Overexposure, Last Gasp on Joe, and AOTW

Have you ever eaten something so often that you've gotten sick of it and can never eat that shit ever again? Watched the same show so many times that you've burnt out on it. Listened to the same cacophonous voice day in and day out that you can both predict and lament the repetition long before you hear it issue through your radio?

It's only because giving him an unprecedented third AOTW would be an overuse of this crutch that President Barack Obama does NOT get the award again. If he were to get it, it would be because of oversaturation, overexposure, and the insane dilution of the bully pulpit, as well as the spending of political capital like a crack addict.

Wait, that could be racially insensitive. How about spending political capital like the tax money of my future grandkids? Yeah, that's better.

Two weeks ago were the twin addresses: the over-inflated "terror" of the school "indoctrination" speech and the joint address of overinflated reiteration. And after a week in which we talked about another guy shouting during that speech, PrezBO was back on the tube, hitting every Sunday show in sight. Had I been thinking, I would have pretended to have a show so I could have booked him (with the media blitz he's on, he might have fallen for it).

Oh, and he's doing fucking Letterman tonight. What's next? Comedy Central's The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and that venerable bastion of political thought, Saturday Night Live? At this rate, I think I need to add a WTF?!?!?! award next to the AOTW.

And this is not about the message. It's simply about weakening the power of a presidency by making people tired of you saying the same thing over and over. Both political capital and the bully pulpit work because they're used sparingly. They're often used too sparingly in some instances, when they should be spent (both Presidents Bush were guilty of failing to spend it when they should have). But just as underutilization can create the appearance of a secretive and bumbling presidency (W's parts of the War on Terror, especially Iraq, is a particular example of this), incessant media blitzes by someone who needs to be seen as a leader above the fray to be most effective is like eating peanut butter and jelly for lunch every day. Eventually, you get so sick of it you want to hunt down and beat anyone who ever had anything to do with peanut butter and peanuts (Jimmy Carter, anyone?).

So how much Obama is too much Obama (and this question is really for fans of Obama, I know what kind of answers I'll get from the right)?

Now, before we get to AOTW, here's SNL's take on Joe Wilson (because if you can't laugh at it, you have no soul):



And because they've needed the award since their most famous member got elected President:

The Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) is Asshat of the Week!

Yeah, I know it's an easy one, but I'm just going to enumerate their failings just to laugh at them.

We first got wind of the nuts from ACORN (bad pun, I know) as the election was heating up, as then-candidate Obama was a former community agitator under their tender embrace. Specifically, they pay people to register "poor" (dumb) voters (in other words, a Democrat constituency). And there were lots of allegations and examples of voter registration fraud throughout the campaign season. In hindsight, it really didn't matter, because in choosing between the dazzling style of the Bamster and the default candidate that the GOP carted out, it wasn't really a matter of a clearly defined choice. So when there's no substance (Hope and Change vs I can't even remember), style wins easily.

Post-election, the stories (and demagoguery) continued, mainly because the only other option for the disillusioned (conservatives) and angry was a lobotomy and acceptance into the insane ranks of the birthers. And ACORN could always be counted for few good scandals.

But after a year of hearing about their sloppy misdeeds, they did manage to get on top of it for almost a few days when they turned in some people who were defrauding them of cash by turning in faked registrations. Good for them. Perhaps this meant they were actually trying to clean up the bad people in the organization.

Then came the pimp-prostitute tapes.

At first, people came out to defend them against "falsified" tapes, and some kind of right-wing plot (the people behind the video are conservatives). As the evidence and number of tapes mounted, ACORN finally started firing the scum, effectively confirming the authenticity of the tapes.

The final straw, of course, was Congress moving with a speed that only a political grenade can induce, cut them out of the budget.

So now, ACORN says it's going to pull out of the dumb voter registration business. Not a bad thing in this case. And to her credit, Agitator-in-Chief Bertha Lewis is out there now trying to save her organization with a nice combo of outrage and firings. But put bluntly, an organization which keeps turning up corruption regularly is probably due a massive purge. Mainly because enough asshats makes your organization a haven for asshattery.

And those who want to defend them when the evidence is clear, consider yourselves asshats as well. Ass hats for everyone!!!