Worse than Dukakis in the tank … worse than Hillary’s lie about Bosnia
I read the other day that when bowling somewhere in Pennsylvania in order to show himself off as a regular guy, Barack Obama had made a poor impression, and even seemed “effete.” I didn’t look into it further at the time. But now I am stunned to learn that in a full 10-frame game his score was … 37.
37?
That’s not possible. A little girl would do better than that. A blind person would do better than that. When I was a kid, and played with clutzy kids who often rolled the ball into the gutter (I rolled a few into the gutter myself), no one as far I can remember ever got a score of 37 or anything close to it. To get a 37 you have to be worse than the clutziest kid in America. And Obama wants to be president? The commander-in-chief of the armed forces?
All along, his critics have been saying about him something along these lines: “He speaks very well, has a lot of poise, is a great rhetorician, always good on a come-back. But what has he ever done? Is he competent at doing anything?” And now that question has been answered in a symbolically definitive way. The great Obama is all talk.
Leave aside everything else you know about him. Leave aside his radical leftist politics, leave aside his lack of experience, leave aside his weird, marginal background, leave aside his multiple racial and cultural identities, leave aside his fake, calculated life, leave aside his supremely unpleasant, angry wife, leave aside his life-long alliance with a demented black racist, leave aside his stunning lies about his knowledge of the black racist’s statements, leave aside his own racism, leave aside the way he threw his white grandmother under a bus (which he did with far more skill and dispatch than he rolled a bowling ball), leave aside his narcissism, leave aside his messiah complex, leave aside his declared intent to meet America’s enemies without conditions, and his implied intent to sell America out to its enemies. Forget all that. A grown man in normal health who as a candidate for president of the United States goes in front of cameras and gets a score of 37 in 10 frames of bowling has no business being president. There is something deeply incompetent about such a man. Worse, he has publicly shown himself to be a fool. A sane country does not elect a palpable fool as its leader. It’s just common sense.
I’m not joking.
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Note: The above was written as though we were living in a more or less normal world, in which an acceptable choice for president were available for whom we could vote against Obama. But, as we all know, that is not the case, and, short of the conviction that Obama poses an existential threat to this country, I am not voting for McCain,
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I haven’t seen the great alley man at work yet (here’s the video), but read this devastating account, by sports columnist Clay Travis at the CBS Sports website. Be sure to see his list of what the equivalent of getting a 37 bowling score would be in other sports.
Travis writes:
Watch this video. I love how Obama tries to start off confident when he’s getting the bowling shoes. Look at the jaunty steps and beaming smile. You know that inside he was trembling in fear. We’ve all been there, about to play a sport that we know we’re going to do really bad at but no one else suspects how truly terrible it’s going to get. For me it’s like playing badminton. But we try and convince ourselves that we’re actually better at the sport than we are just before the game begins. Watch Obama strut around just before the bowling game begins.
You know what I’m talking about—you stand off to the side sort of rolling your neck and then loosen up your shoulders with a couple of shoulder shrugs, maybe windmill the arms a few times, just to slacken up the old joints. Then you start playing and you are horrible. It takes a little while for the confidence to fade. Witness the first gutter ball, watch the strut immediately after. It’s OK, Obama seems to be saying, I got the next one. Only he didn’t. At all. Ever. He was bad, really bad. This sort of ghastly performance could end up swaying the primary in Pennsylvania. First rule of politics/life, if you truly suck at something do it privately. (Bill Clinton thinks this should be modified to if anyone sucks anything, but that’s excessive.)
Do you know how many redneck white people in Pennsylvania base their lives around bowling? How many leagues are going to be tipping back pitchers of beer while they ridicule this performance? Redneck white people take bowling seriously. It’s like ping pong to the Chinese or camel racing to Arab oil sheiks. You don’t mess with the purity of their sport.
I know because I grew up around lots of redneck white people who love bowling. Hell, I love bowling. True story: When I was a kid and first heard the term redneck I asked my dad what it meant. My dad said, “Well, some people think everybody in the South is a redneck. But we’re not.” I asked him why we weren’t and he said, “Well, rednecks shoot off fireworks in their back yards and wear t-shirts everywhere they go.” That was it. And that made perfect sense to me. We were out shopping for father’s day when I was 8 and I picked out a t-shirt for my dad and my mom was like, “Clay, your dad won’t wear a t-shirt out in public. That’s what rednecks do.” And I wanted to slap myself in the forehead because I’d been so dumb to forget about this. Anyway, in addition to deciding elections as the ultimate swing voters, rednecks are also good at bowling. And every redneck knows that bowling a 37 is indefensible.
Let’s be clear, there’s no nuance or complicated strategy involved in bowling—there’s a ball and you roll it straight ahead. No one is playing defense or trying to stop your ball from reaching the pins. I’m not saying that you have to put up a 200 or bowl three strikes in a row, or even one strike, but if you’re a good athlete you should be able to roll a ball straight and break 100. Easily. Especially if you’re a fully grown man. Don’t believe me and think Obama’s score was decent? Hillary Clinton held a press conference yesterday to make fun of Obama’s bowling. Yep, Hillary Clinton is talking trash to Obama. Did you ever think that would be possible? Just in case you’re not a bowler here’s what bowling a 37 is like in 13 other sports:
1. Showing up for a baseball game, being sent to the outfield, picking up a rolling baseball and throwing it underhanded back to the infield.
2. Shooting a 298 during a leisurely 18 holes of golf
3. Insisting on wearing arm floaties for the start of a triathlon
4. Being unable to hit a single tennis ball back over the net to your opponent
5. Dribbling a basketball with both hands while intently staring at the ground as soon as the ball is passed to you
6. Not being strong enough to have a dart reach the board at a bar. Then, putting all your weight behind the dart toss, and hitting a bespectacled man at the adjoining booth in the left earlobe
7. Pinning yourself in the weight room while bench-pressing only the bar
8. Playing croquet
9. Starting the Tour de France with training wheels
10. Driving the Indy 500 without ever shifting out of first gear
11. Showing up for a football game in the state of Alabama carrying a soccer ball
12. Boxing with your thumb inside your fist
13. Each time someone sets the volleyball for you, shrieking and running in the other direction with your hands on top of your head
Screw the debates and answering the red phone at 3 in the morning, it’s time for Obama to lock himself inside a bowling alley and master what’s really important: rolling a ball in a straight line. Anything less and Bowlingate will continue to fester.
- end of initial entry -
Ben W. writes:
Bowling is a white sport.
LA writes:
On the subject of bowling, while I bowled a fair amount when I was a kid back in Union, New Jersey, my feelings on the subject were captured by my brother, who is several years older than I, some years ago when we happened to be driving through the old neighborhood and stopped by to bowl at a bowling alley on Route 22, the same one that was there when we had lived there decades earlier. While we were bowling he said: “You know, I feel the same thing I used to feel when I bowled as a kid: nothing.”
I’m not putting down bowling if that’s what people enjoy. It’s pleasant and relaxing in a way. But frankly it’s hard to see what people get out of it. There’s so little to it, it’s so non-involving. You stand up, you pick up your ball, you roll the ball, you sit down, you wait for your next turn, you stand up, you pick up your ball, you roll the ball … You go into a kind of zoned-out, meaningless state.
Howard Sutherland writes:
Great post! Superb reminder (as if the moniker “Barack Hussein Obama” were not sufficient) of just how alien to ordinary American life the Obamassiah and his cult are.
LA replies:
It hadn’t occurred to me that it shows him as alien to American life. A visitor to the U.S. who’s never bowled before in his life but has minimal athletic skills ought to be able to roll the ball straight enough to get a score better than 37.
Howard Sutherland replies:
It’s an atmospheric piece, and the atmospherics are that this guy is way out of sync with ordinary (or what used to be ordinary) America. Like Dukakis in the tank and Papa Bush baffled by the scanner, only more so.
It’s an impressionistic reaction, I know. But the bowling fiasco is—as you say—of a piece with the strange and confused personal and family background and all the rest.
My guess about the Democrats—and it’s just that—hasn’t changed. The gutterball goof-arama only reinforces it.
Obama will lose in Pennsylvania, in the same way and for the same reasons as he lost in Ohio. The Democratic Party bosses will realize, if they haven’t already, that Obama cannot win a presidential election. They then have to decide whether: (a) to nominate Obama on some bogus “racial reconciliation” ticket, and watch him lose to McCain; (b) nominate Hillary, accept the risk of black anger over “dissing” Obama, and bet she can beat McCain; or (c) bring on a deus ex machina, most likely Gore, to defuse Hillary v. Obama tensions and put up someone who can win. I think they will opt for (b) or (c), because they will figure (a) is a sure loser nationwide. Complicating matters, I’m not sure Obama would consent to be Hillary’s running mate, but probably would agree to be Gore’s.
In terms of appealing to “Middle America,” the Democrats would need to pair Hillary with a white man from the South or Midwest to counter her negatives. Gore, if he’s our hypothetical Democratic white knight, already is a white man from the South, so pairing Obama with him probably doesn’t hurt the Democratic ticket much with middle America, and would help keep black turnout up. There is no risk of losing black votes to McCain.
So, if I were the capo of the Democratic Party, I would go for (c). The Democratic convention this year is shaping up to be the most exciting Dem or GOP convention since Chicago ‘68, and I think it will decide who the next president is. HRS
LA replies:
An amazing situation and dilemma for the Dems. The way you’ve laid it out, which is not dissimilar to various mainstream accounts, makes it look as though they cannot win this year.
As I’ve said before, how amazing it is that McCain, this nasty little man whose most characteristic political act is to express contempt for the base of his own party, would be the repeated recipient of such astonishing luck that has now made him the likely next president.
I’m not saying McCain is utterly without political talent. Over the years, when not lying through his gritted teeth about what a “proud conservative” he is while gleefully sticking it to conservatives, he has on occasion projected a “presidential” aura, and I think this aura has been the source of his own and his supporters’ belief that he ought to be president.
Howard Sutherland writes:
It is amazing to think that John McCain, who—as you note—makes a point of snubbing his own party, is going to be that party’s nominee and quite likely the next president. His candidacy’s surviving the double defeat of his national suicide program is an extraordinary feat.
You mention McCain’s ability on occasion to project a presidential aura as a reason why he is still a contender. I agree, and I think there is another reason. The three big-time candidates still standing all have some shield against criticism, some claim of victimhood to exploit.
B. Hussein Obama exploits his (carefully crafted) persona as a temperate black man to deflect as racist any criticism of what slight substance he has. So far it is working beautifully; while the Wright business may yet bring him down, it hasn’t yet. If America were politically sane, he would have become a political non-person the day those connections were finally disclosed.
Mistress Hillary had relied on her sex to deflect a lot of criticism. She’s in a pickle now, though. Hillary is learning the hard way that race trumps sex in the grievance sweepstakes.
So what has White Man McCain got? His POW service. McCain has Suffered. (Indeed he has; I’m not making light of it.) Suffered in ways we cannot imagine. Transcended that Suffering to triumph in politics. But, never forget, McCain is a Victim too. And there is nothing higher in today’s America than a Victim. I think that, along with his political liberalism, helps account for why the Democratic-leaning media are usually so easy on him.
Our liberal culture ennobles Suffering because it bestows Victimhood, not for any redemptive purpose. McCain is a war hero, but the kind of war hero he is is important in a country where the media’s—they who filter everything for the rest of us—world-view is formed entirely by liberalism. McCain’s is not the heroism of Alvin York or Audie Murphy, who won Medals of Honor for fighting Germans (and killing lots of people). Nor is it like Dick Bong, David McCampbell, Pappy Boyington and Joe Foss, who won theirs for shooting down Japanese fighters (i.e., killing people). No, McCain is a war hero because he Suffered, because he is a Victim. In fact, he’s the perfect war hero, the only truly acceptable kind, for our liberal elites. For all we know, McCain never killed or wounded anybody in his handful of combat sorties.
E. writes from Florida:
Well, I’m not exactly a macho sports guy, but, when I used to bowl ten-pin, I was unhappy with anything less than 180. I never got 300, but I frequently got over 200. I’m from the era of ten-pin, duck-pin, and candle-pin. I think the latter two have disappeared over the last few decades. I’ll have to watch the video. He must be amazingly uncoordinated.
Jack S. writes:
Good point about bowling. I’ve bowled less than a dozen times in my life. The last time over 25 years ago. I share your feelings about the sport. I never could understand the interest especially when the bowling alley was full to capacity with league players. I surmise that the sport is an excuse to drink (just about every alley I’ve been to has a bar) and socialize.
I don’t think that this will especially hurt Obama. He can do no wrong in the eyes of his white liberal supporters. I suspect (hope) that Hillary has some more revelations about him on the level of Rev. Wright to spring just before Pennsylvania.
As far as Howard Sutherland’s analysis of the Democrat’s convention strategies, I don’t think there are enough sane people left in that party to block BHO on the ground’s of un-electability. They would rather go down with the ship with their magic Negro than break the spell with rational thought. In this vein, it’s been said that Ted Kennedy could rape a nun on the Boston Common and still get re-elected. In fact Obama’s loss of the nomination or the election would just serve to prove that is a “downright mean” country which no one should feel pride in. A great excuse for riots and more social welfare giveaways!
I agree with the point that lack of bowling prowess is another important sign of Obama’s otherness, much like his strange name and exotic background. BHO has more in common with the hordes of third world invaders wrecking this country than with the people that built this country. Anne Coulter’s latest column discusses this same issue. She’s read Dreams from My Father and points out some new outrages.
John B. writes:
Actually, this is the first good thing I’ve heard about Obama; I should never have expected America to be governed by someone who bowls worse than I do.
James W. writes:
Appearing foolish is very damaging to a political candidate, even if there is no substance to it. It suited the press to paint Gerald Ford as a clutz when he banged his head on an airplane doorway. He was, in fact, an All-American football player.
The ridiculous bowling perfromance of Obama may even more significant than thought, but for other reasons. He didn’t have the sense not to step onto the lanes. If he knew, he would have made something lite of it before he did, and perhaps not embarrassed himself. But he didn’t know. Why?
He has the equivilent of Pretty Girl Syndrome. Far from the fantasy of feeling the sting of being black, he has not felt the sting of being foolish. And who of us can evolve without the discipline that imparts?
Being a Magic Negro means never being treated as anyone on this blog would commonly be treated. Honestly, and frankly. We are, perhaps, starting to see his wax melt.
Either he foolishly believes he can be President without one disaster after another, or he just doesn’t care. It may be that we do not care either.
Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 04, 2008 09:34 AM | Send