Okay, I confess. I don’t have anything to say about Sen. Boxer’s actual hairstyle. Looks good enough to me, but I’m totally unqualified. For as many years as I remember, I have been doing nothing more than shampooing and running a little gel through my hair with my hands, enhanced by the occasional conditioning. Whatever Sen. Boxer is doing with her hair is far above my pay grade.
But I did want to comment on why Carly Fiorina’s open mic gaffe is important. It splashes cold water in the faces of all us voters. It forces us to dredge up a sickening feeling that, I dare say, most of us have about most of our political representatives — namely, that the persona so carefully constructed for public consumption has nothing to with the actual human being we don’t get to see.
For some, it is fear that the calm, measured, moderateĀ Obama displayed to the public is, in secret reality, the radical Christomuslim terrorist from the world of Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers. For others, it is fear that the decades-long public/private service of Dick Cheney is, in secret reality, just a clever disguise for the energy industry controlling policy in Washington. In the end, we reject Hillary Clinton because we suspect the scarcely-glimpsed hot-tempered bitch is the real her; maybe she shouldn’t be the one answering the call at 3:00 a.m. We reject Sarah Palin because we suspect the scarcely-glimpsed (okay, maybe a little more than scarcely) self-serving prima donna is the real her. In our hearts, more than the excesses of liberalism and conservatism, we worry that our elected officials clock out at the end of the day, and head off to the bars for a night of non-partisan gloating over our gullibility. At some primordial level, we worry that our elected leaders are akin to a scene from a Mission Impossible movie, ready to peel off the full-head latex mask to reveal the incompletely unforeseen character underneath.
And that is what the Fiorina open mic moment reminds of us. What it forces us to confront. If even for the briefest of moments, we have to confront the utterly depressing possiblity that it’s all a big f&^%ing game, being played at our expense. That our leaders are as petty and small and stupid and cynical and uncharitable of heart as we are. Hell, we can’t even handle seeing FDR in his wheelchair, or JFK wearing his back brace, or Obama smoking. A weak electorate makes for bad candidates makes for inept governance.
Yep, that’s why Senator Boxer’s hairstyle matters.
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Okay, I posted that only four minutes ago, and already here is something along similar lines that I came across. Seems that ten years ago Meg Whitman shoved an eBay associate, leading to a $200,000 settlement with the employee. The percentage of the population who physically shove people around at work is what, 0.000003%, tops. I’ve been working for almost thirty years, and never once seen anything like it. I’ve met thousands of earnest, smart, ethical, competent, motivated, sincere people. But, nooooooooooooooo. we have to choose from the likes of them for our elected representation. Bullies and adulterers and narcissists and flat-out criminals. For f$^&’s sake.
June 15, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Fiorina’s comments reveal her to be petty, a snob, and someone who has poor social skills.
June 16, 2010 at 1:53 am
At this point, Moe, I don’t much care about that. I mean, honestly, how honed are the social skills of any of our elected leaders? Where do we find refuge from pettiness and snobbery in politics? Don’t you think that they’re ALL pretty much like Fiorina, with her just having the misfortune to forget to turn off the mic?
June 16, 2010 at 5:05 pm
I was thinking the other day about CSpan and how that has never happened to any of thier hosts or interviewers. And it occurred to me that when you get hired there, I’ll bet they put their people through rigorous training to be sure it doens’t happen..
June 26, 2010 at 5:49 pm
They also protect their own. A politician drunk and obnoxious in a bar hits the front page, whereas I see media employees all the time making fools of themselves and you never hear anything about it. When’s the last time you heard of a media personality’s DUI?
June 27, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Vern – I just listened to the genuinely annoying ‘Howie” Kurtz interview the actual reporter from Rolling Stone. And the entire silly insider Washington press corps was revealed in the person of Kurtz.
The guy in Kabul (the real reporter) basically reacted to Kurtz’ questions with polite versions of ‘are you serious’?
June 27, 2010 at 4:29 pm
You don’t like Howie? I guess now that you mention it, he is a little annoying. But I wish the level of self-reflection in the media was vastly greater, and at least he’s on topic in that sense. I wish I had seen his exchange with Michael Hastings.
June 27, 2010 at 4:36 pm
TCS – the main reason I don’t like Howie is because he is astonishingly compromised. He serves as Media Critic for CNN where he never says a word against the Wash. Post. And he serves as Media Critic for the Wash. Post hwere he never says a word against CNN.
The only honest media critics today are Jon Stewart and Eric Alterman.
June 18, 2010 at 12:41 am
Nicely done. Hadn’t heard about the gaffe, but I catch your post, esp. the update.