YOU couldn’t pass a grocery store line this weekend without seeing the picture-perfect smiles of the Obama family. There were Barack Obama‘s young daughters (whose privacy their parents so sanctimoniously claim to want to protect) flashing their pearly whites on the cover of People magazine. Malia and Sasha competed for attention right next to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s toddler daughter, Shiloh, whose cherubic face was splashed on the cover of another celebrity tabloid.
The spread in People, which earlier this year fawned over a photo of the bare-chested Obama in his swimsuit, was supposed to be an “exclusive” first look at life at home with the Obamas. It probably won’t be the last.
They’ve hawked the kids to TV gossip show “Access Hollywood,” blabbed about their romance to Us Weekly magazine and plopped Michelle in front of the cameras to schmooze for “The Colbert Report” and “The View.” They believe their tabloid strategy is working. Given our celebrity-obsessed culture, they’re probably right.
Who cares about Barack’s perilous lack of foreign-policy experience, his associations with left-wing radicals and domestic terrorists and his business dealings with Chicago corruptocrats? People brings you the scoop on what really matters in this critical presidential campaign: Michelle hula-hoops with her daughters. The kids have slumber parties. Barack does laundry, but he doesn’t fold it. The kids get small allowances. The Obamas wear normal clothes while doing normal things.
They’re just like you and me!
There’s a popular feature in most gossip magazines that rates celebrities as “normal” vs. “not normal.” Paparazzi catch “normal” famous people in candid moments – taking out the trash, scarfing down hot dogs, goofing around with their kids – and magazine editors compare them to photos of “not normal” celebs in elitist repose.
The flaw in the tabloids’ “Obamas as next-door neighbors” propaganda, of course, is that unlike the candid shots of normal, down-to-earth celebrities without makeup or entourages, the photos of the Obamas in “normal” mode are all carefully choreographed fauxtographs.
While Barack complains about “bitter” rural voters who “cling” to their guns and religion in his candid moments, Michelle cunningly brags about buying her sundresses at discount retailer H&M and tells reporters that she doesn’t mind if the kids’ beds aren’t perfectly made.
The celebrity press eats this up. So do the American people. Former Star magazine editor Bonnie Fuller, citing a poll showing that more adults would like to invite Obama to a summer barbecue than McCain, hailed the Obamas as the “Brangelina of the political world.”
Obama and his paparazzi are banking on his cult of personality to carry him to victory. Unfortunately, the odds are in his favor. Just try talking to one of the millions with their noses buried in People or Us about his relationship with Jeremiah Wright or Bill Ayers, his flip-flops on the Iraq war surge and his naivete on Iran, and you’ll see what I mean.
The swoon of a journalist at the UNITY minority news media gathering this weekend sums up the star-struck reverence: “He touched me!” Yet, he’s sooo “down to earth.”
Hurtling toward a government of the stupid, by the stupid, for the stupid we go.