The Atlantic - Latest Comments in Bama on 60 Minutes

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

Tim — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:03:19 -0000

Good for Obama on the college football playoff system. This is what I have always liked about him in a nutshell: he sees dishonest opportunists taking advantage of people and furthering a dishonest, corporatist-elitist culture that benefits the few and powerful at the expense of everyone else, and rather than go along with it, he decides to call a spade a spade, bring all the machinations into the light of day and fight for something more honest. That's admirable - and not just in sports. Good for him.

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

Katie — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:49:01 -0000

I live in (and was born in) Alabama. I'm not outraged by the Bama, I promise. But I didn't like it either. We're sensitive when it comes to the ignorant stereotype down here.

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

emma — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:49:21 -0000

@ zacksback

Amen! Amen! I loved how she told him that even if he could go on a walk she wouldn't have gone because it's too cold. This remainds me the interview they did with Robin on GMA and Bararck talked about who was going to walk the dog when it's cold outside. It was really cute.

@WestIndianArchie

Do shut up. It didn't work during the campaign and it won't work now.

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

zacksback — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:13:55 -0000

"And then it hits you..."

Sorry for stealing this, T-N, but as a woman, one thing I've noticed is that although presidential politicians have changed in their interaction with the media & public (imagine Carter going on SNL, or Reagan discussing boxers vs. briefs), we've been stuck with the "First Lady Gazing Worshipfully Unto Her Lord & Master's Countenance" bullshit ever since Pat Nixon went through two terms looking adoringly at Tricky Dick.

It's one thing to recognize that as First Lady, you can't keep your high-powered day job; it's quite another to be expected to send your intelligence, wit, and spine to an undislosed location for eight years. Look at the contortions Hillary had to go through to live up to that ridiculous, dusty and archaic image.

When Michelle said stuff like "the car had a hole in it...[pause]...that was MY side, of course" or when Obama claimed he found washing dishes soothing and she was all "Since WHEN?" (I particularly loved that look on her face: "oh HELL no, this BS about household chores ain't gonna be part of your new improved presidential image, babe, so give it up right now") -- and that none of it was at all bitchy or undermining, just the teasing of a woman who loves her husband and has lived with him as an equal for their entire marrige -- yeah. You don't realized you've never seen a modern marriage [allowed] in the WH until you do.

And then it hits you.

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

Nina — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:28:34 -0000

He is a geek, nerd, and non-materialistic. He misses walks because he is an intellectual, and a thinker. What a refreshing change for America. Reminds me of a my dad.

HOORAY!!

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

Amrita — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:00:02 -0000

@ Kid Bitzer: Alright, point taken. re: the sports thing - I sort of noticed it but I also got the feeling that this was one of their couple issues. As cute as I find their interaction, going by my own past experiences, my eyes would glaze over too if my significant other started in on his fave sports hobby horse. We can fake more things than orgasms! I think Sporcupine expresses my feelings eloquently.

In more general terms, one of the interesting things about the Obamas to me is that on one level they're very much this idea of what the modern liberal elite couple look like: matching Harvard law degrees, high-powered jobs, etc.

But they're also a great example of how people aren't all one thing or the other and often live somewhere in the middle. Obama's complete willingness to give Michelle the credit for their kids' upbringing, for instance, is far away from The Daddy Who Cares meme while simultaneously not even hinting at the idea that he might be an uninvolved parent. One could argue that this is closer to more traditional ideas of gender roles within a marriage but it's also possible to look at it as two people doing what's best for their family rather than living their lives according to an ideal. Rather like how Obama says he wants to govern actually.

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

Sporcupine — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:02:48 -0000

kid bitzer,

You're right that the football thing had gender in it.

So does the time my husband got me to accept free tickes to a Phillies game. The next day he asked me what happened and I said: "The security guys caught someone who brought his own beer. The bridge looked beautiful when the sun went down. Somebody named Strawberry was on one of the teams." That really was, and is, all that my brain absorbed.

There's a definite difference in male and female attention to professional sports, and it's not fully explained by mentioning that we're usually talking about professional male sports.

The thing is, gender equality doesn't require any of us to pretend that we care when we don't, or that we don't care when we do.

Yes, it was the kind of dance Rob and Laura Petrie might have done 45 years ago on fictional television.

But that doesn't change what we saw last night on real television: Barack and Michelle Obama having fun with a way they're not the same.

This feminist lawyer who's approaching 50 votes to kick back and enjoy the show.

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

rikyrah — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:40:32 -0000

1. Don't like Bama.

2. He does do that fantasy football stuff.

3. The shoutout to Harold's Chicken was hilarious.

4. I love the story about him having the car with the hole in the floor. It's true because one of Michelle Obama's oldest friends is a talk radio personality here, and she talked about those old days. Barack Obama was a 'Broke Brotha', who spoke of high 'ideals', had no clothes, an apartment that if you sneezed, you were in the next apartment, and the car with the holes in it. Michelle married him because she loved him and believed in him. And, she wasn't afraid to carry the family financially on her back while Barack Obama ' did his thing'.

Smartest decision he ever made - marrying Michelle.

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

kid bitzer — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:38:59 -0000

hey, you got me wrong amrita; i'm not saying that obama wasn't serious about his football. i wasn't suggesting that he was faking this or only talking this way in order to appeal to guys.

i even read that fantasy football interview, so i know he's passionate and well-informed.

what i meant was, he clearly treats it as something that is going to bore michelle, but that he knows will interest his interviewer, and a good chunk of the audience.

and to me it all looked gendered, as though he thought it would bore michelle *because* it's guy stuff.

i could be dead wrong about that: maybe she loves to talk about other sports, and it's just football she hates. maybe obama apologizes this way when he talks about knitting, because she gets bored by knitting. maybe he has a lot of female friends he loves to talk football with, so he doesn't think of it as a guy thing.

i mean--there was something endearing about how geekily engrossed he was. that part--which is related to the star trek fan part, too--is something i genuinely like about him. and it's not any kind of act on his part.

maybe it was just the 'don't mind me' response that made it feel as though we were getting into 'football widow' territory, and all the tired stereotypes that go with that.

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

Amrita — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:23:41 -0000

@ Kid Bitzer: he clearly thinks this is guy talk.

You clearly haven't read his fantasy football interview. Kroft didn't ask him that question out of the blue. He's actually serious about this stuff.

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

WestIndianArchie — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:19:25 -0000

She's always undercutting what he says. Fussy and disagreeable.

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

CParis — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:58:01 -0000

President "Bama" doesn't work for me either. I've heard it used over the years in the Midwest and South, mostly by Black folks, referring to "country", ignorant Black people.

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

CG — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:51:03 -0000

Harold's Chicken Shack. Anyone who's lived in Hyde Park remembers it fondly. I'm happy to see its holy name uttered on the national stage.

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

spn — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:00:52 -0000

MMY - yeah and since TNC is from B'more he should be well familiar with the term "bama" since most of us DC folks used it in reference to "B'more bamas" all the time. lol

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

kid bitzer — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:09:26 -0000

also:

fans of traditional marriage

--and i mean ozzie-and-harriet, leave-it-to-beaver, dick-van-dyke and mary-tyler-moore traditional--

must have been charmed by his response on football.

he clearly thinks this is guy talk. and he knows that michelle is going to be bored stiff. but after launching into football for a beat with "this is serious", he remembers his manners, remembers there are ladies in the room, and apologizes to michelle for talking ball.

she does the classic, deferential, little-wifey thing of "don't mind me", and now that he has been a gentleman and a good husband, he jumps on that topic like it was a fumble on the five yard line.

in fact, it was *so* traditional in its depiction of gender roles that i still can't decide whether i love it or hate it.

but anyone with less ambivalence about traditional marriage roles must have been reassured.

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

Sporcupine — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:32:27 -0000

Part of what was cool about the discussion of Mrs. Robinson was that the reporter got absolutely nothing from asking. He tried to get inside the family's space, and he got told No. The smiles said No. The jokes said No. Eventually, there was "how do you get along with your mother-in-law?" without putting heavy emphasis on "your" or dropping the smile. And yet, the steel somehow wasn't just implied any more: it was there on the screen for less than a second and then the question got dropped.

As usual, no drama but no doubt about the boundary being secure when it was over.

I imagine Vladimir Putin showing that tape to his aides and saying for the ninth time, "he is who I thought he was."

Here's hoping the Pakistani military got the same message.

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

Charlotte K — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:03:24 -0000

The stuff about the lousy apartment was my favorite part. Next stop, the White House! Love it! One day that apartment will be part of the legend, like Lincoln's Log Cabin!

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

Denene@MyBrownBaby — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:02:26 -0000

I LOVED that he had the broke down hooptie and the run-down apartment and Michelle dug him anyway. Kinda fly.

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

Harry — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:58:13 -0000

Dude lived in an apartment that caught on fire. I love the way that he and Michelle interact. It's...what do you call it...chemistry. They've got it by the truckload. And I'm pretty sure that this will be the first mother-in-law to live in the White House.

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

Ta-Nehisi Coates — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:57:45 -0000

I have no idea. In D.C. they used it for folks from the country, as in Alabama. If folks are offended, I'll refrain. I like President Bama anyway.

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

mmy — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:49:18 -0000

TNC - Is it a good idea to call him "Bama"? Admittedly, I'm just a goofy white boy, but I've only heard that slang used referring to cops (negatively, like "Jake") or meaning "dumb country Negro." Neither of which would be good if it caught on, right?

Re: Bama on 60 Minutes

Josh — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:31:32 -0000

Great stuff... I like living in a world where the President talks like a regular person AND I know he's smarter than me. Something very reassuring about it.