obama in the Washington Post of all places for not being self-deprecating at the Correspondents' dinner. They felt he had strayed from the historical tradition of being self-deprecating and indulged more in bashing his opponents. He gave a commencement address at Michigan over the weekend in which he attacked his opponents for using over the top language. This after he basically called the entire state of Arizona racist nazis. We have learned a lot about our president. One, he displays the thin skin, self-grandiosity and lack of empathy typical of narcissistic personality disorder. Two, his idea of bipartisanship and reasoned dialogue seems to involve his opponents surrendering their principles on every issue and not responding in kind to vicious personal attacks. Three, his instincts, both personal and political, are far from the American mainstream and represent some fusion of third world socialist/marxist class theory and university lounge condescension.