Sartorial Politics
With reference to this story about Barack Obama dressing traditionally on a good will trip abroad:
Here is Bill Clinton doing the same thing:
And here is Hillary Clinton in Palestinian dress with Suha Arafat back in her even-handed, fair days:
and here is George W. Bush in Chinese robes with Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin (I can't decide whether this is evidence that Bush is a Manchurian candidate or if it is finally the explanation for his faux macho swagger-- surely this is the gayest picture of a president ever taken):
And here is John McCain wearing stole of Bush, the only costume mentioned here that should be embarrassing (and I take back what I said about the last picture):
posted by Juan Cole @ 2/26/2008 12:35:00 AM
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Since we're matching dirt on Barack, I have just revealed that I attended a madrasa in South Lebanon when I was eight years old.
http://bedouina.typepad.com/doves_eye/2008/02/i-attended-a-ma.html
My father graduated from this madrasa, and my mother taught there as a young American bride living in Lebanon.
In our village it is known as Madrasat Al-American, or The American Madrasa, but the official name for the girls' school when I was there was The Sidon Evangelical School for Girls.
Founded by American Presbyterian missionaries in the 1860s. Devoted to promoting American ideals and Protestantism. A madrasa nonetheless. And I had Muslim classmates!
Um, Professor Cole doesn't need to be told that madrasa just means 'school' in Arabic. It does not mean 'terrorist breeding pond where they read the works of Adolf Hitler and apply them to Islam'.
The brother school across the street was the Gerard Institute, also a madrasa. More American empire spreading its tentacles.
Some how we need to focus our discussion on what are the diplomatic skills needed in a leader to be applied Day 1. We have the experience of George Bush being completely manipulated by his neocons and not defended by Condi Rice who had the PHD in foreign relations or Colin Powell who did have some intenational skills and did not accomplish the job .
Some how we have to get to what it is going to take to resolve the mess. So - are we saying having Kumbya sessions are going to solve the problem? Really! What in Obama's experience record says he has a clue. He is the subchair on the Senate Subcommitte on Foreign Relations / Europe including NATO. He has not held a single meeting.
He is trained as a lawyer - where is the International experience? Some how this discussion on his dress is just not relevant.
Clinton makes her point
Now, finally, Clinton makes her real point. The way she understands international law and diplomacy, some UN members are much more equal than the others, which are actually illegitimate.
In fact, her "friend" McCain could not ask for a better gift! Sure, somebody will support Clintons regardless of anything, just for the sake of fighting the teen pregnancies. But for many others, there is absolutely no need in McCain-lite when the real thing is readily available.
I think Professor Cole's work in telling us the "real" news is aboslutely crucial if we are to maintain some sort of sanity in this otherwise insane world. I wish there was more that we could do. I try with my blog.
One thing that baffles me is why in the world the "Drudge Report" is given a platform by of all people the BBC is beyond me. It is nothing but trash. But, Matt Drudge has a right to be heard, I suppose. The world is going to pieces and we seem to be worried about what Obama wore....it is just simply silly and idiotic....
What a sad testimony to our times...
No need to apologize, Juan. Now we know what was really going on when Bush looked into Putin's eyes and saw his soul.
Not that there is anything wrong with the President being or looking "gay." The only wrong is that he doesn't support gay rights.
How about the picture of the President walking hand in hand with his guest, the Saudi Arabian prince?
Typical of election-year journalism that more attention is payed to a photo-op in Somalia than Obama's support for the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia last year and the accompanying U.S. naval and air assault. If we could stick to the relevant issues here please, or would that make Obama look even worse than the traditional garb?
All the ranting about getting back to the issues is pointless kicking and screaming. As much as you wish it were not so, elections are won by images. Obama is going to win not because of the issues. Most of the "undecideds" are not thinking about the issues. Clinton doesn't quite seem to understand that. That's why she's going to lose. She won't even get VP because she's tarnished her image trying to hammer the issues and come across as the stronger politician. VP's are not supposed to be stronger than the President, although, obviously with the current example, it can be the case. Matt Drudge understands that the world works on images. That's why he wins the national election of blogs. I find quite a lot of pertinent links at the Drudge Report. If you want to know how it should be, you go to Juan Cole. If you want to know how it will be, you got to Matt Drudge.
By the way, I just found this link indirectly through the Drudge Report:
Politicians in Drag
Drag-ging the 'Net
Unless I recall incorrectly, Obama was dressed in Kenyan tribal wear, something that he is entitled to do simply because his father was a, guess?, Kenyan!* He may have even met his grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and other family members there! Shocking! Shocking!
The only real 'drag' is the guise and role some leading Democratic politicans are playing at being 'black.' Once more, when we see the community, many if not most families are matrilineal, owing stability to the mothers, to whom the children lay the greatest claim. Images of the Barackian family unit can be seen at the linque provided below, showing that Barack is more one ethnic group (on his mother's side) than another (indebted in name only to his father). ^
Additionally, while those with centuries of North American roots have many stories and histories to tell of their plight and fight to make it into the societal mainstream, Obama has few if any. He has absolutely no history of being descended from those who suffered the most in American society, from any era. The really 'racist' issue is that Barack has been adopted by a group without really looking at the obvious differences between someone who can trace their family trees back a couple of hundred years in the American experience while some fellow can usurp a position as 'their' leader while not having any of the lumps and bumps that go along with the prominent position.
Once more, it is a matter of image and perception, harking back to judging a book by its cover without reading further into the content and seeing if the cover really makes any sense. Wearing tribal wear is interesting from the standpoint that Obama is one of the very few who can actually identify the people who were his antecedents, not having to jump generations to find his African 'roots' and not making educated inferences and guesses about the actual familiar lineage. This is, as we know, in stark contrast to those who took on the tie-dyes, batiks, dashikis, and other designs of clothing, attempting some vicarious identification with something from the distant past, rightly or wrongly.
The really and plainly obvious idiocy of even making an issue of the image is that it is meaningless as a spoiler for Obama or anyone else. Even when not related to the people or culture, anyone donning such gay apparel is merely showing respect for another's culture, much like one might wear a beret in France or lederhosen in Germany or baggy pants and a hoody down Eight Mile in Detroit!
* http://tinyurl.com/2ve5pq
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/feb/26/photo_obama_tribal_garments_causes_stir/
^ http://tinyurl.com/2rh5yj
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/070323obama-early-photogallery,0,563810.photogallery
This is the first and last time that the term "gayest" is allowed in a political discussion... because it is so apt here.
So here it is: What do people do to earn money and preserve their power. I don´t think that they really care about how they look like as long as the cash register jingles;) Anyway nice pictures:D
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