by Dee Dee Meyers
“What’s bugging me is his intention. He isn’t putting his hand on her ‘chest,’ as most of the articles and conversations about the picture have euphemistically referred to it. Rather, his hand—cupped just so—is clearly intended to signal that he’s groping her breast. And why? Surely, not to signal he finds her attractive. Au contraire. It’s an act of deliberate humiliation. Of disempowerment. Of denigration.
And it disgusts me…
Imagine how different the reaction would be if an important aide to John McCain had been caught in similar picture featuring Michelle Obama? Or if the picture had shown a cutout of Barack Obama and, say, a white hood? Why is it when ideology and race are eliminated, so is the outrage?”
Can’t decide!!! I see it from the perspective of his mom and maybe I’m ashamed. I’m his girlfriend, and I just find it deeply lame. I’m the guy on the right, and even though I am obviously the more wasted one I’m like “dude, when you pose offensively with a cardboard cutout of your opponent it helps to make an obvious joke referencing an example of said campaign’s shameless pandering to ignorant drunk white guys while trying to steer clear of actually being one yourself.” But I’m me and honestly maybe if it didn’t look more like her armpit he was cupping, or if I thought anyone in DC had a particularly sophisticated sense of humor, or if I personally had so sophisticated a sense of humor that I would be above posing similarly cutting out the nuts of some male sightly-less-than-life-sized cardboard figure as part of a drunken campaign morale building exercise…
Oh Jesus I don’t know. Obama has written all his best speeches anyway, and Samantha Power could use a new job. Fuck this guy.
