Subliminal Obamanisms
Here’s the President’s reaction to last week’s heinous Supreme Court decision that removed restrictions on corporate contributions to political campaigns. While, politically, this moves us yet closer to the future of Demolition Man or Jennifer Government, I’m more interested in this piece’s subtext…
The first thing you may notice about this video piece is that Obama’s placement is jarringly off. Even in the closeups, he is presented as extremely left-of-center. Compare this to a more even-handed weekly address (when he was addressing America’s Christmas spirit):
In the Christmas piece, Obama is exactly centered on the screen, and makes several references to typically right-wing entities that he’s attempting to reach out to in the spirit of the holidays. In the Christmas piece, he mentions that the tree is imported from Uber Red State, West Virginia (while it could have just easily come from more moderate Virginia), and he makes several references to military families and bases throughout the world.
Here’s another address from October which addresses a much more conservative audience — small business owners. Obama is again more centrally depicted (though just a smidge left of center) as he attempts to bring in entrepreneurs under his umbrella of tax incentives and health care reforms…
When comparing the two older addresses with this week’s speech, it is clear that Obama is desperately trying to shore up his base. He is sitting to the extreme left-of-center of the screen. He is saying “For the love of God, I’m with you!” to the progressives and populists who have become increasingly dismayed at his too-friendly-to-Wall-Street policies. In a more recent address, he may have also offered a subliminal snub to his much maligned Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner. Even the flags behind him (typical patriotic symbols) are pushed nearly out of the frame compared with the two previous pieces.
Amidst the skewed shot, the viewer’s eye is pushed towards the right side of the screen, where an end table is seen with a pile of books on it. Given the (intentionally) misaligned stacking of the books, the White House may be trying to convey that lawyer Obama has been spending sleepless nights pouring over the precedents and ramifications of the Supreme Court’s recent decision, as he foments a plan to fight back. This is to be taken in contrast with the earlier pieces, when a more family oriented-setting is depicted in the background (either a Christmas tree, or a dinner table with a decorative centerpiece).
The White House seems desperate to convince people that Obama is hard at work on behalf of the progressive constituents that got him elected. If it fails, the next Presidential Weekly Address may feature a pleading left side of Obama’s face, while a Goldman Sachs logo subtly burns in a nearby fireplace.
While the White House continues its “desperate” attempt, I hope it remembers to mention that Obama’s nominee Sotomayor was one of the four dissenters in this heinous decision. I know he’s just like Bush, of course, but I guess we all got lucky when he accidentally nominated a liberal justice to the bench. No word on when he plans to apologize to Fox News for his foul-up in signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and his even more unforgivable slip in getting the approval of People for the American Way and the ACLU for his government transparency initiatives, not to mention the “earn the admiration of the world and the Haitian people for the U.S.’s immediate and unconditional assistance to Haiti” debacle.