And wow, does Nichelle Nichols still look great or what!
The personal blog of author Kelly Sedinger, chronicling the adventures of one overalls-clad wanderer.
The personal blog of author Kelly Sedinger, chronicling the adventures of one overalls-clad wanderer.
18 comments:
"Wow! A photo op with a cast member of Star Trek totally makes me forget that the rate of US causalities in Afghanistan have more than doubled during the course his administration!"
C'mon. Please tell me you're smarter than that.
yes!
This makes me happy. :)
Look at that grin on the president's face. He's one of us!
Chris: Geez, really? Does me saying that I like this President really imply that I personally approve of each and every one of his policy decisions?
Your President has genuine "geek cred". That is impressive. The best our Prime Minister has is an appearance on Reach for the Top (a Canadian Quiz Show for genuine high school nerds). That just doesn't cut it.
Barack is the man!
...and he looks positively giddy! That is so cool!
No, but this stuff irritates me.
It's just a fake thing. Just a photo op to make him look cool to nerds.
He probably didn't even think of it. His publicist did.
It's like Bush running with that wounded soldier and making a huge deal out of it. His base went wild for that image.
I dunno. Just grouchy. People seem to pay WAY more attention to this kind of stuff than important things like voting records.
For what its worth I think Chris is wrong about this. Like some White House Press guy is gonna say "Get a picture of you with Uhura. We need to get in with the geek voters!" Nonsense! If anything they'd try to set up a photo op with Zoe Suldana.
For my money this is genuine. Look at his smile. He is so stoked to be in the same room with her.
Actually, I disagree with Chris too. A rare black woman on network TV when he was 6-8 years old? Must have been huge to meet her.
@ Roger:
My point is NOT "Get 'em! He's a fake Trekkie!"
My point is "WTHeck does a president's level of Trekkie-ness have anything to do with anything remotely?"
It's just a stunt. Learning that Nichols released the photo, not Obama, only makes me feel better in that it's Nichols (the actress) honored to meet (President of the United States) Obama, not the other way around. Which is as it should be.
But whether or not he genuinely or disingenuously likes Star Trek should, in my mind, have nothing to do with a Trekkie's support or nonsupport of his re-election.
Chris: While I'd agree that anyone who would actually take a President's (or any candidate's, for any office) photo ops into account when deciding for whom to vote has their priorities all wrong, I wouldn't therefore declare that all such photo ops are worthless wastes of time. Politicians have done photo ops for decades, and they always will. It just doesn't strike me as something to get annoyed about.
Besides, even Presidents are people too, and it's not that inconceivable that Obama is a Trek fan who actually enjoyed meeting Nichelle Nichols. (Nor was I among liberals who mocked some of President Bush's photo ops, such as the Thanksgiving drop-in on some troops in Iraq.) There's a ceremonial and celebrity aspect to the Presidency that shouldn't be totally discounted.
In short, this is harmless. I'll vote for Obama regardless of his stance on science fiction teevee shows, and I voted against George HW Bush regardless of the fact that I would stand at his side forever in disliking broccoli.
I said clearly that I never said that Obama was a fake Trekkie.
But, for me at least, it was a silly analogy.
Actually was thinking of the Futurama episode where Star Trek became a religion. :-) (Note that just about all presidential candidates were seriously religious... I highly doubt that is, in reality, the case.)
I was, in fact, one of the people who doubted Bush's big shows of empathy for the troops. If he and Congress had such empathy he would have thought a little harder about dropping troops into a Kobayashi Maru, don't you think?
Chris- to your last point, if GWB REALLY cared about the troops, he wouldn't have sent them to war with vehicles that could not withstand the IADs, once we realized the IAD was a weapon of choice.
But I agree with Kelly with the photo op. There's a lot of ceremony in the office, and getting your picture taken with someone who seems to be your idol is one of them.
Of course, there was that sports figure who REFUSED to have his picture taken with this President because he disagreed with Obama's policies; rightly, he took a lot of heat for it. It the PRESIDENT, FCOL.
@ Roger:
IED, not IAD - "Improvised Explosive Device." (Although you could probably utterly school me on my grammar... :-D )
Yes, there was the lack of material preparation for the Afghan theater. But it goes way, way beyond that. I doubt Kelly wants an enormous analysis of "Why this should have been an obvious bad idea from the start to anyone who knows anything about military history." But it was an extremely bad idea to attempt an Afghan invasion.
There is a lot of ceremony to the office of the presidency. Or mayor, or whatever.
But it's two separate issues:
- Presidents taking their (appropriate, imho) right as head of state to participate in symbolic actions which may also appeal to voters in their base
- Voters screwing up the difference between "symbol/story" and "what the guy actually has done in reality."
I feel that in our society we pay too much attention to words and symbols and not enough to actions.
I didn't hear about the Tim Thomas incident until you brought it up.
Based on what Thomas said, he didn't do it lightly. It was a serious statement as a citizen that was intended to make an important political statement.
But I don't know if he really intended it as a deep political statement about the evolution of the office of the presidency (which is, imho, appropriate) or if it was a shallow political statement about Obama's presidency (which is, imho, inappropriate.)
I take the old school view that there is a big difference between "the particular guy who is president now (e.g. Bush, Obama, etc.)" and "the office of the presidency."
The first should only inspire respect if he is capable in office. The second should always inspire respect and, for example, turning down an invite from the President should not be done lightly just because you don't like the guy. You should always respect the office, imho, regardless of who sits there.
I tried running a search to see if Thomas did the same thing under Bush and couldn't find anything. So I have no evidence if it was a serious political statement or if Thomas just is not cool with Obama.
(inadvertent duplicate comment removed above.)
Chris- The sports folks who get to go to the White House are generally champions. Thomas likely hadn't been previously invited; the Bruins hadn't won the Cup in 30 years, or some such. He wouldn't have had a chance to diss Bush similarly.
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