WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.379 Welcome to the Deep Dive. It's so great to have 00:00:03.379 --> 00:00:05.320 you sitting down here with us again. Yeah, always 00:00:05.320 --> 00:00:07.459 great to have you here at the table. As always, 00:00:07.620 --> 00:00:09.300 you are the most important person in the room. 00:00:09.339 --> 00:00:12.140 And today we have something really special to 00:00:12.140 --> 00:00:15.099 shoot up for you. We are diving into a deeply 00:00:15.099 --> 00:00:18.699 fascinating, really complex topic, which is the 00:00:18.699 --> 00:00:21.500 public image of Barack Obama. It's a massive 00:00:21.500 --> 00:00:23.879 topic. Totally. We're looking at everything from 00:00:23.879 --> 00:00:27.320 his, you know, his meteoric political rise to 00:00:27.320 --> 00:00:31.399 the incredibly quirky pop culture phenomenons 00:00:31.399 --> 00:00:33.539 that ended up following him around. Right. Because 00:00:33.539 --> 00:00:35.820 it's a sweeping narrative. Yeah. And to truly 00:00:35.820 --> 00:00:37.560 understand it, you have to look at the actual 00:00:37.560 --> 00:00:40.219 mechanics of how a modern political image is 00:00:40.219 --> 00:00:42.920 constructed and then how it gets aggressively 00:00:42.920 --> 00:00:46.479 deconstructed by critics and ultimately how it's 00:00:46.479 --> 00:00:48.979 consumed by the public in the 21st century. And 00:00:48.979 --> 00:00:51.600 our mission for this deep dive is to act as your 00:00:51.600 --> 00:00:54.520 ultimate shortcut to being well -informed. We 00:00:54.520 --> 00:00:56.679 want to untangle all of that without you having 00:00:56.679 --> 00:00:59.679 to wade through the massive information overload 00:00:59.679 --> 00:01:01.880 that comes with analyzing a two -term presidency. 00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:05.560 But before we get into the weeds here, I do want 00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:08.120 to set a really crucial ground rule. Good idea. 00:01:08.340 --> 00:01:10.079 Because the source material we're looking at 00:01:10.079 --> 00:01:13.400 today contains some intensely politically charged 00:01:13.400 --> 00:01:15.939 content. I mean, we are going to be discussing 00:01:15.939 --> 00:01:18.200 critiques from both the far left and the far 00:01:18.200 --> 00:01:20.980 right. Right. So we need to be abundantly clear 00:01:20.980 --> 00:01:23.939 right up front. Neither of us are taking sides 00:01:23.939 --> 00:01:26.560 here. We are not endorsing any of the viewpoints, 00:01:26.719 --> 00:01:28.900 the policies or the criticisms that we'll be 00:01:28.900 --> 00:01:31.500 discussing. Absolutely not. Our job today. is 00:01:31.500 --> 00:01:34.939 strictly to impartially report and just convey 00:01:34.939 --> 00:01:38.400 the sociological and historical ideas contained 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:40.560 in the original source material. Exactly. It's 00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:42.500 about the media ecosystem, not the politics. 00:01:42.700 --> 00:01:44.400 We're just holding up a mirror to the landscape 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:46.560 of the time. Precisely. Okay, let's unpack this 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:49.519 by going back to the very beginning. The spark 00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:52.579 that ignited the entire phenomenon. The 2004 00:01:52.579 --> 00:01:56.659 DNC. Yes. Imagine the scene at the 2004 Democratic 00:01:56.659 --> 00:01:59.799 National Convention. You have this 42 -year -old, 00:01:59.879 --> 00:02:02.510 relatively... unknown state senator from Illinois 00:02:02.510 --> 00:02:05.030 stepping up to the podium. Basically a virtual 00:02:05.030 --> 00:02:07.439 nobody on the national stage at that point. Right. 00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:10.240 He's representing a district of about 600 ,000 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:13.759 constituents. But over the course of a 17 -minute 00:02:13.759 --> 00:02:17.900 keynote address, he completely rewrites his political 00:02:17.900 --> 00:02:20.439 trajectory. That's incredible. He delivers that 00:02:20.439 --> 00:02:23.139 incredibly famous line declaring that there is 00:02:23.139 --> 00:02:26.360 not a black America and a white America, a Latino 00:02:26.360 --> 00:02:28.960 America and an Asian America. There's a United 00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:32.400 States of America. Exactly. Those 17 minutes 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:35.219 basically launched a political star overnight. 00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:37.469 They did. But what's really interesting from 00:02:37.469 --> 00:02:39.990 a sociological standpoint is that this sudden 00:02:39.990 --> 00:02:43.370 explosion of fame created an immediate glaring 00:02:43.370 --> 00:02:46.250 paradox for him. How do you mean? Well, on one 00:02:46.250 --> 00:02:48.650 hand, his relative youth, and keeping in mind 00:02:48.650 --> 00:02:50.430 he was 47 when he was eventually elected president, 00:02:50.669 --> 00:02:52.750 meant he was highly praised for his freshness. 00:02:52.930 --> 00:02:55.270 Right. He was the new guy. Exactly. He became 00:02:55.270 --> 00:02:57.409 the avatar for a passing of the torch to a new 00:02:57.409 --> 00:02:59.659 generation. A clean break from the political 00:02:59.659 --> 00:03:02.219 dynasties of the past. Yeah. But that exact same 00:03:02.219 --> 00:03:04.580 youth was a double -edged sword. Right. Because 00:03:04.580 --> 00:03:07.340 how do you survive being the fresh face when 00:03:07.340 --> 00:03:09.560 the political establishment demands a massive 00:03:09.560 --> 00:03:12.080 battle -tested resume? It seems like an impossible 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:14.860 bind. It is the ultimate establishment bind. 00:03:15.400 --> 00:03:17.879 You want the outsider energy to excite the base, 00:03:18.039 --> 00:03:20.759 but the machine demands a track record of governance. 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:24.699 Right. So he was heavily criticized for his inexperience, 00:03:24.819 --> 00:03:27.360 particularly regarding his readiness to actually 00:03:27.360 --> 00:03:29.340 be commander in chief. And we saw that constantly 00:03:29.340 --> 00:03:31.560 in the primaries. Hillary Clinton famously argued 00:03:31.560 --> 00:03:34.180 he wouldn't be ready on day one. Yep. And Joe 00:03:34.180 --> 00:03:36.979 Biden openly voiced doubts about his readiness, 00:03:37.080 --> 00:03:40.099 too. Which is wild to think about now. And those 00:03:40.099 --> 00:03:42.400 quotes from Biden were actually eagerly weaponized 00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:45.639 later by Republican John McCain in his own. Oh, 00:03:45.780 --> 00:03:48.379 absolutely. And on the conservative side, you 00:03:48.379 --> 00:03:50.960 had pundits like Peggy Noonan loudly warning 00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:53.610 the establishment not to get. swept up by this. 00:03:53.750 --> 00:03:56.110 She called him the man from nowhere. The man 00:03:56.110 --> 00:03:58.050 from nowhere. It's fascinating because it's almost 00:03:58.050 --> 00:04:00.189 an immune response from the political system. 00:04:00.449 --> 00:04:03.509 They see a foreign entity rising too fast and 00:04:03.509 --> 00:04:06.289 the immediate reaction is to question its structural 00:04:06.289 --> 00:04:08.650 integrity. That's a great way to put it. But 00:04:08.650 --> 00:04:11.069 this paradox of perception wasn't just limited 00:04:11.069 --> 00:04:13.810 to his political resume, was it? Because it seemed 00:04:13.810 --> 00:04:16.110 to extend incredibly deeply into his personal 00:04:16.110 --> 00:04:18.629 identity as well. What's fascinating here is 00:04:18.629 --> 00:04:22.889 how his unique biography fueled an intense, multilayered 00:04:22.889 --> 00:04:25.329 authenticity debate. You have to remember, his 00:04:25.329 --> 00:04:27.769 origins were drastically different from the African 00:04:27.769 --> 00:04:30.410 -American politicians who had launched their 00:04:30.410 --> 00:04:33.050 careers during the 1960s civil rights movement. 00:04:33.209 --> 00:04:35.209 Completely different. I mean, he's biracial, 00:04:35.290 --> 00:04:38.069 self -identifying as African -American, born 00:04:38.069 --> 00:04:40.930 to a white mother of European descent and a black 00:04:40.930 --> 00:04:43.509 Kenyan father. Right. He was raised in Hawaii, 00:04:43.829 --> 00:04:46.449 spent a few formative years living in Jakarta, 00:04:46.529 --> 00:04:49.290 Indonesia, and then received a private prep school 00:04:49.290 --> 00:04:52.410 and Ivy League education. You simply don't see 00:04:52.410 --> 00:04:55.089 that specific biographical footprint in American 00:04:55.089 --> 00:04:57.490 political history. Never. And that footprint 00:04:57.490 --> 00:04:59.970 triggered a genuine, highly complex conversation 00:04:59.970 --> 00:05:02.629 among several prominent black commentators at 00:05:02.629 --> 00:05:04.649 the time regarding his racial identity. Right. 00:05:04.709 --> 00:05:07.839 The whole not black enough debate. Exactly. Writers 00:05:07.839 --> 00:05:09.939 like Deborah Dickerson argued that he wasn't 00:05:09.939 --> 00:05:11.959 black enough in the traditional American political 00:05:11.959 --> 00:05:14.879 vocabulary. Her argument was that in the U .S., 00:05:14.879 --> 00:05:17.079 African -American usually refers specifically 00:05:17.079 --> 00:05:19.120 to those descended from West African slaves. 00:05:19.379 --> 00:05:21.120 OK, so she was making a historical distinction. 00:05:21.519 --> 00:05:25.540 Yes. Because his father was from Kenya, she warned 00:05:25.540 --> 00:05:27.980 against lumping him into that specific historical 00:05:27.980 --> 00:05:31.180 narrative. She argued it gave white America the 00:05:31.180 --> 00:05:34.550 appearance of racial progress while. sort of 00:05:34.550 --> 00:05:37.430 erasing the historical weight of slavery. Wow. 00:05:37.850 --> 00:05:39.670 And Stanley Crouch wrote a very prominent column 00:05:39.670 --> 00:05:44.230 titled What Obama Isn't Black Like Me. pointing 00:05:44.230 --> 00:05:47.350 directly to his white U .S. stock and Kenyan 00:05:47.350 --> 00:05:49.990 father as a point of divergence from the typical 00:05:49.990 --> 00:05:52.170 black American experience. And it wasn't just 00:05:52.170 --> 00:05:54.550 a debate about his heritage either. It was about 00:05:54.550 --> 00:05:57.410 how the broader public was using him. Yes. There 00:05:57.410 --> 00:05:59.569 was that piece by film critic David Ehrenstein 00:05:59.569 --> 00:06:02.769 who argued that Obama was popular early on because 00:06:02.769 --> 00:06:05.250 white voters viewed him as a kind of comic book 00:06:05.250 --> 00:06:07.850 superhero. The magical Negro trope. Exactly. 00:06:07.889 --> 00:06:10.029 The implication was that he was functioning almost 00:06:10.029 --> 00:06:12.529 like that trope from the movies. A figure who 00:06:12.529 --> 00:06:14.800 would self - arrived to solve white people's 00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:17.199 racial guilt. It was a rigorous scrutiny of what 00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:19.540 his popularity actually symbolized. But then 00:06:19.540 --> 00:06:21.439 you have to look at the complete opposite end 00:06:21.439 --> 00:06:24.800 of the spectrum. The backlash. Right. While intellectuals 00:06:24.800 --> 00:06:27.759 were debating his authenticity, a massive wave 00:06:27.759 --> 00:06:31.720 of intense, overtly racist backlash was swelling 00:06:31.720 --> 00:06:34.620 on the other side. His election was met with 00:06:34.620 --> 00:06:37.040 deeply hostile reactions intimately connected 00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:39.660 to his race and his birthplace. And the scale 00:06:39.660 --> 00:06:42.100 of that backlash is still shocking to look back 00:06:42.100 --> 00:06:45.360 on. You had this bizarre, entirely false narrative 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:48.680 taking hold that he was Arab. Which was incredibly 00:06:48.680 --> 00:06:52.019 pervasive. In a 2008 post -election poll, 22 00:06:52.019 --> 00:06:54.480 % of Americans actually believed he was half 00:06:54.480 --> 00:06:56.560 Arab. That is nearly a quarter of the country. 00:06:56.680 --> 00:06:59.259 It's wild. It seems this was driven by misleading 00:06:59.259 --> 00:07:02.360 blogs that were deliberately conflating the religious 00:07:02.360 --> 00:07:05.220 heritage of his Muslim Kenyan father with being 00:07:05.220 --> 00:07:07.899 of the Arab race. And then, of course, the birther 00:07:07.899 --> 00:07:10.259 conspiracy theories. The birther movement is 00:07:10.259 --> 00:07:12.560 a prime example of how fringe Internet theories 00:07:12.560 --> 00:07:15.180 can bleed into mainstream political discourse. 00:07:15.839 --> 00:07:17.779 Donald Trump heavily promoted these theories 00:07:17.779 --> 00:07:20.199 starting around 2011, falsely claiming Obama 00:07:20.199 --> 00:07:22.779 was born in Kenya and wasn't an American citizen. 00:07:22.980 --> 00:07:25.720 It was a concerted effort to formally other him. 00:07:25.839 --> 00:07:28.339 Exactly. But how does a candidate even respond 00:07:28.339 --> 00:07:30.740 to that when you are being told by one side that 00:07:30.740 --> 00:07:33.420 you aren't authentically black enough and by 00:07:33.420 --> 00:07:36.379 another side that you are a literal foreign infiltrator? 00:07:36.519 --> 00:07:39.199 His response tells us a lot about how he viewed 00:07:39.199 --> 00:07:41.399 the intersection of race and public perception. 00:07:42.529 --> 00:07:46.430 Addressing the not black enough debate at a National 00:07:46.430 --> 00:07:49.149 Association of Black Journalists meeting, he 00:07:49.149 --> 00:07:51.350 expressed a real frustration. I can imagine. 00:07:51.649 --> 00:07:54.310 He pointed out the flaw in the logic, saying, 00:07:54.389 --> 00:07:56.990 we're still locked in this notion that if you 00:07:56.990 --> 00:07:59.430 appeal to white folks, then there must be something 00:07:59.430 --> 00:08:02.029 wrong with you. Wow. Yeah. And on the flip side, 00:08:02.149 --> 00:08:04.389 responding to the birther attacks that painted 00:08:04.389 --> 00:08:07.259 him as un -American. He stated very plainly that 00:08:07.259 --> 00:08:09.180 his opponents were trying to scare voters simply 00:08:09.180 --> 00:08:11.720 because he doesn't, quote, look like all those 00:08:11.720 --> 00:08:14.089 other presidents on the dollar bills. That is 00:08:14.089 --> 00:08:16.589 a perfect distillation of the double bind. And 00:08:16.589 --> 00:08:18.410 just a quick reminder to you listening, these 00:08:18.410 --> 00:08:21.470 are just fascinating examples of how race complicates 00:08:21.470 --> 00:08:23.470 public perception. We're purely looking at the 00:08:23.470 --> 00:08:26.069 historical sociology here. Right. No endorsements, 00:08:26.069 --> 00:08:28.990 just the raw data of how the public reacted. 00:08:29.350 --> 00:08:32.029 Exactly. The public square is frantically trying 00:08:32.029 --> 00:08:34.889 to shove a candidate into established historical 00:08:34.889 --> 00:08:38.350 boxes. And when he doesn't fit, the system kind 00:08:38.350 --> 00:08:40.710 of shorts out. And nowhere did the system short 00:08:40.710 --> 00:08:43.200 out quite like it did. regarding his personal 00:08:43.200 --> 00:08:46.139 faith. Oh, man. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:08:46.789 --> 00:08:49.649 The massive disconnect regarding his religion. 00:08:49.789 --> 00:08:52.169 Huge disconnect. Because if you read his books 00:08:52.169 --> 00:08:55.230 like Dreams from My Father or The Audacity of 00:08:55.230 --> 00:08:57.870 Hope, he is incredibly transparent about his 00:08:57.870 --> 00:09:00.549 spiritual journey. He explicitly writes that 00:09:00.549 --> 00:09:02.730 he was not raised in a religious household at 00:09:02.730 --> 00:09:05.429 all. Right. His father was an atheist. A confirmed 00:09:05.429 --> 00:09:07.870 atheist by the time his parents met. And his 00:09:07.870 --> 00:09:10.450 mother was largely detached from organized religion. 00:09:10.610 --> 00:09:13.049 He wrote about how he became a Christian by choice 00:09:13.049 --> 00:09:15.809 later in life because the specific precepts of 00:09:15.809 --> 00:09:17.899 Jesus. Christ aligned with the kind of life he 00:09:17.899 --> 00:09:20.240 wanted to build. He was very open about this 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:22.879 secular to Christian pipeline. Very open, yet 00:09:22.879 --> 00:09:24.919 a massive chunk of the country was completely 00:09:24.919 --> 00:09:27.820 convinced he was a Muslim. The mechanics of how 00:09:27.820 --> 00:09:30.460 that specific rumor mill operated is practically 00:09:30.460 --> 00:09:32.500 a textbook case study in modern misinformation. 00:09:33.179 --> 00:09:35.529 This didn't just happen by accident. Right. It 00:09:35.529 --> 00:09:37.370 was engineered. Much of the speculation started 00:09:37.370 --> 00:09:39.710 in the shadows with anonymous chain emails during 00:09:39.710 --> 00:09:42.649 the campaign. But then it was aggressively amplified 00:09:42.649 --> 00:09:46.590 by specific figures who recognized the political 00:09:46.590 --> 00:09:48.830 utility of the rumor. People like Andy Martin. 00:09:48.990 --> 00:09:51.350 Yes. Andy Martin pushing the allegations and 00:09:51.350 --> 00:09:53.450 Jerome Corsi, who published The Obama Nation 00:09:53.450 --> 00:09:57.129 in 2008. Right. That was a book that openly speculated 00:09:57.129 --> 00:09:59.389 Obama had concealed a religious affiliation with 00:09:59.389 --> 00:10:01.690 Islam. But the stickiness of the rumor is what 00:10:01.690 --> 00:10:03.710 blows my mind. We aren't just talking about the 00:10:03.710 --> 00:10:07.029 heat of a 2008 campaign. Even deep into his second 00:10:07.029 --> 00:10:10.929 term, a 2015 CNN poll found that 29 percent of 00:10:10.929 --> 00:10:13.370 Americans still believed he was a Muslim. Yep. 00:10:13.450 --> 00:10:16.909 Seven years into his presidency. How does a piece 00:10:16.909 --> 00:10:19.409 of misinformation hold on to nearly a third of 00:10:19.409 --> 00:10:21.830 the population for that long? It speaks to the 00:10:21.830 --> 00:10:24.850 power of confirmation bias. When a narrative 00:10:24.850 --> 00:10:27.779 confirms a preexisting anxiety. In this case, 00:10:27.899 --> 00:10:30.700 post -9 -11 anxieties intertwined with changing 00:10:30.700 --> 00:10:33.340 national demographics facts become secondary 00:10:33.340 --> 00:10:35.639 to the feeling the rumor provides. The feeling 00:10:35.639 --> 00:10:38.139 is more important than the truth. Exactly. People 00:10:38.139 --> 00:10:41.220 hold on to the misinformation because it validates 00:10:41.220 --> 00:10:44.379 their discomfort. And this anxiety was only heightened 00:10:44.379 --> 00:10:47.639 by his actual day -to -day temperament. Right. 00:10:47.700 --> 00:10:50.360 The famous temperament. He earned nicknames from 00:10:50.360 --> 00:10:53.259 both supporters and the media like No Drama Obama 00:10:53.259 --> 00:10:55.759 and No Shock Barack. He was universally known 00:10:55.759 --> 00:10:58.419 for being utterly unflappable. And initially, 00:10:58.559 --> 00:11:01.860 that calm, even temperament was a massive asset. 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:05.519 It served as a brilliant stylistic contrast to 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:08.879 his 2008 opponent, John McCain. McCain was known 00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:11.419 for a much more fiery, maverick persona. Right. 00:11:11.500 --> 00:11:13.879 So the media constantly praised Obama as cool. 00:11:14.259 --> 00:11:16.559 But this raises an important question. Can a 00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:18.840 politician actually be too cool? I would imagine 00:11:18.840 --> 00:11:20.720 yes, especially when people are hurting or scared, 00:11:20.820 --> 00:11:22.700 if the economy is crashing or there's an international 00:11:22.700 --> 00:11:24.879 crisis. They don't want cool. They want someone 00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:27.940 who is as mad as they are. Exactly. The unflappability 00:11:27.940 --> 00:11:30.830 became a liability. Critics frequently accused 00:11:30.830 --> 00:11:33.450 him of lacking emotional attachment to the struggles 00:11:33.450 --> 00:11:35.549 of everyday Americans. The perceived attachment. 00:11:35.590 --> 00:11:38.230 There was a persistent perception that he simply 00:11:38.230 --> 00:11:40.490 didn't get angry enough to satisfy the public's 00:11:40.490 --> 00:11:43.870 emotional needs during crises. We often expect 00:11:43.870 --> 00:11:46.370 our leaders to serve as emotional mirrors for 00:11:46.370 --> 00:11:49.210 the nation's outrage. So when he maintained that 00:11:49.210 --> 00:11:52.809 cerebral, no drama approach, it frustrated a 00:11:52.809 --> 00:11:55.289 public that desperately wanted a visceral reaction. 00:11:55.950 --> 00:11:58.610 Precisely. And that perceived detachment brings 00:11:58.610 --> 00:12:00.870 us right to the door of the elitism accusations. 00:12:02.149 --> 00:12:05.230 Opponents sharply criticized him for being aloof. 00:12:05.289 --> 00:12:08.029 And the ultimate flashpoint for this was the 00:12:08.029 --> 00:12:10.929 infamous hot mic moment in Pennsylvania. Oh, 00:12:11.029 --> 00:12:13.679 the Pennsylvania comment. He was caught explaining 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:16.240 the frustrations of small town voters by saying 00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:18.360 that when they get bitter, they, quote, cling 00:12:18.360 --> 00:12:21.539 to guns or religion or antipathy to people who 00:12:21.539 --> 00:12:24.059 aren't like them. That single sentence was political 00:12:24.059 --> 00:12:26.659 gold for his opponents. I bet. Hillary Clinton 00:12:26.659 --> 00:12:29.179 and John McCain immediately seized upon it as 00:12:29.179 --> 00:12:32.000 proof of his elitism. It fit perfectly into the 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:33.779 narrative that he was an ivory tower intellectual 00:12:33.779 --> 00:12:36.399 looking down on working class struggles. It played 00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:38.559 right into the stereotype. A writer in the National 00:12:38.559 --> 00:12:41.399 Review even took the time to inventory his elite 00:12:41.399 --> 00:12:44.120 credentials. listing his Ivy League education, 00:12:44.460 --> 00:12:47.360 his upscale vacation choices, his tailored suits, 00:12:47.519 --> 00:12:50.000 to conclude he was yuppie to the core. But what 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:52.399 I find so compelling is that the elitism charges 00:12:52.399 --> 00:12:55.379 didn't exclusively come from the political right. 00:12:55.480 --> 00:12:57.740 The left had their own version of this critique. 00:12:57.840 --> 00:13:00.480 They absolutely did. Jesse Jackson was caught 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:03.120 on a hot mic during a Fox News interview accusing 00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:05.779 Obama of talking down to black people following 00:13:05.779 --> 00:13:07.840 a speech Obama gave on Father's Day regarding 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:09.759 parental responsibility in the black community. 00:13:09.919 --> 00:13:12.919 Right. Jackson eventually apologized, but it 00:13:12.919 --> 00:13:15.450 exposed a real tension. Additionally, you had 00:13:15.450 --> 00:13:17.509 Ralph Nader accusing Obama of trying to talk 00:13:17.509 --> 00:13:20.769 white and pandering to white guilt. So this perception 00:13:20.769 --> 00:13:24.009 of elitism or aloofness was a multi -front war 00:13:24.009 --> 00:13:26.629 domestically. But then you step outside the borders 00:13:26.629 --> 00:13:29.809 of the United States and it is a total 180 degree 00:13:29.809 --> 00:13:32.649 flip. Night and day. The domestic friction completely 00:13:32.649 --> 00:13:35.190 vanishes and you are looking at a global rock 00:13:35.190 --> 00:13:38.049 star. The Obama effect internationally was just 00:13:38.049 --> 00:13:40.830 staggering. The international polling data is 00:13:40.830 --> 00:13:42.970 almost hard to believe when you compare it to 00:13:42.970 --> 00:13:47.179 his domestic. battles. A 2008 BBC poll that surveyed 00:13:47.179 --> 00:13:50.440 22 different countries showed that every single 00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:53.720 nation, with the sole exception of Jordan, overwhelmingly 00:13:53.720 --> 00:13:56.279 preferred to see him elected ahead of John McCain. 00:13:56.460 --> 00:13:59.179 Every single one. In Kenya, obviously, the support 00:13:59.179 --> 00:14:01.740 was massive at 82 percent. But look at Western 00:14:01.740 --> 00:14:05.700 Europe. In the Netherlands, a staggering 90 % 00:14:05.700 --> 00:14:09.480 favored Obama. 90%. You can't get 90 % of people 00:14:09.480 --> 00:14:11.960 to agree on what color the sky is, let alone 00:14:11.960 --> 00:14:15.139 a foreign election. Right. And the cultural embrace 00:14:15.139 --> 00:14:18.759 was so beautifully specific to each region. In 00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:21.019 Germany, there is a best -selling book published 00:14:21.019 --> 00:14:24.320 titled Barack Obama der Schwarze Kennedy, which 00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:26.840 translates to the Black Kennedy. That's a huge 00:14:26.840 --> 00:14:29.539 comparison. It is. And my absolute favorite detail, 00:14:29.700 --> 00:14:31.639 in Indonesia, where he spent those few years 00:14:31.639 --> 00:14:43.139 as a child, Just a statue of him as a kid. It 00:14:43.139 --> 00:14:54.259 highlights a fascinating psychological dynamic. 00:14:54.379 --> 00:14:57.200 The international community often projects their 00:14:57.200 --> 00:14:59.980 own idealized versions of American leadership. 00:15:00.730 --> 00:15:02.809 on to a candidate because they don't have to 00:15:02.809 --> 00:15:05.669 deal with the reality right From across an ocean, 00:15:05.809 --> 00:15:08.169 they don't have to deal with the granular day 00:15:08.169 --> 00:15:11.649 -to -day policy disputes, the legislative gridlock, 00:15:11.649 --> 00:15:14.990 or the cultural culture wars that drag down a 00:15:14.990 --> 00:15:17.409 politician's image at home. They get to engage 00:15:17.409 --> 00:15:19.669 purely with the symbol. Which is a brilliant 00:15:19.669 --> 00:15:22.610 contrast because back home, the granular day 00:15:22.610 --> 00:15:25.330 -to -day minutia absolutely dominates the media 00:15:25.330 --> 00:15:27.289 cycle. It always makes me laugh to look back 00:15:27.289 --> 00:15:29.889 at the incredibly trivial things the press becomes 00:15:29.889 --> 00:15:32.070 obsessed with. Oh, the trivial stuff is endless. 00:15:32.350 --> 00:15:35.059 Take his golf habit, for instance. He is an avid 00:15:35.059 --> 00:15:37.480 golf enthusiast and the media tracked it religiously. 00:15:37.679 --> 00:15:40.399 By June 2012 they reported he had played his 00:15:40.399 --> 00:15:43.299 100th round of golf as president. There was even 00:15:43.299 --> 00:15:44.980 a moment where he missed the Polish president's 00:15:44.980 --> 00:15:47.059 funeral, which was actually because volcanic 00:15:47.059 --> 00:15:50.679 ash grounded all flights over Europe. But the 00:15:50.679 --> 00:15:53.279 underlying critique was often tied back to this 00:15:53.279 --> 00:15:55.600 image of him leisurely hitting the links while 00:15:55.600 --> 00:15:58.440 the world burned. But the historical context 00:15:58.440 --> 00:16:01.240 of presidential golfing is what makes the outrage 00:16:01.240 --> 00:16:04.340 so interesting. Yes, his golfing was fiercely 00:16:04.340 --> 00:16:07.059 criticized, but it follows a massive tradition 00:16:07.059 --> 00:16:09.740 of presidents seeking refuge on the golf course. 00:16:09.919 --> 00:16:13.690 Which presidents didn't play golf? Exactly. To 00:16:13.690 --> 00:16:17.409 put his 100 rounds by 2012 in perspective, Woodrow 00:16:17.409 --> 00:16:19.909 Wilson played roughly 1 ,200 rounds during his 00:16:19.909 --> 00:16:22.350 time in office. 1 ,200? Dwight D. Eisenhower 00:16:22.350 --> 00:16:25.570 played around 800 rounds. So why the disproportionate 00:16:25.570 --> 00:16:29.330 outrage for Obama? Because in the modern hypervisual 00:16:29.330 --> 00:16:32.960 24 -7 news cycle, optics are everything. Cognitive 00:16:32.960 --> 00:16:36.000 ease dictates that it's much easier for a viewer 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:38.740 to feel angry about a video clip of a president 00:16:38.740 --> 00:16:41.600 swinging a golf club during an economic dip than 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:43.480 it is to understand the nuances of quantitative 00:16:43.480 --> 00:16:46.500 easing. Visual optics take on an outsized importance 00:16:46.500 --> 00:16:49.740 because they are easily digestible. And nothing, 00:16:50.059 --> 00:16:53.320 literally nothing, proves the power of easily 00:16:53.320 --> 00:16:56.320 digestible visual optics quite like August 28, 00:16:56.559 --> 00:17:01.419 2014. Suitgate. The tan suit controversy. The 00:17:01.419 --> 00:17:03.259 president stepped up to the podium in the White 00:17:03.259 --> 00:17:05.500 House briefing room to discuss the United States 00:17:05.500 --> 00:17:09.380 military strategy regarding ISIS in Syria. But 00:17:09.380 --> 00:17:11.299 nobody remembers what he said because he wore 00:17:11.299 --> 00:17:14.019 a tan suit. Just a tan suit. A simple, light 00:17:14.019 --> 00:17:16.920 -colored wardrobe choice sparked days of absolute 00:17:16.920 --> 00:17:19.599 wall -to -wall outrage across cable news networks. 00:17:20.299 --> 00:17:22.759 Pundits debated if it was unprecedented, if it 00:17:22.759 --> 00:17:24.619 showed a lack of seriousness. He was everywhere. 00:17:24.859 --> 00:17:26.859 Eventually, fact -checkers had to point out that 00:17:26.859 --> 00:17:29.079 Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan frequently wore 00:17:29.079 --> 00:17:32.019 tan suits. It's just incredible to me how a piece 00:17:32.019 --> 00:17:35.000 of fabric can completely eclipse global geopolitics 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:37.299 for an entire week. If we connect this to the 00:17:37.299 --> 00:17:40.019 bigger picture, the tan suit controversy wasn't 00:17:40.019 --> 00:17:43.000 just about a slow news day. It is a symptom of 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:46.019 a much larger phenomenon. Obama's unprecedented 00:17:46.019 --> 00:17:48.799 permeation into pop culture. He didn't just exist 00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:51.640 in the sterile, wonky political sphere. He was 00:17:51.640 --> 00:17:54.740 fully integrated into the broader cultural zeitgeist 00:17:54.740 --> 00:17:57.279 in a way no American politician really had been 00:17:57.279 --> 00:18:02.190 before. Everything he did. war or said was consumed 00:18:02.190 --> 00:18:05.410 as pop culture content. And the pop culture footprint 00:18:05.410 --> 00:18:08.529 is wild when you look at it all at once. You 00:18:08.529 --> 00:18:10.970 had Will Smith. publicly expressing interest 00:18:10.970 --> 00:18:13.730 in playing him in a biopic, specifically joking 00:18:13.730 --> 00:18:15.890 that they shared a physical resemblance because 00:18:15.890 --> 00:18:18.170 of their ears. Right. You had the visual art 00:18:18.170 --> 00:18:21.029 world explode around him. Shepard Fairey's Hope 00:18:21.029 --> 00:18:24.230 poster became instantly iconic, hanging in dorm 00:18:24.230 --> 00:18:26.829 rooms across the world. And the dark mirror of 00:18:26.829 --> 00:18:29.109 that. Exactly. The highly controversial Joker 00:18:29.109 --> 00:18:32.349 poster depicting him as the Batman supervillain 00:18:32.349 --> 00:18:34.569 with the word socialism underneath. That was 00:18:34.569 --> 00:18:36.710 created by a 20 -year -old college student named 00:18:36.710 --> 00:18:39.250 Firis Al -Khatib, and it was heavily... adopted 00:18:39.250 --> 00:18:42.009 by the Tea Party, which was that massive populist 00:18:42.009 --> 00:18:44.430 conservative backlash movement that rose up during 00:18:44.430 --> 00:18:46.910 his first term. The imagery was just so potent. 00:18:47.089 --> 00:18:49.569 And it crossed over into pure fiction, too. Yes, 00:18:49.670 --> 00:18:52.529 the comic books. Marvel actually released a special 00:18:52.529 --> 00:18:55.769 Inauguration Day comic of The Amazing Spider 00:18:55.769 --> 00:18:59.130 -Man. Spider -Man literally snaps a picture of 00:18:59.130 --> 00:19:01.309 the new president and quips, hey, if you get 00:19:01.309 --> 00:19:03.369 to be on my cover, can I be on the dollar bill? 00:19:03.890 --> 00:19:07.049 And that pop culture saturation naturally extended 00:19:07.049 --> 00:19:09.950 into the digital realm, making him arguably the 00:19:09.950 --> 00:19:12.849 first true digital president. Definitely. His 00:19:12.849 --> 00:19:15.390 administration actively recognized that to reach 00:19:15.390 --> 00:19:18.450 the millennial generation, the old playbook of 00:19:18.450 --> 00:19:21.069 evening news broadcasts and newspaper op -eds 00:19:21.069 --> 00:19:23.569 wasn't going to cut it. They had to go where 00:19:23.569 --> 00:19:25.529 the audience actually lived. So they went online. 00:19:26.119 --> 00:19:28.480 This meant doing a Reddit Ask Me Anything session, 00:19:28.660 --> 00:19:30.500 which was revolutionary for a sitting president. 00:19:30.680 --> 00:19:32.700 He sat down with stream live YouTube interviews 00:19:32.700 --> 00:19:35.259 with video bloggers like Hank Green. Yeah. He 00:19:35.259 --> 00:19:37.779 even starred in a BuzzFeed video called Things 00:19:37.779 --> 00:19:40.619 Everybody Does But Doesn't Talk About. Oh, I 00:19:40.619 --> 00:19:42.720 remember that. It featured him using a selfie 00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:44.660 stick and practicing speeches in the mirror. 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:47.180 And this was specifically to encourage youth 00:19:47.180 --> 00:19:49.900 to sign up for the Affordable Care Act. And it 00:19:49.900 --> 00:19:52.990 worked. That BuzzFeed video alone pulled in more 00:19:52.990 --> 00:19:56.269 than 60 million views. The social media milestones 00:19:56.269 --> 00:19:59.109 he hit are just insane. They really are. When 00:19:59.109 --> 00:20:01.589 he finally joined Twitter with the official P02 00:20:01.589 --> 00:20:05.369 US handle in May 2015, he actually set a Guinness 00:20:05.369 --> 00:20:08.430 World Record. He accumulated one million followers 00:20:08.430 --> 00:20:11.349 in just four hours and 52 minutes, shattering 00:20:11.349 --> 00:20:13.470 the previous record held by Robert Downey Jr. 00:20:13.930 --> 00:20:16.470 Ironically, that record was later broken by Caitlyn 00:20:16.470 --> 00:20:19.390 Jenner, but it proves just how massive his digital 00:20:19.390 --> 00:20:22.440 gravity was. So if we step back and look at all 00:20:22.440 --> 00:20:24.880 of this together. The lightning in a bottle 17 00:20:24.880 --> 00:20:27.900 -minute speech, the intense and painful debates 00:20:27.900 --> 00:20:30.720 over his racial and religious authenticity, the 00:20:30.720 --> 00:20:33.160 global idolization contrasted with the domestic 00:20:33.160 --> 00:20:35.779 elitism charges and the absolute saturation of 00:20:35.779 --> 00:20:38.500 pop and digital culture. It paints an incredibly 00:20:38.500 --> 00:20:40.980 complex portrait of modern American politics. 00:20:41.240 --> 00:20:43.140 It does. So what does this all mean? When you, 00:20:43.259 --> 00:20:45.079 sitting there listening to this, close out of 00:20:45.079 --> 00:20:47.259 this deep dive today, why should you care about 00:20:47.259 --> 00:20:49.400 all these disparate pieces of one man's public 00:20:49.400 --> 00:20:52.230 image? Why does it matter? It matters because 00:20:52.230 --> 00:20:54.730 understanding Barack Obama's public image is 00:20:54.730 --> 00:20:57.509 ultimately a masterclass in modern media literacy. 00:20:57.849 --> 00:21:01.450 It demonstrates how a public persona acts as 00:21:01.450 --> 00:21:05.049 a societal funhouse mirror. A funhouse. The image 00:21:05.049 --> 00:21:07.470 that gets reflected back to us through the media 00:21:07.470 --> 00:21:10.930 isn't necessarily the person themselves. It is 00:21:10.930 --> 00:21:13.710 a reflection of our own societal hopes, our deepest 00:21:13.710 --> 00:21:17.029 anxieties, our historical biases and our cultural 00:21:17.029 --> 00:21:19.549 fractures. Right. When we are arguing about a 00:21:19.549 --> 00:21:22.750 tan suit on cable news or fiercely debating someone's 00:21:22.750 --> 00:21:25.369 authenticity or turning a politician into a comic 00:21:25.369 --> 00:21:27.230 book character, we aren't really talking about 00:21:27.230 --> 00:21:28.930 them. We're having conversation about ourselves. 00:21:29.519 --> 00:21:31.940 We're revealing what we value, what we fear, 00:21:31.980 --> 00:21:34.240 and how we process information in the digital 00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:36.619 age. That is such a brilliant way to frame it, 00:21:36.700 --> 00:21:39.319 the funhouse mirror. It leaves me with one final 00:21:39.319 --> 00:21:40.880 thought, something for you to mull over on your 00:21:40.880 --> 00:21:43.619 own after we wrap up here. Looking at his unprecedented 00:21:43.619 --> 00:21:46.000 integration into comic books, late night TV, 00:21:46.220 --> 00:21:48.359 viral BuzzFeed videos, and internet culture, 00:21:48.519 --> 00:21:51.380 did the sheer volume of his pop culture presence 00:21:51.380 --> 00:21:53.920 fundamentally blur the line between politician 00:21:53.920 --> 00:21:56.589 and celebrity? That's the real question. And 00:21:56.589 --> 00:22:00.230 if so, has that blurred line forever changed 00:22:00.230 --> 00:22:02.829 the expectations we place on anyone running for 00:22:02.829 --> 00:22:05.930 office today? Do we now subconsciously demand 00:22:05.930 --> 00:22:08.170 that our politicians entertain us just as much 00:22:08.170 --> 00:22:10.130 as they govern us? It's something to think about. 00:22:10.309 --> 00:22:13.109 It is a profound shift in the political landscape 00:22:13.109 --> 00:22:15.849 and one we are still navigating today. Well, 00:22:15.869 --> 00:22:18.150 that is all the time we have for today. Thank 00:22:18.150 --> 00:22:20.450 you so much for joining us on this deep dive 00:22:20.450 --> 00:22:23.250 into the construction, deconstruction, and consumption 00:22:23.250 --> 00:22:26.170 of a modern political image. We loved having 00:22:26.170 --> 00:22:28.269 you here. Go ahead and get your next stack of 00:22:28.269 --> 00:22:30.049 sources ready, bring them to the table, and we 00:22:30.049 --> 00:22:30.950 will see you next time.