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Don’t Laugh Mr. President |
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“If George Bush had  laughed on TV during an interview while we’re in two wars he would have been savaged,” said Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” chiming in on his co-host’s Willie Geist’s earlier remark on the same subject. Willie related how he and his wife had thought it was “rather odd” that the President had laughed at certain points in the “60 Minutes” interview, describing it as being a “nervous tic.”
Steve Kroft, the “60 minutes’” interviewer was also struck by the President laughing, to the extent that at a certain point in the discussion he raised the point of the President’s laughter. It was during the following exchange;
The President chuckling says, “I just want to say that the only thing less popular than putting money in the Banks is putting money in the auto industry.” Steve Kroft, “eighteen percent are in favor seventy-six percent against.” President, “it’s not a high number.” Kroft, "you’re sitting here and you’re laughing about some of these problems, are people going to look at this and say, I mean he’s sitting there and just making jokes about money… how do you deal with ah…explain your mood and your laughter … are you punch drunk?” The president, “no no there’s got to be a little gallows humor to get through the day.”
Once again the chattering class was off and commenting with their hair on fire trying to convert silly into substance, beginning with Scarborough’s ridiculous George Bush comparison. The criticizing of the President is getting to be a “Morning Joe” ritual. The View’s Elizabeth Hasselbeck was dutifully offended, “what’s going on with our financial situation nobody’s laughing, it’s not funny.” No cable news show was complete without the President’s laughter being discussed. And even the Today Show's Meredith Viera raised the question with Chuck Todd connecting the president’s laughter with his appearance on “Leno” as an indication of the President being tone deaf. Chuck Todd offered that the President has a history of being above it all, Zen like, but attributed his laughter in this instance to possible Fatigue.
The Presidents “60 Minutes” segment covered a number of substantive issues including the two wars, the economy, and the President’s reaction to Vice President’s Cheny’s criticism of his national security policy. Despite these weighty subjects being discussed, the subject du jour on all of the cable news shows was the President’s laughing during the interview.
David Shuster sitting in for Keith Olbermann came closest to putting the proper perspective on the Presidents laughter by describing how the President was reacting to “the absurdity of his position,” and “the catch 22 of his position” which was the reason for his chuckling.
This is a case where the criticism seems to be more a comment on the critics than the criticized. Irony strikes different people differently. No doubt after hearing all of the contradictory criticisms, and then hearing Steve Croft repeating questions which he had undoubtedly thought through, discussed with his staff, and seen the flaws and inconsistencies in the positions, the President had to be struck with the irony. Or as he explained there’s also gallows humor, something sometimes difficult for some to appreciate.
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