Obama Getting Gored

Have you seen this?  It's Jeff Greenfield reporting on the Blitzer show:

. . . But, in the case of Obama, he may be walking around with a sartorial time bomb. Ask yourself, is there any other major public figure who dresses the way he does? Why, yes. It is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who, unlike most of his predecessors, seems to have skipped through enough copies of "GQ" to find the jacket-and-no-tie look agreeable.

And maybe that's not the comparison a possible presidential contender really wants to evoke.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GREENFIELD: Now, it is one thing to have a last name that sounds like Osama and a middle name, Hussein, that is probably less than helpful. But an outfit that reminds people of a charter member of the axis of evil, why, this could leave his presidential hopes hanging by a thread. Or is that threads? -- Wolf.

Wow. Well at least he's not wearing earth tones.  See commentary by Drum and Digby. 

Listen, I have no idea whether Obama is for real.  I tend to doubt it, but he seems a decent enough guy as politicians go.  If I have my doubts it's because it's hard for me to believe that a decent, sane person would put himself and his family through the inevitable scurtiny and sliming that is just part of the deal. I think that's the main reason we wind up with such mediocre candidates election cycle after election cycle.  There has to be a screw loose somewhere in the psyches of people who actually choos to run. How else to explain why the pool of candidates is so consistently low quality? 

In any event, the system is allergic to anything that would bring it health.  If Obama or Feingold or anyone else were to emerge who actually represented healing healthful forces, I fear they would be violently rejected.  '08 will inevitably wind up being just another choice between two empty suits.  Something has to change in the broader culture before something more is possible.  But I am always open to the surprise.

Comments

[Matt Zemek]

I don't watch TV news anymore, but I remember Jeff Greenfield being a thoughtful contributor for Ted Koppel's Nightline broadcasts.

What the heck has happened to him?

If anyone can point to some key moments in Jeff Greenfield's downward spiral, I'd be interested.