Obama's 47 Percent Approval Lowest of Any President at This Point

[grumbler]

Obama is the only President at this point; thus his approval ratings are both the highest and the lowest of any President at this point.

Did the French rewrite their constitution recently?

No, and therefore their Président is not suddenly a President, but still a Président.

[derspiess]

This may be so but I do think there's a strain within the Republican party that does perceive itself as a victim.  There is a section, I think represented by Sarah Palin (who poses as the Maid of Orleans), that seems more interested in an attitude of cultural grievance and victimisation than in politics - you hear it when the subject of elites comes up.

Could you elaborate on the "victim" thing a little more?

[The Minsky Moment]

Did the French rewrite their constitution recently?

As a matter of fact, they did. 

[Sheilbh]

Could you elaborate on the "victim" thing a little more?

I think Sarah Palin sort-of characterises, or best represents, this strand on the right.  Here she is on Bill O'Reilly:

O'REILLY: Couric asked you an easy question [about what magazines or newspapers Palin reads] and you booted it, governor.

    PALIN: I sure did.

    O'REILLY: Why did you boot it? I mean, if somebody asks what do you read? I say I read the, you know, "New York Times," "The Wall Street Journal," "The Washington Post." I can reel them off in my sleep. You couldn't do it?

    PALIN: Well, of course I could. Of course, I could.

    O'REILLY: Why didn't you?

    PALIN: It's ridiculous to suggest that or to say that I couldn't tell people what I read. Because by that point already it was relatively early in that multi segmented interview with Katie Couric, it was quite obvious that it was going to be a bit of an annoying interview with the badgering of the questions...I think if most normal Americans were put in the same position that I was there, they'd probably look at her and have thatproverbial eye roll and say are you kidding me?

    O'REILLY: If they knew.

    PALIN: Are you suggesting that I don't read?

What happens in that segment of the interview is there's a switch from an acceptance of error 'I sure did' to blaming the media about this 'annoying' interview full of 'badgering' questions and that she, like 'most normal Americans' (I'm reminded of her comment about 'real America') would eye roll and say are you kidding me.  They'd also presumably not be able to answer the question straight away.  The reason she booted the question wasn't because she wasn't prepared for the interview, or because she couldn't remember what papers she reads during a high media interview with all the lights and cameras.  It wasn't that she wasn't ready or that the stress got to her, it was because of the 'annoying' 'badgering' questions and 'most normal Americans' (people like us) would behave in the same.

It's an attitude of resentment and victimisation at the hands of an elite and the media - it's an attitude marshalled to great effect by people who should, by any reasonable criteria, be considered members of the elite such as Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck and so on.

Later in the interview she talks about this elite:

O'REILLY: Do you believe that you are smart enough, incisive enough, intellectual enough to handle the most powerful job in the world?

PALIN: I believe that I am because I have common sense. And I have, I believe, the values that are reflective of so many other American values. And I believe that what Americans are seeking is not the elitism, the kind of a spinelessness that perhaps is made up for that with some kind of elite Ivy League education and a fact resume that's based on anything but hard work and private sector, free enterprise principles. Americans could be seeking something like that in positive change in their leadership. I'm not saying that has to be me.

I think the same sense of victimisation can be seen in Glenn Beck's 'sorry I just love my country.  And fear for it' and Michelle Bachmann's anti-census statements.  It's a milder version of what the birthers have in extreme that sense of not having the country anymore, of it somehow being under threat from a spineless Ivy League elite, from a mainstream media, from a Hollywood culture and from the government.

Sarah Palin isn't bad at interviews, she's a victim of the media 'badgering' her.

[Vince]

Michelle Bachmann's anti-census statements.

Funny thing about that...

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/hmm-why-has-bachmann-stopped-bashing-the-census.php?ref=fpb

[Admiral Yi]

Shelf: why can't both be true?  Sarah Palin is bad at interviews and Katie Couric was out to make her look bad.

The rest of your description of right wing victim syndrome raises the question of can one claim there are groups opposed to you without necessarily playing the victim.  If an American points out that radical Muslim groups are out to kill us are we playing the victim?

Playing the victim to me means passing responsibility for one's own failures to another party.

[Sheilbh]

Shelf: why can't both be true?  Sarah Palin is bad at interviews and Katie Couric was out to make her look bad.

You're right of course.  However on this question I don't buy it.

'When it comes to establishing your worldview I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to understand the world?' - That's an extremely softball question.
'I read most of them again with a great appreciation for the press for the media.' - That's fluffing it.

The rest of your description of right wing victim syndrome raises the question of can one claim there are groups opposed to you without necessarily playing the victim.  If an American points out that radical Muslim groups are out to kill us are we playing the victim?

So do you think that there is a spineless Ivy League elite and so on that is out to flummox 'most normal Americans'?

Playing the victim to me means passing responsibility for one's own failures to another party.

I agree but I'd add suspicion conspiracy or collusion as a sign of a victim mentality.  It's why I think the 'vast right-wing conspiracy' is a victim mentality, as was a lot of what I've read from the Nixon tapes even if neither Hilary nor Dick are passing their failures onto others.

[derspiess]

I agree but I'd add suspicion conspiracy or collusion as a sign of a victim mentality.  It's why I think the 'vast right-wing conspiracy' is a victim mentality, as was a lot of what I've read from the Nixon tapes even if neither Hilary nor Dick are passing their failures onto others.

I think your definition of "victim mentality" is different from mine & Yi's.  But anyway, Hillary *was* passing her (and her husband's) failures on to others.  That was pretty much the entire purpose of her statement.

[The Minsky Moment]

Shelf: why can't both be true?  Sarah Palin is bad at interviews and Katie Couric was out to make her look bad.

If you can't stand up to the media equivalent of puff pastry (Couric) what business do you have being anything holding any office higher then the deputy Wasilia wolf catcher?

O'R makes a good point: "What newspapers and magazines do you read?" is a classic softball question.  She booted it not because it was difficult or because Katie Couric is a meanie, but because the sad truth is that she doesn't read any newspapers or magazines of substance.

[derspiess]

Shelf: why can't both be true?  Sarah Palin is bad at interviews and Katie Couric was out to make her look bad.

If you can't stand up to the media equivalent of puff pastry (Couric) what business do you have being anything holding any office higher then the deputy Wasilia wolf catcher?

O'R makes a good point: "What newspapers and magazines do you read?" is a classic softball question.  She booted it not because it was difficult or because Katie Couric is a meanie, but because the sad truth is that she doesn't read any newspapers or magazines of substance.

She booted it because she's not good with interviews.  You don't know what she reads.

[Admiral Yi]

If you can't stand up to the media equivalent of puff pastry (Couric) what business do you have being anything holding any office higher then the deputy Wasilia wolf catcher?

O'R makes a good point: "What newspapers and magazines do you read?" is a classic softball question.  She booted it not because it was difficult or because Katie Couric is a meanie, but because the sad truth is that she doesn't read any newspapers or magazines of substance.

We've been over this before Joan.  If newspapers and magazines were the only question Katie had asked Palin would be even more ridiculous than she is in fact, but it wasn't.

[Fate]

Shelf: why can't both be true?  Sarah Palin is bad at interviews and Katie Couric was out to make her look bad.

If you can't stand up to the media equivalent of puff pastry (Couric) what business do you have being anything holding any office higher then the deputy Wasilia wolf catcher?

O'R makes a good point: "What newspapers and magazines do you read?" is a classic softball question.  She booted it not because it was difficult or because Katie Couric is a meanie, but because the sad truth is that she doesn't read any newspapers or magazines of substance.

She booted it because she's not good with interviews.  You don't know what she reads.

She doesn't read. She's a fucking beauty queen.

Okay, MAYBE Twilight.

[grumbler]

She booted it because she's not good with interviews.  You don't know what she reads.

You don't know what she reads or why she booted it.  We all know, though, that she is bad at interviews and both too dumb to understand newspapers and magazines written for adults and too dumb to understand how to dissemble about that fact.

All of that wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't such a whiny bald-faced liar.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Obama is the only President at this point; thus his approval ratings are both the highest and the lowest of any President at this point.

Did the French rewrite their constitution recently?

No, and therefore their Président is not suddenly a President, but still a Président.

ah, but the French have lots of Présidents: from the local brass-band commitee-chairman all the way up to the elysée committee-chairman :p

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Palin obviously doesn't read, she's too busy watching Russia. :p