Obama

Well…this is awkward.

I’m not sure how to translate that weird and simultaneous gulp/collar tug into the written word, but that’s what President Obama did after he was caught on camera commenting on the infamous Kanye West “moment” at Sunday’s VMA’s. The commander and chief of the free world reminds us how human he really is after saying, ‘the young lady seems like a perfectly nice person,” referring to Taylor Swift, who’s acceptance speech for “Best Female Video” was interrupted by Kanye West. His praise for Taylor Swift was followed by, “he’s [Kanye West] a jackass,” which was immediately followed by Mr. President communicating his belief that the cameras were off and he’s was just shooting the breeze. Well, the cameras were not off, and CNN recently aired the video capturing Obama’s remarks about Kanye. I read about the incident yesterday and didn’t go too far into it, that was until people started emailing me the clip, which I watched, and find worthy of posting because it is both the best and worst of our culture. Let’s put this in perspective.

The President of the United States, Barack Obama, the man who is working to save our economy, stop the rise of joblessness and push a very important and needed health care reform bill has a couple minutes before his interview. Instead of sitting silently, reviewing notes, etc…he’s talking to the interviewer. While some may think that he should be talking about health care reform, relations with other nations, or inner-city joblessness at all times, President Obama and the show’s host are not talking politics, but entertainment and Kanye West. It’s an interesting moment in television and politics because it is a rare occurrence that we get to see a president talk in such a manner. We also get to see that our president is informed, not just in the political world, but also in the pop culture that co-exists and which influences the people that he is to govern. Some may criticize Barack for watching the VMA’s, or at least watching the clip of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech, but why? Don’t we want our president to be up on the things that are most capturing the nation’s attention. When Kanye West’s appearance on Sunday is getting play on every blog, website, TV station, news program etc, it’d be foolish for Barack Obama not to check it out, and not to form an opinion. I’m not saying President Obama should call people names, or agreeing with him on his categorization of West, but I can say without any doubt that many Americans have had the same exact conversation that we see in the video above, they just weren’t captured on film.

My question is, why did CNN choose to keep this clip? They could argue about it’s relevancy, and it’s importance, but what’s the ultimate point of televising the president of the United States calling a musician, and a cultural icon, as well as one of his biggest supporters and fellow Chicagoans a jackass? I know their point is viewership and getting people like me to repost and write about it, to get Bill O’Reily to talk about it and get Glenn Beck and co. to say that Barack is wasting his time on this bulls**t while the nation goes to hell. But really, nothing good comes out of this. I’m sure Kanye West feels even worse than he already did, I mean, the president’s opinions are a little harder to just brush off than Bill O’Reily’s. At the same time, Barack Obama is not cast in the best light, and his relationship maybe strained. His time and energy may now be diverted, even if just a little bit from other tasks as people ask him about his comments and so on and so forth.

I’m glad that Barack Obama is able to talk about current events, I just don’t need to know all his feelings all the time. And I feel you Barack, you didn’t know the cameras were on, someone asked you a question, and you stated your opinion. I got you on the slack, I’m just not sure there is enough to go around…