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June 12, 2008
Attempts at Political Levity
Perhaps it would not have been as deliberately un-gun-shy, but Jeanne Moos could have avoided the controversy with this skit and made it funnier, because more relevant:
This morning's e-blizzard of insults was prompted by a Moos piece on body language of the various candidates — particularly their strange, compulsive habit of pointing off into the distance while addressing the crowds at campaign rallies.''Since we usually can't see who the candidates are pointing at,'' Moos intoned during a voiceover, ''we'll just have to use our imagination.'' Footage of Clinton waving her finger in the air was intercut with her husband's former Oval Office playmate Monica Lewinsky; of McCain, with his conservative bete noir, Ann Coulter; and Obama, with the sound-alike with whom he is perpetually entangled in verbal slips by TV anchormen, Osama bin Laden.
Result: The lefty watchdog group Media Matters for America issued a scathing statement saying Moos ''associates'' Obama with Osama, and a chorus of liberal bloggers joined in.
''I thought it would be Hillary and Monica that would get me in trouble,'' sighs Moos. "I was going for nemeses — Hillary and Monica, McCain and Coulter, Obama and you-know-who. I thought it was funny, but everybody now is touchy, touchy.''
Obama's "nemesis" image should have been Hillary waving her finger right back.
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Posted by: Citizen Critic at June 12, 2008 1:10 PMThis has always been a phony gesture, begging for exactly this treatment. Yes, perhaps Obama should have been pointing to someone other than bin Laden. There's just something unfunny about the orchestrator of mass murder.
It does not, however, warrant a "scathing" reaction.
Posted by: Monique at June 12, 2008 3:42 PMA sizeable number(not all) leftists are seemingly devoid of sense of humor,particularly of the self-deprecating kind.They are extremely thin-skinned.One aspect of law enforcement that is seldom brought up-workplace humor there is not for the faint of heart.I once had my name substituted on the Detectives'Bulletin Board on an arrest report with a photo of some guy arrested for having sex with a dog.He looked vaguely like me.This was in Providence-I found it very funny and was actually honored at having "made" the board considering I was with another agency.I can think of some locaal leftists who might have felt "outraged"by such a stunt.(Crowley exempted-I've actually found that he's a good sport)
Posted by: joe bernstein at June 12, 2008 4:14 PM