Hands On Dad

I watched the whole one hour and a half program "Obama Revealed: The Man, The President" on CNN last night. It was a great piece of propaganda, a well-crafted narrative of Obama through the years, with well-placed images and interviews of Barack-sympathizers. I'm sure we'll be getting a lot more of these docudramas of various lengths during the next few months.

I wanted to see how Obama behaved during his interview (it was interspersed throughout the program) with CNN journalist Jessica Yellin. Most of the time, Yellin had an adoring look on her face, even when she was getting "tough" on the President.

Obama had an odd expression of submissiveness and joviality, with a hint of uncertainty during one segment. I think none of these expressions are suitable for a president, and especially a president the rest of the world constantly has on its radar. The topic is his daughters and dinner with his family, after all, which is all the more reason he shouldn't be talking about "dinner at home."

Then, as though to make up for this "softness," he occasionally gets a hard glint in his eyes, which I've observed in other appearances. This is not the determined look of a world leader, but an strange, fascistic glint, with a thrust of his chin, which I call his "Mussolini chin," borrowing from another observer.


The above image is from a blog post I wrote on Obama's hard glint which becomes all the more apparent next to Eli Wiesel's suffering expression. I also add about Obama:

Yet, there is the vacant, frightened look in Obama's eyes on the picture on the left that I've often observed.

I found this part of the CNN interview fascinating (the link is a two minute clip from the interview). Most of the blogosphere seems to concur, although most likely for different reasons (i.e. what a great dad Obama is to find time out for his daughters at dinner time). The transcript follows below:

OBAMA: When we're in town here in Washington, in the evenings, 6:30, we want to be at the dinner table with our kids and I want to be helping with their homework. I think that's sometimes interpreted as me not wanting to, you know, be out there slapping back, and wheeling and dealing. It really is more to do with the stage we are in our lives.

YELLIN (on camera): If you're re-elected, your girls will be older. They'll probably have their own weekend plans. They might not want to hang out with mom and dad.

OBAMA: It's already starting to happen, yes.

YELLIN: Do you think you might do more outreach, what you call back slapping, with members of Congress?

Imagine the CEO of a company, or the principal of a school being asked "Do you think you might do more outreach when your daughters are older, and you don't have to be at the dinner table to hear about their day?"

Embarrassing, and embarrassing that Obama takes this question seriously.

I'm not sure what Obama is trying to convey with his statement "When we're in town here in Washington, in the evenings, 6:30, we want to be at the dinner table with our kids and I want to be helping with their homework." I don't believe that he really does show up for every dinner (even when he's not on an official trip or meeting) to be with his daughters at 6:30pm. Note his clever wording:

When we're in town here in Washington, in the evenings, 6:30, we want to be at the dinner table with our kids and I want to be helping with their homework.

Wanting to be there and being there are two different things.

And here is Yellin with Valerie Jarrett, who was also interviewed for the program:

YELLIN: Though being a family man isn't always an asset in office, it is a priority for the president.

JARRETT: Well, you have to remember, this is someone who grew up raised by a single mom and his grant parents whose family abandoned him and he's lived with that kind of missing piece in him. And at a very young age, he decided he wasn't going to be the kind of father he had. He wanted to be a present father.

Jarrett also says:

His father abandoned him, and he's lived with that kind of missing piece in him. At a very young age, he decided he wasn't going to be the kind of father he had. He wanted to be a present father.

I have a feeling that Michelle Obama tries to have a large say in "the family eating dinner together," which Obama then deftly overrules.