Patterico's Pontifications

9/7/2014

It’s About The Theater Of The Job

Filed under: General — Dana @ 9:28 am



[guest post by Dana]

President Obama on the poor optics of rushing off to make tee time immediately after his public statement about James Foley:

“I should’ve anticipated the optics,” Obama said in an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” set to air Sunday.

“Part of this job is also the theater of it,” Obama said, adding that “it’s not something that always comes naturally to me. But it matters.”

The president has to mentally remind himself of the “theater” of his job and how the visuals will play out – even when an American is brutally killed at the hands of a barbarically terrifying and ever-increasing enemy that has thrown the nation into a tailspin of shock and outrage. It requires “theater”: acting, rehearsing lines, a consideration of the visual presentation, including physical gestures, facial expressions, assessing and weighing out what and how every little move might be received – even though, in this case, no real gauging of the audience was necessary because an already expected and natural reaction had made itself known – we didn’t need to act. Without a doubt, this lead actor knew the immense seriousness and weight of the story because both script and audience had already made it very, very clear. And when one proves shockingly unable to understand or grasp, while in the hot spotlight and all eyes are on him, what is appropriate to the scene, the actor must dig deeper and work harder to make sure he conveys at least the illusion of understanding to his expectant audience. Clearly, in this, the actor missed his mark.

–Dana

82 Responses to “It’s About The Theater Of The Job”

  1. I’m surprised Valerie still lets him speak off-teleprompter.

    edoc118 (c37322)

  2. Hello.

    Dana (4dbf62)

  3. I panned the optics of Obama jetting off to a Vegas fundraiser the day after our Ambassador to Libya was killed and our consulate in Benghazi overrun. Just bad theater.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  4. Clearly unfit for office even a B movie on LMN.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  5. So he should have acted like he gave a shlt?

    JD (548f4a)

  6. Yes, JD, if Comrade Urkel gave a sh#it he would have pretended to care. he is too lazy to even go through the motions now.

    John Cunningham (9f3ba7)

  7. Talk about a “window into the soul” of our Empty Suit.

    Rodney King's Spirit (8b9b5a)

  8. This is so sad, for us and the world. Leadership from the faculty lunchroom.

    Trust me on this. I hear this kind of thinking at every campus wide faculty meeting.

    Simon Jester (f41e76)

  9. and what about the optics of handing work permits to millions and millions of illegals while black unemployment is at 11.4%?

    optic me that sir laurence

    happyfeet (a785d5)

  10. This useless ph*ck has been a layabout flim flam artist his entire life.

    His HS nickname, MackDaddy.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  11. happyfeet (a785d5) — 9/7/2014 @ 10:44 am

    what about the optics of handing work permits to millions and millions of illegals while black unemployment is at 11.4%?

    This is an argument brought up by people who don’t care about black unemployment anyway and used only to quiet people up. This is the classic lump of abor fallacy.

    If you cannot help the poor by destroying the rich, how much more so can you not help the poor by destroying people even poorer than them?

    The problem of black unemployment is structural, but would be helped by the presence of moore people, as there would be more job openins available at any given time, and less crime.

    Sammy Finkelman (728434)

  12. but my dear Sammy

    the optics

    dear god in heaven think of the optics

    happyfeet (a785d5)

  13. Thursday, August 28, 2014:

    http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/08/28/statement-president-0

    4:09 P.M. EDT

    THE PRESIDENT ……

    So with that, I’m going to take a few questions. And I’m going to start with somebody who I guess is now a big cheese — he’s moved on. But I understand this is going to be his last chance to ask me a question in the press room. So I want to congratulate Chuck Todd and give him first dibs.

    Q I’m glad you said “in the press room.” Let me start with Syria…

    This interview on Meet the Press, in Chuck Todd’s first day as host, must have been in the works then.

    This is when Obama said he had no strategy.

    He also said there:

    And we’re going to cobble together the kind of coalition that we need for a long-term strategy as soon as we are able to fit together the military, political and economic components of that strategy.

    He thought he needed not just a military strategy but a political (what will be the future government of Syria? – I’m making this make more than sense than it actually has) and economic one.

    Sammy Finkelman (728434)

  14. So when the POTUS said “the people expect the president to ACT”! He was referring to “theatre”. lovely.

    felipe (40f0f0)

  15. 12. happyfeet (a785d5) — 9/7/2014 @ 10:53 am

    but my dear Sammy

    the optics

    dear god in heaven think of the optics There are no ad optics/.

    This argument is not used by Democrats or by Republicans in Democratic areas, but only by Republicans in Republican areas or on talk radio, as a sort of extra argument. Black unemployment is never mntioned in any cntext.

    The argument is sort of: African Americans support this too. This is terrible politics for Democrats. Reublicans ought to get votes of blacks because of this. Blacjks really hate amnesty, too.

    But they don’t really. Especially in any kind of mixed areas.

    Sammy Finkelman (728434)

  16. * There are no bad optics.

    (just Republicans pretending there is)

    Sammy Finkelman (728434)

  17. pretending is the very heart and soul of this whole optics business Mr. Sammy

    we’ve been informed of this by no less a personage than Barack Obama

    and one can be assured he’s given this no small amount of thought

    happyfeet (a785d5)

  18. He’s just going through the motions.

    hadoop (f7d5ba)

  19. “You know, when you’re, when you’re president of the United States, you’re not just dealing with the United States… You know, our inbox gets pretty high.”

    jealous much, choomy?

    happyfeet (a785d5)

  20. no leader is he
    it’s “to be or not to be”?
    thinks that’s the question

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  21. Actually, the theater of the job is the only part of it that comes naturally to Mr. Obama.

    And fortunately for him, he didn’t have to be good at that. Just better at it than John McCain or Mitt Romney.

    Can we learn a lesson from that, please?

    Beldar (fa637a)

  22. Over 93 million Americans are out of work and more illegals are working in the US than ever before. Think the 2 might be related?

    ropelight (13f5a8)

  23. he will give TWO shlts
    that’s why they call it acting!
    artful performance

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  24. He thinks the presidency is all “optics.” God help us.

    Mike K (90dfdc)

  25. This is an argument brought up by people who don’t care about black unemployment anyway and used only to quiet people up. This is the classic lump of abor fallacy.

    If you cannot help the poor by destroying the rich, how much more so can you not help the poor by destroying people even poorer than them?

    Sammy – How many times are you going to keep bringing up this crap Krugman theory?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  26. ropelight (13f5a8) — 9/7/2014 @ 11:24 am

    Over 93 million Americans are out of work and more illegals are working in the US than ever before. Think the 2 might be related?

    Not very.

    Immigration was severely restricted in the 1920s and there was very little illegal immigration, and there was the hightest unemployment in U.S. history in the 1930s.

    What correlation there is is negative: the more immigration, legal or illegal, the lower the unemployment rate.

    Or some may say, the lower the unemployment, the more immigration! Which would mean it is self-correcting.

    Now:

    http://immigrationimpact.com/2013/06/14/evidence-shows-that-immigration-does-not-increase-unemployment/

    If immigrants really “took” jobs away from large numbers of native-born workers, especially during economic hard times, then one would expect to find high unemployment rates in those parts of the country with large numbers of immigrants—especially immigrants who have come to the United States recently and, presumably, are more willing to work for lower wages and under worse conditions than either long-term immigrants or native-born workers. Yet there is little apparent relationship between recent immigration and unemployment rates at the regional, state, or county level. An IPC analysis of 2011 data from the American Community Survey found that, at the county level, there is no statistically significant relationship between the unemployment rate and the presence of recent immigrants who arrived in 2000 or later.

    The reason given here, however, is wrong. It is not because immigrants take different jobs than those already here. , although they inevitably do, because as a general rule, people gravite to the jobs wheer they can make the most money..

    It is because there is no such thing as a fixed number of jobs. The job market should be compared, not to a board with holes and you want to plug pins into them, but to a people dancing ina circle.

    If someone enters, he doesn’t take away opportunity from anybody else. In fact he adds opportunity because now there are more possible partners to link up with.

    The Census Bureau fiound no asuch corelation as you posit as far back as the 1970s.

    But, as the joke has the Marxists professor saying: This works in practice, but can it work in theory??

    Sammy Finkelman (728434)

  27. Over 93 million Americans are out of work

    You fancy we have 40% unemployment?

    Art Deco (ee8de5)

  28. The problem of black unemployment is structural, but would be helped by the presence of moore people, as there would be more job openins available at any given time, and less crime.

    what does this mean in english?

    also, for bonus points, explain how increasing the supply of cheap labor will create more j*bs, rather than drive down the wages of what j*b there are, since MOAR people will be trying to land one of the few that are available… or is that why he wants to raise the minimum wage too?

    and, to double your bonus, explain how having more un/underemployed people making less money than before will drive down crime, rather than increase it.

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  29. actor?

    our SCOAMF isn’t fit to be understudy in a supporting role, let alone fill the shoes of the leading man.

    i’d make a joke about “best boys”, but RAYCIS!

    and yet there are idiots out there who still defend him.

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  30. Sammy – Perhaps you don’t recall, but we have walked through that “Lump of Labor” junk here before with respect to illegal immigration and you have admitted that the theory makes no sense. It is baffling to me why you keep resurrecting the same nonsense.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  31. Optics! Jesus wept.

    This is just more proof Obama is a sociopath. He has NO EFFING IDEA how real people think or feel, nor does he much care.

    Kevin M (b357ee)

  32. Sammy is right when he says that static analysis of any market is wrong. Unfortunately, he usually says more.

    Over 93 million Americans are out of work

    No, that many Americans aren’t working. Some are children, some are elderly, some are unemployed. As a number it is almost useless by itself, and usually increases with population. It is at a record, but it can set records in good times too.

    Kevin M (b357ee)

  33. w*rkforce participation rate is at a level not seen since Carter days…

    i still have my Jimmy Carter money clip: it’s a pop-tab (remember those?) folded over a penny.

    of course, they were still made out of copper back then, so that penny is worth more now than it was then.

    #Foreward!

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  34. also, for bonus points, explain how increasing the supply of cheap labor will create more j*bs, rather than drive down the wages of what j*b there are, since MOAR people will be trying to land one of the few that are available… or is that why he wants to raise the minimum wage too?

    and, to double your bonus, explain how having more un/underemployed people making less money than before will drive down crime, rather than increase it.

    redc1c4 – Unless you have a Nobel Prize in Economics like Paul Krugman, the spewer of garbage theories leading to the conclusions you outline above, it would be impossible for you to comprehend the complexity of the models behind such thinking, sort of like global warming alarmism, just trust them or something and ruin the economy in the process.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  35. Anyone else finding it laughable, this absurd posture that the most image-conscious, egotistical, affected President in American history, is assuming by asserting that he is somehow unused to, or, unconscious of, or, uncomfortable with, the theatrical nature of his entire tenure in office, to say nothing of his candidacy in 2008? This man has ascended to the pinnacle of American political power precisely because of his theatrical talents and acumen for playing to his audience.

    Guy Jones (df6cf0)

  36. Of course the idea that he is “no good at it” is laughable on its face. In his tiny little Tiger Beat brain he thinks he is so above all that and so pure. The sad thing is that he might actually believe his own BS.

    Gazzer (26a83c)

  37. So a President who has never been anything more tangible than a cult of personality in an expensively tailored suit rather than a military uniform or affected proletarian clothes now acknowledges that to him it’s a job based upon the proper optics. How telling, and what a great summation of the legacy of this failed presidency.

    The saddest thing of all is that Obama probably actually believes his six-year administration has been largely successful, it’s just that we aren’t smart enough of mature enough to realize it. That’s why the next two years promise to be so miserable no matter what happens in November.

    JVW (638245)

  38. daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 9/7/2014 @ 12:09 pm

    Perhaps you don’t recall, but we have walked through that “Lump of Labor” junk here before with respect to illegal immigration and you have admitted that the theory makes no sense. It is baffling to me why you keep resurrecting the same nonsense.

    The “lump of labor” theory is nonsense, but it is not nonsense to say that some arguments assume the “lump of labor” theory.

    Sammy Finkelman (728434)

  39. Jug-ears is spectacularly incompetent to hold public office. Not just the Presidency; he would be overmatched by the position of Mayor of a town with a three digit population. The stink of his stupidity should stick to the Democrats (who packaged and voted for the dolt) for decades. Sadly, it probably won’t. The media and Liberal academia have managed to sell nearly the whole world on the Greatness of JFK, a mediocre president at best. They can probably sell the world on Obama the misunderstood genius.

    *snort*

    C. S. P. Schofield (e8b801)

  40. A fine analysis in your original post, Dana. Well said.

    Beasts of England (e10593)

  41. Is he trying to use Stanislavski System / Strasberg Method /others “method acting”? Part of the technique is to read the scene, imagine the character’s feelings (his dog has been killed by a car), remember a parallel feeling of your own life (your cat has died), and use the emotionally driven facial expressions of the latter while performing the former.

    It can be very effective. Of course, you have to understand the character, their motivations, their repressions, … and your own … and do that mapping. Ahead of real time, so you can properly respond in character having correctly anticipated how the world will respond to you. It can produce improvised transcendent performances.

    The Empty Chair, not so much. He’s not noticing the world, only his dreams, and his drifting further and further from reality is becoming laughably obvious.

    htom (412a17)

  42. So, he really does have to pretend he gives a crap.

    Jenny (a343bb)

  43. deep thoughts about optics from funeral selfie boy aren’t necessarily valid I don’t think

    happyfeet (a785d5)

  44. “The “lump of labor” theory is nonsense, but it is not nonsense to say that some arguments assume the “lump of labor” theory.”

    Sammy – No, what is nonsense is what you espoused above, which we have walked through before, the “lump of labor fallacy.”

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  45. six degrees of bacon

    pdbuttons (944767)

  46. you would think after the Jayvee comment, he would be self aware

    http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2014/09/07/why-cant-obama-fix-the-world/

    narciso (ee1f88)

  47. More Americans than ever before are not working with 92 MILLION people out of the workforce

    The share of Americans in the workforce has sunk to its lowest point in 35 years. It’s a sign of both an aging population and of unemployed people who have given up on their dispiriting job hunts.
    The drop could accelerate in the months ahead because Americans who have been out of work for more than six months have lost their unemployment benefits…

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2537585/More-Americans-not-working-92-million-people-workforce.html#ixzz3CfQuIG69

    ropelight (13f5a8)

  48. Thank you, Beasts of England.

    Dana (4dbf62)

  49. “Part of this job is also the theater of it,” Obama said, adding that “it’s not something that always comes naturally to me. But it matters.”

    Thus sprach President Prom Queen of the Styrofoam Greek Columns.

    Steve57 (e0f6ab)

  50. and of lowering seas and healing planets…

    Gazzer (26a83c)

  51. Barry Soetero attends a funeral:

    “Yeah, I remember I was attending the funeral for a good friend of mine, Chris Stevens, who had been accidentally asphyxiated during a robbery somewhere overseas. I forget where; I was still hung over from a trip to Vegas.

    So me and some old friends are sitting in the back pew catching up, laughing, taking selfies, just having a good old time. When I accidentally knock one of the empty beer cans off the pew and it goes rolling across the floor.

    Wow, was it loud in the silence of the church.

    All of a sudden all those kill joys are turning around and glaring at us. What a bunch of judgemental @$$holes! But I’m a peacemaker. Even though they were all just completely wrong, I took it upon myself to be the adult in the room. So I stand up and say, ‘I realize part of attending a funeral is also the theater of it. It’s not something that always comes naturally to me. But it matters.’

    Then I saw the Prime Minister of Denmark, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, over on the other side of the church. Boy, was I jazzed to see her! So I said, ‘And I want to give a shout out to my favorite Scandinavian head of government. You’re rocking that little black dress girl. Save a dance for me at the reception later.’

    Funny thing was, she avoided me. And there wasn’t even a DJ. So I went and played golf. Screw ’em.”

    Steve57 (e0f6ab)

  52. 51. Don’t forget the Vero Possumus” faux-Presidential seal of office, Steve57! 🙂

    Beldar (fa637a) — 9/7/2014 @ 3:10 pm

    How could I forget? There’s just so much.

    Howzabout this? President “I’m all about substance not theater” commemorates important events with pictures of himself.

    http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/d0/35/4b/d0354b1b3ae453aed591305c27867104.jpg

    President Justin Bieber remembers Rosa Parks with picture of himself sitting on bus.

    http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/60/e1/0d/60e10d7ec60fb1630497121e264928cf.jpg

    On the occasion of Neil Armstrong’s death, President Kardashian pays tribute to the astronaut with picture of himself staring at evening sky.

    http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/60/e1/0d/60e10d7ec60fb1630497121e264928cf.jpg

    On the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination, President Prom Queen commemorates with picture of himself looking at White House portrait.

    http://i.imgur.com/4VqOw.png

    King Putt remembers Pearl Harbor Day with picture of himself.

    I could go on; see what I mean?

    Steve57 (e0f6ab)

  53. Gazzer (26a83c) — 9/7/2014 @ 3:11 pm

    lowering seas and healing planets…

    I don’t think Barack Obama ever believed he could do that alone.

    He needed the help of Congress.

    Except that the Democratic Congress wouldn’t pass it, and he gave up on it.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Clean_Energy_and_Security_Act

    It was supposed to stop the seas from rising, but according to this blog, it wouldn’t have done it even on its own terms):

    https://www.masterresource.org/climate-policy/waxman-markey-inconsequential-for-sea-level-rise-too/

    The Waxman-Markey Climate Bill is equally as ineffective in slowing the projected rate of global sea level rise as it is in slowing the rate of projected global temperature rise.

    Waxman-Markey simply is not a climate bill….

    ….By 2050, the year that the emissions reductions under Waxman-Markey are supposed to be fully realized, the difference between the original and the Waxman-Markey modified projected sea level rise is a mere 0.08 inches under the middle-of-the-road A1B scenario and an equally insignificant 0.16 inches under the IPCC’s high-end A1FI scenario. By century’s end the sea level rise “savings” from Waxman-Markey amounts to only 0.42 inches from A1B and 0.71 inches from A1FI. In both cases, the total “savings” is less than 4% of the projected rise—an amount that is inconsequential.

    Clearly, the non-impact of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions reductions in and of themselves on the projections of the future course of global sea level rise rivals the non-impact of the same emissions reductions on the projected future course of global temperatures rise. In each case, the total effect of the Waxman-Markey provisions amounts to less than 5 years’-worth of projected change.

    Sammy Finkelman (728434)

  54. What I find interesting about the Pearl Harbor day photo is that from the angle of the sun it’s either early in the morning or late in the afternoon. It’s been years since I’ve been there so I kind of forget how the shadows would look at sunrise or sunset.

    Which means it’s either before or after golf.

    Steve57 (e0f6ab)

  55. As others have said, he is so bereft of soul that he doesn’t realize it. A real human would have not needed to remember the optics because they would have been genuinely downcast.

    Do you think anyone in his circle has realized he just made it worse, or are they so calculated and empty that they thought it was a reasonable explanation?

    I just mentioned to my daughter the other day, if you let a con artist just keep talking and weaving their tale, they will often give themselves away with the contradictions.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  56. the Duffer in Chief will not get off the green:

    http://www.politico.com/story/2014/09/obama-meet-the-press-110676.html#ixzz3CehRJEbV

    narciso (ee1f88)

  57. 58. …I just mentioned to my daughter the other day, if you let a con artist just keep talking and weaving their tale, they will often give themselves away with the contradictions.

    MD in Philly (f9371b) — 9/7/2014 @ 5:14 pm

    Doc, do remember how President Selfie came out to Colorado and Texas in July for a series of fundraisers and photo ops? But he didn’t go to the border.

    http://ewn.co.za/-/media/Images/2014/07/09/10/30/140709obama-jpg.ashx?as=1&h=312&w=520
    = Shooting pool, drinking in beer in denver =

    http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/JV3piRdNJGaM6m1xeIoxcg–/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTQyMTtweG9mZj01MDtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz03NDk-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/07f94a3ee981831a590f6a7067003538.jpg

    = Hanging out with a college student/soon-to-be-senior-national-security-advisor in Austin =

    Because he’s not interested in photo ops.

    Not even the WH press corps could keep a straight face at that one.

    Steve57 (e0f6ab)

  58. Which was why, Senator Cruz, remarked he was trying to find a golf course in El Paso

    narciso (ee1f88)

  59. Someone who has to be reminded of the “optics” is someone who is living a lie.
    Dealing with the truth is easy, because it can be repeated over and over to different audiences, but each and every lie has to be remembered separately.
    There is no there there.

    askeptic (efcf22)

  60. “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”
    ― Mark Twain

    Gazzer (26a83c)

  61. Sammy Finklestein deals in theory, bad illogical theory. Now lets turn to practical experience::

    Unemployment rates have fallen in Alabama amid new legal pressure on companies to comply with a popular immigration reform law.

    September was the first full month that the reform was in force, and the unemployment rate fell from 9.8 percent in September to 9.3 percent in October, according to a Nov. 18 report from the state government.

    The rates fell from 9.9 percent to 9 percent in Etowah County, from 8.8 percent to 8.1 percent in Marshall county, and from 11.6 percent to 10.6 percent in DeKalb county.

    “The latest fall in unemployment numbers is proof that American citizens will work, and continues to solidify [the evidence] that self-deportation [by illegal immigrants] due to the Alabama Taxpayer & Citizen’s Protection Act is occurring,” said Chuck Ellis, a city council member in Albertville — the main town in Marshall County, northern Alabama

    Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/11/21/unemployment-drops-as-alabamas-immigration-reform-enacted/#ixzz3Cgh63BIO

    red (2f19f1)

  62. 64. “64.Sammy Finklestein deals in theory, bad illogical theory.”

    Oh, is that all? I was thinking in more scatological terms.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  63. 53., 58. Your verisimilitude is perfect.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  64. 35. Thread winner, anyone?

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  65. 31. Damn straight.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  66. Speaking of theatre…
    OT, but for carlitos and others who believe significant global warming is happening due to increased CO2, just like Gore and Mann said it would, see this:
    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/09/once-more-why-climate-change-alarmism-is-not-science.php

    Actual data that conflicts with the predictions of the AGW hypothesis as understood and predicted.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  67. Employment is important only to people who need to work. People on the dole, to them what’s important is that a Mexican is there to flip the burger they’re buying with food stamps. So that’s why the American “poor” don’t mind the influx of illegals.

    nk (dbc370)

  68. 69. According to Dr. Roy tomorrow the low altitude snow season begins, a month early, with MT, ND, MN, WI and MI affected on their northern margins.

    A polar vortex, seen twice last winter returns early October. November is to be normal but the season is expected to reprise last winter, the coldest since 1880 in central MN.

    Our chrysanthemums are about done having bloomed at the end of July months early. The blackberries are in bloom now and setting fruit. Best year ever for orioles here, most of the small birds were absent until their young fledged.

    In a climate accustomed to 30 inches of rainfall we are 10 inches ahead, got 5+ in three days last week. Officially two 90 degree days all summer, falling in July.

    Corn is still tasseled. I’d be surprised if its ready to harvest before the first freeze at this rate.

    A big flurry of interest this summer in a possibility cyclical ocean currents have hidden all the warm water from observation by drawing it deep. Magical thinking. Warm water is more saline and therefore more buoyant. The Antarctic sink is the source of the Humbolt current for one.

    “Why do the nations rage?”

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  69. 71. 69. According to Dr. Roy tomorrow the low altitude snow season begins, a month early, with MT, ND, MN, WI and MI affected on their northern margins.

    A polar vortex, seen twice last winter returns early October. November is to be normal but the season is expected to reprise last winter, the coldest since 1880 in central MN…

    gary gulrud (46ca75) — 9/7/2014 @ 11:16 pm

    According to WUWT it appears that the Arctic sea ice has made its “end of melt turn” nearly a month early as well.

    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/09/03/has-arctic-sea-ice-made-the-end-of-melt-season-turn-prematurely-this-year/

    I was running some errands earlier this evening and went by the bank. I did a double take when I saw the temperature. 85 dg. Whoa! Sure, it was nearly 6:00pm but still. Only 85 dg here in the Dallas area this earlier in September. The other day I heard on a radio news report that this is one of the coolest summers on record with only 14 days reaching 100 dg. But it’s DFW airport that keeps the official record in the Metroplex. Talk about a heat island. Out here in the ‘burbs I think there may have been a day or two where it actually reached 100 dg. Maybe.

    Steve57 (685cca)

  70. You guys need to peruse Dave Burge’s collections of photos #PresidentObamaHasAlwaysBeenTerribleAtPoliticalTheater.

    https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog

    Steve57 (685cca)

  71. Just remember, folks, he’s better at every position each member of his entourage holds than that supposed expert in every field. He told them so.

    John Hitchcock (5131d7)

  72. “Forget it Jake, It’s Chinatown.”

    firefirefire (b0457e)

  73. You know, in a way Obama isn’t very good at political theater. Here he is ruining the group photo at the UN Open Government Partnership meeting in 2011.

    http://www.shortlist.com/cool-stuff/photography/president-obama-ruins-photo

    And here he is ruining the group photo at the Nuclear Summit at The Hague in 2014.

    http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/bgkMXVmngeWl6PiAhX2wqQ–/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTQyMTtweG9mZj01MDtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz03NDk-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/eecf496bd70e750b4f0f6a7067004b45.jpg

    Notice the glare the Arab guy off to the left is giving him. The look that says, “Does somebody have a Ritalin I shove down that punk’s throat?”

    Here he is ruining the toast during a state dinner in the UK by talking over “God Save the Queen.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZCsfyaOGdw

    Queen humiliates President Obama at Buckingham Palace by refusing toast – May 24 2011

    You could tell Prom Queen had no idea what that music was; apparently he thought the British just thoughtfully provided it as a background sound effect to give his words greater dramatic impact.

    So, yeah, maybe just because he does political theater to the exclusion of just about everything else except golf doesn’t mean he’s a natural at any but the most low-brow stuff. If it’s more involved than styrofoam stage props he’s out of his league.

    Steve57 (685cca)

  74. The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that, you’ve got it made.

    Ken in Camarillo (2c0dee)

  75. When George Bush and his stooge Colin Powell advanced a lie before all the world regarding Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction – now that was theatre. That was the big façade – the lie of all lies. Hundreds of thousands have died and continue to bleed in the Arabian desert for the greatest con job of all times. The stones of our maestro are one-directional.

    Maximus (092219)

  76. “Maximus” – that is at least your third name here. Pick one. And quit arguing like a dishonest third grader. Kthxby

    JD (548f4a)

  77. we are not entertained,

    commodus (ee1f88)

  78. 72. And more coldening on the way.

    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/09/08/icelands-bardarbunga-volcano-is-lighting-up-the-night-sky/

    High arctic eruptions seem to kick off climatic cooling, e.g., Iceland’s Laki c. 1780 began the Dalton, which is not to say the major volcanic activity leads the era–Tambora, Mayon, Soufriere, closed it out. Chaiten satisfies the anecdote already.

    The current eruption sports a lava lake 9 sq. miles in area.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  79. Well, we’ve got a president who acts like an actor. Makes for an interesting bookend to the actor who acted like a president, don’t it?

    Smock Puppet, "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses." (225d0d)


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