Great Minds Flashback Alike
In his latest Best of the Web column, James Taranto writes:
What’s a bit astonishing is that Obama and his advisers still seem to believe that he has the capacity to work magic with a speech. So, to judge by their disappointment, do journalistic admirers like Alter and Milbank. But has he ever actually done so?
He made a good first impression with his uplifting 2004 Democratic National Convention speech. Since then, what? His “race” speech drew extravagant praise at the time, and it succeeded in diverting attention from his association with his hate-mongering “spiritual mentor,” Jeremiah Wright. But no one remembers what he said in it. We liked his Tucson memorial speech last year, but apart from that the Obama presidency has been a long series of supposedly crucial speeches that amount to nothing.
Obama’s admirers sometimes describe him as a “rock star.” If so, he’s a one-hit wonder. They thought they were getting the Beatles but ended up with A Flock of Seagulls.
Great minds — who may have both wanted their MTV during their younger days — flashback alike: to accompany a post by my follow PJM columnist Richard Fernandez titled “A Flock of Flunkies,” I created the following Photoshop for the PJM homepage back on June 6th:
While I liked A Flock of Seagull’s one hit (and both admire and am appropriately horrified by their lead singer’s luxuriant and iconic ’80-era coiffure), I fear that if Obama wins reelection, what we’ll really be looking at is four years of Tears for Fears. And we’ll be continuing to look back nostalgically at the 1980s, and not just for the music and hairdos.
Obama’s finest speeches do not excite. They do not inform. They don’t even really inspire. They elevate. They enmesh you in a grander moment, as if history has stopped flowing passively by, and, just for an instant, contracted around you, made you aware of its presence, and your role in it. He is not the Word made flesh, but the triumph of word over flesh, over color, over despair. The other great leaders I’ve heard guide us towards a better politics, but Obama is, at his best, able to call us back to our highest selves, to the place where America exists as a glittering ideal, and where we, its honored inhabitants, seem capable of achieving it, and thus of sharing in its meaning and transcendence.
– Ezra Klein, Journolist founder, January 3, 2008, now with the Washington Post and Bloomberg.com.
Heh, to coin a phrase.
“Heh, to coin a phrase.”
Considering that the Federal Mint’s printing presses have been running non-stop of late, it’s only natural that we start seeing more of a kind of coin that actually has worth.
Unfortunately, I’m not quite certain that is actually a good thing, considering the underlying cost of 1 Heh-penny.
I picked a good decade to be out of the country: the 80′s. I’ve never heard of FoS until today, but I did get to watch the wall come down while surrounded by other expats. It was amazing.
Nah. Dexy’s Midnight Runners, the patron saints of one-hit wonders.
@AndrewX, I agree, Dexy’s Midnight Runners could probably take down Flock of Seagulls in a “Greatest One Hit Wonder” NCAA-style bracket. And Dexy’s made Flock of Seagulls seem good looking in comparison. Dexy’s had a cuter chick (“Eileen”) in their video, though, IMHO. But at the end of the day, both “Come on Eileen” and “Ran So Far Away” are on my iPhone today.
PS At least the Thompson Twins (“Hold Me Now”) had a couple of other semi-hits (“Love on Your Side”, “Lay Your Hands On Me”) that probably disqualify them from one-hit wonder status.
Actually, though most people remember A Flock of Seagulls from the song “I Ran (So Far Away)” (#9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart), they don’t really count as a one-hit wonder. “Space Age Love Song” made it to #30, and “Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)” made it to #26 on the same chart, and “Wishing” was from their next album.
Seriously, what could possibly challenge “I’m Too Sexy” as the greatest one-hit wonder of all time? What else even comes close? Who HASN’T heard that song, and how many people actually know of the band that made it (“nobody” and “nobody who hasn’t checked Wikipedia”)?
If Barry’s admirers were really looking up to the Seagulls they would have ‘ran… ran so far away…’
As for the Tears for Fears, I’m afraid I have been listening to them since the beginning of June. Especially ‘Break it down again’. Coincidence? Maybe there is some hope for change.
He’s more of a Rick Astley. He has such appeal to stupid white folk who just can’t see him for the no talent hack that he is.
Awesome catch Stan…just awesome.
The blockbuster that Flock of Seagulls had was appropriately titled “I Ran.”
You can’t make this stuff up.
bg
Obama’s finest speeches do not excite. They do not inform. They don’t even really inspire. They enervate. They embrangle you in a bowel movement, as if biology has stopped flowing passively by, and, just for an instant, contracted around your middle, made you aware of a pathology and your revulsion to it. His are not words made to flush, but troubling words hanging over your funds, over your conscience, causing despair. The other grating leaders I’ve heard guide us toward a bitter politics but Obama is, at best, an albatross to cleave us into hating ourselves, to the place where America existed as a gruesome wheal and where we, its ignominous inhabitants, seemed incapable of achieving anything with any meaning or independence.