Thursday, October 18, 2012

Live By Pop Culture, Die By Pop Culture

John McCain was right back in 2008, calling out Barack Obama as little more than another feckless celebrity.  Obama, rather than deny the charge and/or rebut it with some gravitas, preferred to wallow in the celebrity adulation, play off of it, and be a part of it.  After all, how better to excite and motivate the untapped potential of young voters?

Well, they adored him in 2008.  But for celebrity to last more than four years, you either have to prove yourself as truly great at whatever it is you do, or stay cool.  The president, alas, has done neither .  And so:

If there was any doubt that the tidal wave of enthusiasm among young voters that fueled President Obama’s 2008 run has long since receded, a new poll on the millennial generation’s political leanings in the upcoming election cements it.

The Harvard Institute of Politics’ national survey of 18- to 29-year-olds, released on Wednesday, found that while likely young voters favor Obama by a 19-point margin—55 percent to Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s 36 percent—only 48 percent say that they definitely plan to vote next month.

On every issue, from the economy to immigration to health care to foreign affairs, young voters said they trust the president more than Romney. Nonetheless, the Romney supporters appear to be more enthusiastic, with 66 percent who support the former Massachusetts governor saying they will definitely vote, compared to 55 percent of Obama backers.

In 2008, Obama won Indiana, North Carolina, and Virginia with the help of young voters. If all the under-30s had stayed home, the historically red states would have remained in the GOP column....


Who were some of the other biggest celebrities of 2008? Hmmm...Shia LaBeouf? Lauren Conrad? John Mayer? Kevin Federline? Russell Brand? Rosie (gack!) O'Donnell? Duffy?

Yeah, you've still heard of them, they ain't quite dead, but they are as hot as yesterday's coffee.  Such is the life of a celebrity....

Obama confused fame with success.  So did the Nobel committee  apparently.

"The present condition of fame is merely fashion", said Gilbert K. Chesterton.  And our president, who rode into office on fame, has suddenly found himself as unfashionable as bell-bottoms.  And no amount of spin is going to convince America that either one of them deserves a comeback...

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