Michael Jackson thrived when Ronald Reagan was president. Six months into the Obama administration, he was dead! What are we to conclude?
Thank God Rush Limbaugh is here to answer the question:
Michael Jackson's biggest successes, and as it turns out his final successes, real successes took place in the eighties. That was Billie Jean, Thriller and all this. I mean he was as weird as he could be but he was profoundly, because of his weirdness, an individual. He wasn't a group member. He reached a level of success that may never be equaled. He flourished under Reagan; he languished under Clinton-Bush; and died under Obama. Let's hope the parallel does not continue.
Really! Where exactly was President Obama on the afternoon of June 25 -- can he account for his whereabouts for the entire day?
As for the Reagan's administration's role in MJ's musical burst of creativity during the 1980s, there was none. But it is worth noting that Reagan's steep cut in marginal tax rate for the upper bracket meant that Jackson kept a lot more of that surging income -- which he then squandered on a bad real estate investment while racking up millions of dollars in credit card debt before he died from lousy healthcare. So maybe in a perverse way, Limbaugh is right: Michael Jackson was a parable for the Age of Reagan.
Posted by Will Bunch @ 8:39 PM
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93 comments
Will,did you ever hear of sarcasm?
The left. Devoid of any sense of humor. Are the late night hosts still not telling any Obama jokes? God forbid anyone should criticize their Messiah.
Pretty funny that earlier today, LGF and Attytood ran clips of the same Michael Scheuer clip on Beck. What isn't so funny is that Scheuer was defended by our beloved ARTs, while even LGF commenters roundly trashed the guy. Just so everyone knows, here's the kind of garbage that our beloved ARts were defending: --snip-- Two years ago, speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations, Scheuer explained that Israel is engaged in what is “probably the most successful covert-action program in the history of man,” the object of which is to control not just policy but political debate in the United States. When pressed to identify some of these “covert” activities, Scheuer came up with only one example: the establishment of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
More recently, as we learn from today’s New York Sun, Scheuer addressed the taxpayer-funded Center for Naval Analyses in Alexandria, Virginia, where he explained that “U.S. citizen Israel-firsters . . . dominate the American governing elite” where they act to ensure that those like himself “who question the nature and benefit of current U.S.- Israel ties are slandered as pro-Nazi, anti-Semites.” --snip-- Nice. Not only is the guy a lunatic, he's an anti-semitic lunatic.
The right. Blind, bamboozled, and devoid of any brains.
Obviously, Will, Limbaugh was only "joking." Kind of like when Michelle Bachman was "joking" that Dems are responsible for swine flu, as she proved by wrongly stating that Carter was in office during the last swine flu outbreak. Right. Far-right wacko Republicans aren't really crazy, they're just "joking."
I tell you what's funny - Gibbs getting all testy today towards H Thomas & C Reid. That Obama White House just cannot handle a legitimate question without throwing a snit. And the look of horror by some of the reporters in the background at the betrayal of their Messiah is priceless. Is there any doubt Chip Reid will be Herr Olbermann's WPITW tonite?
Will, I could be wrong, I don't tune in to Limbaugh.... but I hear you are one of his most devoted listeners. Why don't you just stick to NPR, they play all Obama all the time.
"Are the late night hosts still not telling any Obama jokes?" Absolutely. There was actually a good article on this very topic recently by Greg Braxton in the LA Times, after Bill Maher of all people was booed by his own audience for an Obama joke: "Maher joked that Republicans were feeling particularly superstitious: “They say the country is having bad luck because there’s a black cat in the White House.” The studio audience erupted in loud groans and boos...it's Obama's African American heritage more than any other single factor that has perhaps frozen comics' pens and keyboards. Political humorists, most of whom are white, have never dealt with a black president and aren't sure how their material will be received. Is an Obama joke truly aimed at the office and its policies, or is it merely a smokescreen for racial prejudice?
"You don't want to appear racist," said Buddy Winston, a former writer for the "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno." "You can't do the stereotypical thing. Someone who's a Texan or an elite is much easier to attack." Black comedians encounter similar difficulties in crafting humor at the new president's expense, said David Alan Grier, star of Comedy Central's short-lived "Chocolate News." "Some people in the black community see any sort of criticism of Obama as a betrayal," said Grier. But my thing is, it's not a betrayal. It's just jokes. That's what comedy is."
Much of the humor in the last few weeks on "The Tonight Show" has taken a safe comic route by centering on the first family's new dog and Obama's mother-in-law, who lives in the White House.
Meanwhile David Letterman, who regularly bashed Bush, has repeatedly praised the new president ("You gotta like this guy, by God, this guy is out there, doing stuff. He's always got stuff going on").
Writers and producers for "Late Show With David Letterman," "The Tonight Show," "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" declined comment for this story."
"Writers and producers for "Late Show With David Letterman," "The Tonight Show," "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" declined comment for this story.""////TRANSLATION: "That's right Mr Reporter, we are in fact not telling any Obama jokes and we're not gonna provide a quote to you admitting such so you can put it in your story so we'll look stupid."
"Mommy, mommy, it's just soooooo unfaaaaiirr. Those mean men and women in the media treat that bad man Obama more nicely than they treat us. It's just soooo unfaaaaiiiirr mommy, it's just soooooo unfaaaaiirrr." -- 24. 7. 365.
You know, I've never, ever heard any criticism at all, or any jokes at Obama's expense, on Hannity, Beck, Limbaugh, Medved, Savage, Bennett, O'Reilly, Miller, Ingraham, the failed teacher, etc. No wonder all those ignorant Americans - that don't have the keen intellect of the non-elitist, patriotic Vandy and sloboat - are so brainwashed into thinking Obama is doing a good job.
24/7/365........ the amount of time that pinheads devote to trying to advance their agenda.
Am I wrong or is it the liberal left that raises the Nielsen ratings of conservative cable news networks?
Will's Reagan book has reached the lofty level of #45,000 + on the Amazon best seller list, so Will has to work in a MJ angle to try to prop up embarrassing sles numbers. Will, did Reagan run over your dog? Flush your goldfish? My God man, whatever this obsession with Reagan is, please get some help. Is this some kind of latent man crush?
TPS, for once, just this once, pipe down. Seriously. You're looking like a joke here. And Will, as silly as Limbaugh's allegory may have been, he did say it Jackson's success under Reagan/decline under Clinton/Bush, and death under Obama was a PARALLEL -- meaning "having the same or similar course of nature. It wasn't meant to be literal, you doofus. Asking if Obama can account for his whereabouts on June 25, even in jest, is pure lickspittle hyperbole. You accost Limbaugh for making the comparison and imply the stupidy of the characterization, then you do the same exact thing -- thereby making yourself guilty by association.
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About Will Bunch
Will's book: Learn about it here and purchase it here.
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
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