David Brooks: Obama Displays 'a Kind of ESPN Masculinity'

NewsBusters ^ | May 15, 2012 | P.J. Gladnick

[PJ-Comix]

It might have sounded quite reasonable to David Brooks and his tight  circle of media friends but to most of the rest of us, using the term "ESPN Masculinity" to describe President Obama is just flat out hilarious. Brooks performs a comedy encore at the end of The ESPN Man story in the New York Times with his psychobabble description of Obama's "manliness." These supposed traits listed by Brooks are the reasons why he claims Obama remains somewhat popular despite a lousy economy.

First, let us go right to the ESPN Man money quote:

Normally, presidents look weak during periods of economic stagnation, overwhelmed by events. But Obama has displayed a kind of ESPN masculinity: postfeminist in his values, but also thoroughly traditional in style — hypercompetitive, restrained, not given to self-doubt, rarely self-indulgent. Administrations are undone by scandal and moments when they look pathetic, but this administration, guarded in all things, has rarely had those moments.

[dfwgator]

ESPN is a manly network with manly hosts broadcasting in a manly way.

Exhibit A

[dfwgator]

That has to be the gayest guy on the face of the Earth.

[ConservaTexan]

But when I look at the data, a slightly different question comes to mind: Why is Obama even close?

The Bradley Effect.

[ConservativeStatement]

Maybe but what about the guy with the glasses on his head?

[kevkrom]

That has to be the gayest guy on the face of the Earth.

And the guy on the left with the camera, gaping mouth, limp wrist and pink ribbon looks pretty gay, too.

[dfwgator]

Why did I have the feeling you were going to say that...LOL!

[Jeff Chandler]

David Brooks and his tight circle

Wait, what?

[BookmanTheJanitor]

Like I need this guy, Brooks, defining what is manly....BWHAHAHAHA

[Josh Painter]

Hey David Brooks, is Mike Tyson also an example of ‘ESPN Masculinity’? http://bit.ly/LNV0q9, http://bit.ly/KrS7fE, #JustAsking #tcot

[Let's Roll]

“Homo Islamicus.”

Excellent!

[Charles Henrickson]

A FINE BROMANCE
Tune: “A Fine Romance”
http://wtv-zone.com/REMEMBERTHEN/midis21/a-fine-romance.mid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGmpuZ5rHig
As sung by David Brooks to Barack Obama

A fine bromance, like no other
A fine bromance, my Brooks brother
Barack and Brooks—it’s mutual admiration
Your rock-star looks are causin’ a strange sensation
A fine bromance, though you’re frazzled
A fine bromance, I’m bedazzled
I like to stare at the crease in your well-pressed pants
I’ve widened up my stance
This is a fine bromance

A fine bromance, we’re pie-chartin’
You make bromance that’s bi-partisan
You’re cooler than the clams that are down in the seaweed
You cast a glance my way and I get all wee-weed
A fine bromance, you’re my Marx guy
When we slow-dance, you make sparks fly
You make me have to cancel my “No we cant’s”
You’ve got me in a trance
This is a fine bromance

A fine bromance, with no disses
A fine bromance, Barack, this is
The “right” may be the box that a guy like I’m in
But I’m the kind that writes for the New York Times in
A fine bromance, my dear comrade
A fine bromance, like you and Rahm had
I feel a tingle running now up my pants
I’ve widened up my stance
This is a fine bromance

[x]

Part of what he's getting at is that Obama mouths feminist slogans but he's got an unreconstructed, old-fashioned, a bit misogynist side as well. That's something people commented on during the primary campaign against Hillary Clinton.

What he's also trying to say is that Obama keeps his cool and doesn't get panicky or emotional. Brooks is attracted to the president because he doesn't think Obama sweats like ordinary mortals. What Brooks doesn't say is that the press has been so much in Obama's corner that there haven't been many real challenges that might cause him to lose his cool. He's under their protection.

This week, though, when Obama slips in the polls he attacks the very papers and magazines that have been supporting him and covering him up until now. That's a sign that maybe he's not as cool, collected, and controlled as Brooks makes out, that faced with real conflicts and setbacks, Obama won't be as cool as Brooks thinks he is..

Brooks raises an interesting question: preboomer and postboomer traits in Obama. But Brooks skews his result by taking preboomers as stoic, silent types and postboomers as gushy emotionalists. Obama's coldness or coolness or reticence may have more to do with boomer narcissism than with old-fashioned masculinity. Or maybe that kind of emotional distance is so much a part of the culture that it's hard to locate on a time line as a product of one era or another.

[PJ-Comix]

The NewsBusters story has been updated with your parody song.

[Corporate Law]

His job is to be the “opposing view” dimwit with a goofy look on his face to dimwit with a goofy look on his face Haynes Johnson on The News Hour on PBS. Two alleged intellectuals, not a scintilla of intelligence between them. Just making goofy expressions when asked questions.