Thu, 12/18/2008 - 9:05am — lambert
The job requires him to work unnoticed, even in plain view, so Jon Favreau settles into a wooden chair at a busy Starbucks in the center of Penn Quarter. Deadline looms, and he needs to write at least half a page by the end of the day. As the espresso machines whir, Favreau opens his laptop, calls up a document titled "rough draft of inaugural" and goes to work on the most anticipated speech of Barack Obama's life.
Double shot with that, sir? Cinnamon?
[Reach me another slice of that honeymoon cake, wouldja, hon?]
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Most anticipated speech?
It seems like each of his speeches is given that breathless description, which makes the fact that they usually put many of us to sleep somewhat surprising and very disappointing. With his track record, what could he really say that would get us excited? He does love to speechify though. His eyes just twinkle.
Empty rhetoric.
On the bright side, it will be a change from Bush.
Maybe after the inauguration
we'll get some behind-the-scenes photos of Favreau, Rick Warren and a cardboard cutout of a high-profile gay person! Any bets on who that might be? My money's on Barney Frank.
Unnoticed?
He's been profiled by the Times twice and is also covered by Esquire.
Bullshit (yet again). It is amazing that although Favreau won't even get publicly reprimanded, let alone fired, for his outrageous display of bigotry, the Village
still feels the need to defend or celebrate him. Favreau struck a nerve with us and them. More and more you get the distinct impression this particular hatred is very central to who they are (Shock, I know!).
Honestly, I still don't get the appeal of Favreau's speeches even on a pure emotional level. They're just empty fluff that feels more like crib notes on great past speeches than an actual good speech. And it's not just the detached speaker that makes me dislike the speeches, but the actual words that just feel, "Eh."
Did you see this, Davidson
from the article?
Now, he has transformed into what one friend called a "Washington political force" -- a minor celebrity with a down payment on a Dupont Circle condo, whose silly Facebook photos with a Hillary Rodham Clinton cutout created what passes for controversy in Obama's so far drama-free transition. emphasis mine.
I mean really, WTF
, miming a sexual assault is "silly". And people wonder why rape and misogyny are so endemic.
He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave.
- Sir William Drummond
I got to that part
and stopped reading. Gag.
Rape culture reflected in Obama culture
I read the WaPo article and none of it surprises me, including this: "But it doesn't take long to realize that he's totally synced up with Obama. . . . He has access to everything and everybody." In case anyone was still hoping "Fav" wasn't really part of Obama's inner circle, there you have it. The article is about just how in sync Favreau is with Obama. How could The Fav not be a reflection of the man himself, the Obama culture? If Obama at any point thought mimicking sexual assault was wrong, the hell Favreau would have done it, especially against Clinton in effigy.
That notorious photo reminds me of VL's post on groupthink: it was a "trophy photo" where people take pictures with the defeated enemy(From what I can tell, it was taken on the night of the NH primary where Team Obama thought it was about to win). It was routinely done during Jim Crow where whites, particularly young men, would pose with the mutilated, strangled bodies of blacks.
Neither Fav nor anyone from the Obama Team is remotely sorry for what happened. Fav is loving the spotlight just as I thought he would since I first read that Times profile of him back in January (And also from what my DC friends tell me). Since then, I've thought they would try to make him a visual of what they wanted the Obama brand to be: young, white, and male. If anything the effigy photo only cemented what that demographic hoped Obama would really be about: anti-female bigotry. They got their wish.
I heard
That the photo was recent, after Clinton's defeat in the primary.
Which is even worse, IMO.
He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave.
- Sir William Drummond
Shit, you're right: photo was taken this Thanksgiving
I had thought it was from the NH primary but the WaPo article says it's from this Thanksgiving vacation at his parent's house. Unreal. I can't believe I forgot that since I just read it.
At a party at his parents' house over Thanksgiving vacation, he danced and posed awkwardly next to a cardboard cutout of Clinton.
You know how sexual assault and rape is, ladies: awkward! (Don't you love the framing of expressing bigotry to be nothing other than "immature?")
Does anyone still think the state gig was in good faith?
As opposed to, say, getting rid of the one person in this country who has the prestige to at least force a public health care option? Didn't Hillary also call for getting rid of mercanaries and frivilous defense contracts?