Ya know, for a while there I really thought that Obama had finally given his first speech that didn’t address some kind of alternate reality, a world similar to ours but far removed from the problems we have to deal with here. I should have known better.
To be more specific, the speech itself was fine. Obama seemed to finally act presidential instead of coming off as some leftist professor lecturing a classroom of dullards on the way things are going to be. It’s what went on behind the camera that soured the whole event.
Turns out that Obama’s crew had T-shirts with his “Together We Thrive” 2008 campaign slogan draped over every chair in the assembly hall. I thought the crowd seemed too excited during his speech, given the event which led to it. The shirts help explain its reaction.
It’s a slick marketing move on Obama’s part. The mainstream media will brush off the T-shirts as being some kind of nice gesture which the conservatives are trying to make hay over or it will ignore them altogether. The overall perception generated will be that Obama is a great unifier and leader while, in back here in reality, he’s just a shameless huckster cashing in on a tragedy.
So, why do the T-shirt thing, anyway? Simple – election 2012 is on its way and the dems couldn’t let this crisis go to waste.
Oh, my goodness! I wondered why there were T-shirts draped across the chairs. I didn’t think it was in good taste and of course I noticed that, with the shouting and cheers, it was more of a campaign rally and wondered how it sounded to those who were there actually to pay respect to the heroes and to those who died. But I didn’t know that Mr. Obama himself was behind it. Shoulda known. We exist in two realities: the one portrayed by television newsmen and women, the camouflage of political news and the reality behind the portrayal. We’re in more trouble than we could guess.