It’s really a shame Big Guy didn’t get the chance to enjoy the same kind of photo op with Nelson Mandela that Bubba did.
Looking reflectively pensive is just not the same when you’re alone in the cell.
And if Barry had actually had a chance to spend some quality time with “Madiba” perhaps he could have taught him the same thing he taught Bubba: how to forgive people for telling the truth about the lies you told:
It must be something you learn at President School: how to make every major world event about you. Because left to my own devices, I never would have been able to make the connection between a militant South African black man being left to break rocks in a hell-hole of a prison for 27 years, and the first black American President being impeached for lying to the Grand Jury about getting bjs in the Oval office. Only a world class fabulist/prevaricator like Bubba could do that.
Big Dawg sure has set a high bar for making this “all about you” though. Especially since the only opportunity BO ever had to meet Madiba in person was “in his first months as an Illinois senator. He met briefly with Mandela in his hotel room in a hurriedly arranged get-together for a senator already rising like a rocket.”
As a result, they never really had a chance to swap stories and experiences that could later be translated into life-changing insights. Like how smoking crack for 18 hours while cramming for finals is like cracking rocks all day for 27 long, hard years.
I’m not saying Nelson Mandela didn’t have a big impact on BO’s life. Indeed, the symbolism of President Mandela has not been lost on our President.
Take for example this iconic shot of BO and Lady M in Oslo, accepting his (first) Nobel Peace Prize. Here he is, shot behind bars, flashing Nelson’s signature raised fist salute:
To be sure, the raised fist salute has long been the iconography of political struggle:
"It's a way of indicating that you intend to meet malevolent, massive institutional force with force of your own - you are an individual who feels bound with other individuals to fight an oppressive status quo."
Granted, it has most frequently been embraced for extremist movements like Communism and militant black power and female-power activists.
As well as black American Presidents
and important, bankrupt, American cities:
Detroit’s iconic “Black Fist” on Jefferson Ave.
And speaking of messages, Bubba’s self-aggrandizing remarks actually included a deeper message, intended for the GOP. He was just reminding them that when he was President, he was a very big man; he forgave his adversaries for the good of the party and the stability of the Republic. His not so veiled threat is that they have no reason to assume that to be the case with Big Guy. So got that boys? “If you impeach this little pissant President, you will all pay the price; as will the rest of the country.”
So be vewy, vewy quiet. And consider this your last warning.
Oh, and while you’re at it, better pass that message on to all those damn Teahadists as well:
"It's a way of indicating that you intend to meet malevolent, massive institutional force with force of your own - you are an individual who feels bound with other individuals to fight an oppressive status quo."
P.S. That welt on Bubba’s forehead? Not the mark of the devil, he just got clipped with another flying ashtray.
Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and Clarice Feldman and Abby L Call, Patty Bride, Diane Marie on facebook, and @ValCSilver on twitter, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and NOBO2012 on Free Republic, Thanks!
Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network
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