I will avoid getting into a lengthy political argument with Kevin, except to note that, as President Obama himself as repeatedly explained, his power to implement gun control legislation is limited by the US Constitution and the demands of democracy. Despite what Fox News claims, Obama is not a dictator. I don't see how acknowledging that fact some how makes him meaningless.
I just got back from 10 days in the land of the President's birth (Hawaii, not Kenya), which gave me an interesting perspective on recent events. I thought Maron did better than I expected him to (I was afraid that in an effort to be super-ordinary he would spend a lot of time on trivial stuff). The purpose of the WTF interviews is not (as he and his producer made clear in their follow up podcast) to break new ground on policy (Obama is the only politician they have ever interviewed) but to get to know the subject in a more intimate and human way. While those who note that Obama did adroitly use the interview to re-state his basic themes are correct, what I think is being missed here (but not in a number of other reviews of the interview) is the surprising extent to which Obama revealed more about himself to Maron than he has to anyone else since he has been in office. The absurd mock horror about the presidential "Nigger" reference obscured the actually important "Niagral" reference - in which he talked about how he thinks he is a better president now than when he started because he is less afraid, no longer has to pretend to not be afraid, and knows that he can say and do things that are a little more risky because he has already gone to the Niagara in the barrel and survived. What this means is that a lot of the intimacy of that interview as because Obama himself is more mature and relaxed as president than when he started, but I think at least some of the credit has to go to Maron (who is more mature and relaxed as an interviewer than when he started). If that interview happened four years ago neither one of them would have been ready to pull it off. On Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 5:17 PM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote: > I've listened to about half of it so far. My expectations were immediately > lowered when I saw the "clean" icon next to the episode description on > iTunes (I suspect that was a condition of the White House). Not that I > needed to here the president say "f*ck," but podcasting is open and free by > nature; that "clean" icon tells me there were limits to what could be said. > Nothing new or interesting in the content. All the prompter jokes aside, > Obama has always been good at talking. Not always so good with the doing, > but good with the talking. As stated elsewhere recently, I'm tired of the > empty rhetoric. If the president insists that he is powerless to take on > the gun lobby or tackle other important issues, then (and I say this as > someone who voted for him in '08), the best thing he can do is resign. > Either that or he needs to start calling out by name the other elected > officials who are leading the filibustering and related obfuscation, > holding them accountable... telling them directly that the blood of the > victims of the next shooting incident are on their hands. Make the rhetoric > NOT empty and I'll get interested again. Until then, it's all just hollow > marketing. > > On Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 4:01 PM, 'David Bruggeman' via TVorNotTV < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> I haven't listened to either yet. Some coverage (the stuff not obsessed >> about word choice) says that Maron and his producer will talk about the >> whole process on Thursday's episode. There are a few photos posted at >> marcmeetsobama.com (part of the sponsorship for that episode). >> >> David >> >> ------------------------------ >> *From:* Tom Wolper <[email protected]> >> *To:* TV or not TV <[email protected]> >> *Sent:* Monday, June 22, 2015 6:40 PM >> *Subject:* Re: [TV orNotTV] Maron's Presidential WTF post-mortem >> >> On Sat, Jun 20, 2015 at 1:07 AM, 'David Bruggeman' via TVorNotTV < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >> Vague enough that I doubt it classifies as spoilers, but I'd understand >> if anyone chose to wait until after hearing the podcast (dropping on >> Monday) before reading this (from Vulture). >> >> >> http://www.vulture.com/2015/06/marc-maron-on-his-interview-with-president-obama.html >> >> >> I haven't listened to either the podcast yet or this segment of Fresh Air >> yet, it's a half hour of Terry Gross talking to Maron about interviewing >> the president. >> >> >> http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/06/22/416481081/obama-visits-marc-marons-garage-cats-annoyed-they-were-shut-in-bedroom >> >> -- >> -- >> TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups "TV or Not TV" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected] >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected] >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "TVorNotTV" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> >> >> -- >> -- >> TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups "TV or Not TV" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected] >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected] >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "TVorNotTV" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > > > -- > Kevin M. (RPCV) > > -- > -- > TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "TV or Not TV" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. 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