These sorts of ultra-lame, super-calculated P.R. stunts really chap my hide. They're simply the obverse of official stories that Kim Jong-il doesn't ever go to the bathroom or that Mussolini could beat even Italian champs at tennis, clearly phony embellishments to alternately make leaders either superhuman or super-normal.
What's even more stunning is that they apparently work. Check this out:
Bonnie Cosby, 51, a technology consultant who picked up burgers on her way home from work, opined: "It shows that he's in touch with the people, that he's not up in the ivory tower. He's a real person—with a burger."
Dear Bonnie: If that's the conclusion you draw from the burger run, please step away from the technology, which I really hope isn't nuclear.
We are supposed to live in a republic (small R!) and one of the grand traditions of republics is that the de-spectacularize the public sphere, especially when it comes to representing political figures. Kings and monarchs rubbed their divine status in the face of the common man through gigantic and expensive pageants. Now wealthy and uber-powerful pols pretend to be sans-culottes, which may be even more insulting. Like Lady Obama wearing $540 sneakers to a food bank handout (or Nancy Reagan using dinner china made from the bones of Warner Bros. backlot extras) this sort of phony-baloney common-manism should get nothing but scorn.
Next time, just order in so we can lose the momentary diversion and get back to the important stories, such as whether Chrysler will be bought by Fiat or whether it will be run by Obama's fiat.
And if we do have to put up with calculated public-relations displays, can't we just go back to the days of Silent Cal Coolidge in a headdress? Or maybe some other other member of the Village People?
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