Meant to post this weeks ago — great analysis of Obama’s sense of humor, which I think is a big part of his appeal to “my generation.” Also a lot of room for commentary on things like absurdity and the self-awareness of “modern liberal Americans” and a lot of other stuff I could put in hesitancy/irony quotes.
There’s an absurdist quality to the president’s less serious side, a sense that he woke up this morning to find himself occupying this singularly bizarre place in American life and that he has just now become aware that he’s the only sane guy in the room….Recently, Obama sounded mystified by plans for a new presidential helicopter. “The helicopter I have now seems perfectly adequate to me,” he remarked dryly. “Of course, I’ve never had a helicopter before, you know? Maybe I’ve been deprived and I didn’t know it.” Other presidents mastered the telling of the canned political joke. Obama’s shtick is that he finds such stagecraft, the falsity and pomposity of modern politics, to be as laughable as we do. [v NYT]
