Much more than that I would think for its historic value alone. On White House stationary, in the president's distinctively disturbed handwriting, with his unusual "I am the central one" signature, and the callously rude phrase, "tea baggers."
Score!
Story is all over the place, I especially like the post and comments at Hot Air.
Wouldn't you think the letter is worth more than that? Man, what a prize. You know, this Alinsky thing, the whole attitude backfires when you become da man. Ha! The president actually Alinskyed himself. And now that he is president of the United States, every little thing like this is magnified yet the petulance is more of an islander, it seems, how could he not see he is not popping off to one teacher in Texas, he's popping off to all Texas, to all America, to the world, forever. He is showing his class, his lack of class, forever. He knows all that.
Still, an emotional person, he needed to say this.
That is why the letter is worth a lot more than $24,000. It is historic. The president says sweary words on official document. The letter itself means nothing to the teacher, the sort of thing he'd toss without any further thought. Except for its tremendous historic value.
What the president should have done with the teacher's letter. Honestly, why bother with that? So a teacher pops off, so what.
Why would the president bother? He must receive, what, I'm guessing here, dozens of such letters. Who knows? Maybe even twenty! The question is why would he bother?
How do I recognize a classless act? It is the sort of thing I would do myself, that's how.
13 comments:
His writing slants to the left.
HIC - Homophobe In Chief
Tea bagger is an ambiguous term. I don't think Obama meant it in the crudest sense. To take it such a way just plays into Obama's scenario that he is unfairly criticized by Republicans. Also, if the teacher is going to auction off the letter, should donate the proceeds to a worthy cause like, say, a fund for the imprisoned Iranian pastor.
William...no doubt Obama misspoke when he wrote "Tea-Bagger". He does that a lot. If he had the wits of a fresh rock he would have written "the Tea Party."
Nothing ambiguous about the term "tea bagger" however, since the original name for the conservative movement is "Tea Party" and no one but an untutored culturally vacant individual could misinterpret the intent of using the term "tea bagger" by those who coined the term. It is intended to be pejorative and is pejorative. Mr. Law Professor POTUS knows that.
What I just can't believe is that he actually wrote this letter at all. Seriously. If it is real, Obama is more a stooge poseur than I thought.
"Tea bagger is an ambiguous term. "
I get your point, but the term has really only had one meaning until recently when it was applied to the Tea Party. It's not like it has an alternative history when it wasn't an insult. It always was.
But here's the issue. The President knows damn well what he's doing, and to give him the benefit of the doubt is not only naive, but exceptionally unfair considering that every word used to criticize him is now considered proof of a racist heart on the part of every critic.
The Republicans are considered not just unfair for criticizing him, but racist as well, so that cow is never going back in the barn. I see no reason to be careful any longer. If anything, the guy has not been criticized enough to even get close to fair. He meant to insult, so what is unhinged about saying so. I know it's racist, but it's not unfair.
The letter writer referred to himself as a tea bagger. Obama is capable of using the term maliciously or as a malapropism. It would be politic to take the more generous interpretation.
"...more a stooge poseur than I thought."
You goddamn naive old fool, Aridog. It's NOT POSSIBLE to be more of a stooge poseur than Obama it's...JUST....NOT....POSSIBLE!
And you thought he was something somewhat less than 100+ per-cent???
I'm beginning to have serious doubts about your judgement..
(I mean, if you're going to pull DOR on me and call me a whippersnapper... :) )
Substitute the word nigger for teabagger, even if prompted with that, and "Republicans criticize unfairly" dissolves.
OK -- so he was just repeating the "tea bagger" words ... he could have modified that to show it was not his position -- but beyond that, this is what got me:
I think a fair reading is that I have gone out of my way to listen to legitimate criticism, and defend strongly the rights of everyone to speak their mind -- including those who routinely call me "socialist" or worse.
I think the Obama weasel parse on this is "legitimate criticism."
I did not know there was such a think in this reign. And that's his out.
Besides being an incredible bald faced lie.
He is a legend in his own mind.
@ 60 grit
He is a lefty. And may write over the top?
If he was half as smart as ValJar claims, he would have known better.
Obama has a black belt in passive aggression. This is reminiscent of the time he flipped Hillary the bird by scratching his temple with his middle finger. If she had responded in kind, he would have used gentle, tactful language to point out what a hysterical harpy she was to take such offense at a thoughtful man who was simply rubbing his temple. Ditto with this bit of microaggression. I recommend that the letter writer look for the high ground and use that lofty turf to piss down.
William said...
Tea bagger is an ambiguous term
Actually, it isn't. It's {barely) conceivable he doesn't know the exact sexual practice it derives from, but he certainly knows it is disparaging. So his best defense is "the circle I run in and accept without independent evaluation is disgustingly insulting about people who have different political opinions than we do and I support their efforts."
Not a huge difference between best and worst case in my book.
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