Way back, even before the beginning of Barry's first term, we opined that he belonged in GQ magazine, not the White House. We were reminded of this upon reading the delightful Bud Norman's essay "The end of Language" in which he despairs of the loss of common words like "fop."
The disappearance of the word “fop” from the language seems to have coincided with the disappearance of society’s sneering contempt for men who take excessive pride in their physical appearance that it once conveyed, for instance, and as a result American society is inundated with preening pretty boys and empty but immaculately fashioned suits. Such nebulous and neutral words as “hope” and “change” can unleash eight years of disastrous taxing and pork barrel spending and over-regulation and God only knows what sort of foreign policy madness, while such once valuable words as “merit” and “liberty” are derided by the deconstructionists and their impenetrable academic jargon as racist code.
Recall the fact that one NY Times pundit, David Brooks, made Barry's "perfectly creased pant" one of the key reasons that he as going to be president, and be a good president. Brooks is indelibly associated with that inane comment just as another Obama groupie, Chris Matthews, will forever be known as the man who "felt this thrill going up my leg" during one of Barry's speeches.
In life we are frequently seduced by good looks and pretty speech. It is in our nature. It perpetuates the species. But let us pray that after this experience with the disastrous consequences of our seduction, that we develop a healthy scepticism the next time a fop appears.
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