So the First and Second Ladies (Michelle Obama and Jill Biden) were brought in as grand marshals for the NASCAR season finale at Homestead (won in spectacular fashion by the absurdly entertaining Tony Stewart), and there was enough booing from the crowd to turn the story into “Michelle Obama, Dr. Jill Biden Draw Boos at NASCAR Event.” Video is here.
In our podcast “Boo…Who?”, we poked into political booing and sports booing, and how the two occasionally intersect. Bottom line: it’s often not pretty.
A couple twists worth noting in this case: these weren’t politicians getting booed but the wives of politicians (which would make the booing seem particularly hardcore); and they were there as part of a charitable campaign to help military personnel and veterans (which would make the booing seem to be a complaint about trying to score political points).
Now imagine for a moment that you were the person who handled this event from the White House side. Here’s what I’d like to know:
1. Did you seriously consider the possibility that Mrs. Obama (and/or Mrs. Biden, who happens to be a military mom) might get booed?
2. If so, what did you think was the likelihood?
3. At what point (measured in terms of likelihood of booing or perhaps in volume of booing among the roughly 65,000 spectators) would you consider the event not worth doing?
4. Is your job safe today?
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So many republicans call themselves christian and followers of the bible, but once again their hypocrisy and lack of christian love allow themselves to express themselves like low-class rednecks.
What happened to ‘love your neighbor’ and ‘do unto others’ in the view of these supposedly ‘christian’ republicans?
Also, pubs used to believe in liberty and personal freedom, but now pub candidates are required to sign pledges to deprive a woman of liberty in choosing whether or not she carries a fetus to term. Also, they insist candidates stand in the way of personal freedom for gay taxpayers.
They also ‘talk’ but do not do when it comes to debt and deficits. Clinton gave the U.S. a surplus, but reagan/bush drove the debt and deficits up, and george w bush exploded the debt/deficit taking Clinton’s surplus in 2001 and handing Obama a trillion dollar deficit in 2009.
Character, class and common sense would seem to be lacking in many pubs, maybe nascar pubs too.
Not a fan at all of the President. Not a big fan of booing regardless.
Having said that-what were these people thinking sending the First Lady to speak to that audience? She and her husband have both belittled people who ‘cling to guns and religion’. Guessing if a survey were taken a large percentage of that audience supports 2nd Amendment Rights and believes is God. In addition a large portion are, were or have members of their family in the military. Again, not a group that would be big fans of the President’s policies.
I think the disrespectful tone started with the 2000 election. Bush was treated very unfairly and well below the levels befitting the office of president. It would be easy to continue that with some payback to the democrat now. I don’t support that. I refer to the president as the president not Obama.
I say change the tone and the holder of the office in 2012. Don’t boo. Oh and if you work in the PR arm of the White House you should be fired for scheduling this.
Ah, typical pub blaming the Dems.
Here’s what we have to blame Obama for: DJIA up almost 50% since bush left; got bin laden and other aq leaders when bush couldn’t accomplish that mission in over 7 yrs;
many having better access to medical care with the health care; lower deficit for 2010 than bush in 2009, last budget for bush
over 4 thousand dead and 30 thousand injured in bush’s war of choice that clearly was a huge mistake;
I could go on, but I am shocked at intelligent people who don’t see that without the stimulus that bush started and Obama continued, we might have an America that looks a lot more like the depression 30′s than what we’ve seen since 2009. Mc Cain would likely have followed the pub hoover policy and if Obama loses we may yet see that.
Some, if not most, of the pub candidates are so dumb they encouraged the nation to default on the national debt. How can intelligent people support the GOP?
Hot debate. What do you think?
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“classless enough to boo two women trying to help our armed forces personnel” or intelligent enough to see through the Obama administration’s weak attempt to win over key Florida voters?
What is more classless, in my opinion, is using this charity as a political tool for re-election.
People don’t appreciate disingenuous political schemes. It’s ironic that these “good ol’ boys” that you mention are more in touch with political and social standards than the overpaid and under performing staff that aides our current President.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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“What is more classless, in my opinion, is using this charity as a political tool for re-election.”
EXACTLY…has anyone asked if the first and second lady have supported the military charity previously? Was this so politically fueled that they picked a charity they thought would be appealing to the crowd?
Yes, it is embarrassing to me that fellow Americans would be so rude….but the behavior of our politicians lately also embarrasses me.
Perhaps it’s time we all take a good look at what we’ve become.
“has anyone asked if the first and second lady have supported the military charity previously?”
Both Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden have actively supported military families since the beginning of President Obama’s term. Michelle has made this, along with Just Move, the main things she has supported. This was not a one-off publicity stunt, but a continuation of their work.
I’m a conservative…and I am appalled that Americans would behave so boorishly! Oddly enough, though I am from the foothills of the Tennessee Appalachians, I completely disown the sort of people who would do this–or who would want it done. Have we sunk so low that we cannot even do common decency any longer?
I don’t have to like Obama’s politics to respect him as my President and as a person. Booing should be reserved for those times when someone does something truly disrespectful (e.g., purposely messing up the National Anthem; telling a joke in poor taste for a laugh, etc.), NOT for someone just standing up to wave at the crowd.
Poor form, southerners. And to think we used to hold ourselves to be true ladies and gentlemen. The NASCAR group is the trailer park trash of the south, in my opinion (yes, I know there are many wonderful exceptions–but not enough).
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Not a fan of the booing, but is this form of “free speech” and more distasteful than what the Occupy Wall Street crowd (and their spinoffs in hundreds of cities) are doing every day?
Second, it is probably safe to say the boos were directed at the camera-hungry first lady as opposed to Mrs. Biden, whom most people couldn’t pick out of a lineup. There is certainly no doubt that Mrs. Obama’s values are counter to that of most of the South, but add on that the bombastic proclamations of superiority, the highly publicized outlandish and frequent vacations, and middle to lower class audience that doesn’t normally have a voice on the political stage, and you have a situation ripe for this kind of overreaction. It isn’t an excuse, but it isn’t exactly a shock either.
Oddly enough, they did boo Dr. Biden quite a bit more than Mrs. Obama. I wondered if it was because the whole thing happened really quickly and there was a delay in the booing as the crowd figured out what was going on, or if some wanted to boo, but didn’t want to look racist, so they booed Biden. Their cheers for the military family was emphatic, so I don’t know why they would have booed Biden more.
It’s a win politically for democrats, just like Republicans booing a soldier during the Republican debates.
politicians embarrassing? i think that would be perry, cain, bachman, even paul and gingrich, if not their behavior, then their personal lives and/or philosophy.
also boehner, no leader not even very bright, and the rest of the embarrassing leadership of the House, remember when they said they had a deal and then had to go beg members of their own
caucus?
Hey, guys. The Obama campaign people are trying to re-brand their guy as a friend of Middle America. He and Michelle are being pitched as down-home folks. And I think women are less likely to get booed at a public event like this one, so the risk might be worth sending women there. But the pics of Michelle made it seem like she was in the land of Oz. I think it all backfired for Obama. I like the pic of Michelle in this blog:
http://www.brandingobamessiah.com/obama-nascar-booed-country-music-performance/
Who comes up with these stunts? Send Michelle to Target, not NASCAR.