Bob Herbert: Why is everyone missing the phallic symbols in McCain’s Britney ad?
posted at 5:03 pm on August 4, 2008 by Allahpundit
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Between this and last week’s Godwin-ing of the crowd scenes, I’m honestly curious to see where the left takes the critique next. One would think they’d either run out of cards to play or would quietly pocket the ones they have left lest they make themselves look more ridiculous, but each new day brings a fresh load of semiotic ore mined. It’s the “Ulysses” of campaign ads — the only limit on what it means is your own imagination. Still, Herbert’s reading warrants special mention, not only because it manages to be simultaneously exceedingly paranoid and pedestrian but because he mangles a fact here so basic that it discredits his entire claim to be a close reader. The tower seen behind Obama at the beginning of the ad is obviously the Victory Column in Berlin — where he recently spoke to 200,000 people, remember? — not the Leaning Tower of Pisa or Washington Monument. For Herbert to get that wrong despite the massive publicity surrounding the location of the speech, especially after it was moved from the Brandenburg Gate, is like having a chyron beneath him that reads, “I don’t know what I’m talking about.” But then, none of the MSNBC staff corrected him so I guess they don’t know what they’re talking about either. Click the image to watch.
Update: I mentioned the fact that Obama has compared himself to Paris Hilton in at least three different posts last week, but for some reason that news is just breaking big today so here’s a link to Newsbusters with the details.
Update: Ah, I see Mark Finkelstein’s post mentions that the Morning Joe crew did eventually point out to Herbert that he had his monuments mixed up. Exonerated!
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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
coldwarrior on August 4, 2008 at 5:06 PM
Apparently Herbert is yet another fine product of our public schools. Thank you NEA.
coldwarrior on August 4, 2008 at 5:09 PM
Hey Herbert, if you’re looking for phallic symbols go to San Fransisco, Speaker Pelosi’s district. Zombietime has photos that are right up your alley.
NOTE: Do not go there folks, this is not a tease, do not go there, this is a warning.
rockhauler on August 4, 2008 at 5:11 PM
DU had a new one today –
rw on August 4, 2008 at 5:11 PM
They see all those hidden symbols.
We see the big arrogant prick parading around like he has already won. We don’t need to put in subtle phallic symbols, we see him for what he is.
RobertInAustin on August 4, 2008 at 5:12 PM
I heard about this on Howie Carr today, and nearly drove off the road I was laughing so hard.
Maybe Miss South Carolina can lend Bob a map. No ideas about what psychiatrist he should visit though.
Buy Danish on August 4, 2008 at 5:12 PM
Obama is a phallic symbol, a socialist one….
adamsmith on August 4, 2008 at 5:12 PM
Blinded by the Lightworker!
carbon_footprint on August 4, 2008 at 5:12 PM
Hoooo! Ouch.
ronsfi on August 4, 2008 at 5:13 PM
At least he did not call it the Leaning Tower of Pizza.
The man writes for “The New York Times” don’t you know.
RobCon on August 4, 2008 at 5:13 PM
Don’t mock Herbert’s ignorance. That will be racist as well.
Nice little racket, you have to admit.
RobCon on August 4, 2008 at 5:15 PM
Back to the bunker everyone! Our subliminal chicanery has been unmasked!
This is seriously more insane than any troofer stuff out there.
Rhinoboy on August 4, 2008 at 5:15 PM
Some of the comments are interesting. One even asked the author if he was self medicating.
RobertInAustin on August 4, 2008 at 5:15 PM
Interesting that Bob Herbert is the only one seeing or noticing phallic symbols.
RJL on August 4, 2008 at 5:18 PM
Wow … stupendously dumb. I don’t know Bob, why don’t you tell me why you see phallicism in eveything. Sounds like Bob lives in the closet, no wonder he can’t tell what the Washington monument, Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Berlin Victory Column look like.
McCain should ask Obama to throw Bob under the bus … I hear there’s quite a party going on under there.
darwin on August 4, 2008 at 5:18 PM
I found more meaning and intellect in this:
“I personally believe, that U.S. Americans,
are unable to do so,
because uh,
some, people out there, in our nation don’t have maps.
and uh…
I believe that our education like such as in South Africa,
and the Iraq,
everywhere like such as…
and, I believe they should uh,
our education over here,
in the U.S. should help the U.S.
or should help South Africa,
and should help the Iraq and Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future,
for us.”
Yes. Miss South Carolina makes far more sense than Herbert.
coldwarrior on August 4, 2008 at 5:18 PM
I bet it must be lonely inside that little fantasy world he lives in.
thekingtut on August 4, 2008 at 5:18 PM
McCain needs a black man or woman as his running mate. That will shut these clowns up.
The question should be: “What does it say about Bob Herbert that he is the only person seeing phallic symbols in McCain’s Britney ad?”
Rod on August 4, 2008 at 5:19 PM
I’m not touching this whole thing with a ten-foot phallic symbol.
Sekhmet on August 4, 2008 at 5:19 PM
Hoe.LEE.SHNIT
mylegsareswollen on August 4, 2008 at 5:20 PM
What a dumb ass. That is not the leaning tower or the Washington Monument, but the Berlin memorial he spoke at.
saiga on August 4, 2008 at 5:20 PM
Well Bob, perhaps the fact that YOU see them and no one else does speaks more about YOU. Hmmmm.
mustng66 on August 4, 2008 at 5:21 PM
If there was one election where the selection of a qualified woman or black VP would win the election, it’s this one.It’s a no brainer for the McCain camp.
mylegsareswollen on August 4, 2008 at 5:21 PM
If you view the world through racial lenses, you’re going to “see” racism or racialism in every act, no matter how innocent that behavior is. And the best part of this (for the practioner) is that you can simply never be proven wrong.
That Mr. Herbert gets to disseminate this nonsense in a major newspaper is, frankly, astonishing.
SteveMG on August 4, 2008 at 5:22 PM
Oh hell with it:
Look, lefties keep thinking it’s some kind of chicanery going on, some subliminal messages that keep people voting Republican and conservative. It’s gotta be that funny looking thing in some freeze frame of a 30-second commerical, some “dog whistle” that only they can see or something. They never stop to think, hey, maybe Americans are just not that into you and your ideas, lefties.
Sekhmet on August 4, 2008 at 5:22 PM
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
a capella on August 4, 2008 at 5:23 PM
Yeah – and not only that, but why did it have to be a WHITE phallic symbols like the Washington monument? Racists!
My collie says:
No collie, it was the Victory Column. It’s got that whole Aryan supremacy thing going on, donchathink’?
My collie says:
C’mon, help me out here.
CyberCipher on August 4, 2008 at 5:23 PM
Does this clown have penis envy? I hope Herbert is registered, he is a dangerous person.
Wade on August 4, 2008 at 5:24 PM
Because he alone has his mind in the gutter?
shick on August 4, 2008 at 5:26 PM
I think I know what Herbert is talking about. If you play the ad backwards it repeats “Ball is Ted” over and over.
tgillian on August 4, 2008 at 5:26 PM
Wow these Obama apologists are really starting to come unhinged.
I wonder what kind of things they’ll be saying in November if he loses?
AZCoyote on August 4, 2008 at 5:26 PM
Perhaps he takes a “wide stance” when in a bathroom stall too?
Liberty or Death on August 4, 2008 at 5:27 PM
Made my day!
TheBigOldDog on August 4, 2008 at 5:28 PM
Maybe dude here just sees phallic symbols everywhere he looks.
*shrugs*
wise_man on August 4, 2008 at 5:29 PM
OOOOOOOO MY F—- GOD!!!!!! THAT IS SOOOOOO GROSSSSSSSS!!!!! THAT’S A PUBLIC PLACE!!!!!!!!! WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!?!?
Andy in Agoura Hills on August 4, 2008 at 5:29 PM
Andy in Agoura Hills on August 4, 2008 at 5:29 PM –
San Francisco values. No more. No less.
coldwarrior on August 4, 2008 at 5:30 PM
I just watched this ads in reverse and it revealed that “Obama is Santa”, not satan mind you, SANTA.
Of all the dirty low down tricks, this tops them all.
rockhead on August 4, 2008 at 5:31 PM
Man, this is comedy gold.
Keep those ads coming, McCain! Can’t wait for the next installment!
rockmom on August 4, 2008 at 5:31 PM
You’ve got that right.
.
rockhauler on August 4, 2008 at 5:11 PM
Andy in Agoura Hills on August 4, 2008 at 5:29 PM
*In my best Charlton Heston voiceover voice* … what has been seen …. can not be unseen ….
*hands out eyebleach to anyone who saw the sign “Abandon hope, all yee who enter here” and clicked on it anyway.
wise_man on August 4, 2008 at 5:32 PM
Andy,
welcome to San Francisco where anything goes. Corruption, decadence, illegal activities, drugs . . . . .in a city run by democrats, represented by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
rockhauler on August 4, 2008 at 5:35 PM
This whole psychoanalyzing of the Hilton-Spears ad by Obama supporters is beyond stupid. I mean really, come on, is this the best you can do?
DanStark on August 4, 2008 at 5:36 PM
You know coldwarrior, I really like a lot of your insight. But I really don’t see why it is necessary to criticize the public schools because Herbert is saying something stupid.
Yes, some public schools have problems. But they aren’t all bad, some are great, and some of us (many?) here have children attending them.
MayBee on August 4, 2008 at 5:37 PM
Wow. It used to be one had to rely on blogs to see people beclown themselves so thoroughly. Now one merely has to turn on MSNBC to get their daily dose of stupid.
It’s like watching an installment of “America’s Dumbest Criminals”, but with criminals replaced with prefessional commentators. It’s just unfortunate that the only people who choose to watch MSNBC are those dumb enough to buy into the Obama (pbuh) cheerleading stupidity.
Hollowpoint on August 4, 2008 at 5:40 PM
+1
brtex on August 4, 2008 at 5:40 PM
Sounds to me like Bob Herbert is the one holding to ugly racial stereotypes as he seems to believe whites fear black men are going to have sex with their white women.
Paul-Cincy on August 4, 2008 at 5:41 PM
With morons like Bob Herbert writing for the New York Times, it’s no wonder why nobody wants to buy that paper anymore.
SoulGlo on August 4, 2008 at 5:43 PM
While this kind of nonsense is quite irritating it’s also quite rewarding. The more these nuts in the liberal media cry racism for every criticism of Obama, the more voters will be tuning them out and turning away from Obama.
Keep it up boys.
RMR on August 4, 2008 at 5:45 PM
Did somebody say phallus?
baldilocks on August 4, 2008 at 5:45 PM
What’s weird is Britney and Paris were shown onscreen for less than a second apiece in the commercial, and that 2 seconds has generated an absurdly huge amount of commentary.
Paul-Cincy on August 4, 2008 at 5:45 PM
You were warned. For those wisely choosing NOT to click on the link (and having seen the pics, I recommend you don’t) it includes a public street festival featuring naked gay dudes, BJs and “golden showers”. Oh, and cops standing right there as if nothing is going on.
Hollowpoint on August 4, 2008 at 5:45 PM
Bob did … he says they’re HUGE!
darwin on August 4, 2008 at 5:47 PM
For this one, I’d like to resort to playground humor. The person who smelt it…
I mean seriously. They’ve gone nuts.
Esthier on August 4, 2008 at 5:49 PM
If you are always looking for phallic symbols, you will see them.
JellyToast on August 4, 2008 at 5:53 PM
Jeeze, I just watched the clip. I think Dick Morris was correct that McCain should stick to security and energy in ads against Obama. The Dims are totally incapable of understanding a simple analogy. Next we’ll be hearing from another Obamite that they saw UFOs and that McCain is trying to suggest that Obama is really an alien! Good Lord.
4shoes on August 4, 2008 at 5:55 PM
He is either out of his mind or jesse jackson threatened to cut his nuts out.
peacenprosperity on August 4, 2008 at 5:57 PM
They know they can’t credibly deny that Obama was accusing McCain of running a racist campaign. So the Messiah has spoken and now the flock must invent the evidence to support the accusation. “You mean you DON’T see the menacingly large black penises dancing across your screen? Seriously, you don’t?!”
Sean68 on August 4, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Well, at least Pat Buchanan, as irritating as he’s been for awhile, had a good sound bite there.
aikidoka on August 4, 2008 at 6:01 PM
Dang it! Now I can’t eat this dadburned Twinkie.
whitetop on August 4, 2008 at 6:03 PM
Did a tingle run up bob’s leg when he watched the ad?
peacenprosperity on August 4, 2008 at 6:04 PM
Phallic symbols? It doesn’t look like a phallic to me. Maybe what they say about black men is true after all. (joke, joke)
bopbottle on August 4, 2008 at 6:04 PM
Um, cause we’re normal? Just spitballing an answer there, sweetheart.
mjk on August 4, 2008 at 6:05 PM
MayBee on August 4, 2008 at 5:37 PM –
No, not all public schools. Obviously.
I have a secondary education degree (Certified in American History, World History, Geography, Civics, Psychology, World Cultural Studies…a one person social studies department.) Earned this degree after my retirement.
I taught in Toledo, Ohio public schools for a short while. Perhaps the most heavily unionized and union-controlled school system in the nation outside of New York City or Detroit, by the NEA’s own figures. In my high school alone we had over a dozen teachers on the roster receiving full pay who never showed up, and had several score students at each grade level who were “enrolled” and passed from grade level to grade level but never attended — ghost students are common when federal funds are dependent on enrollment figures. The school administration called it necessary, I called it fraud. We had two teachers on full salary who were proscribed by law from coming anywhere closer than 1000 feet of a school. Sex convictions involving students. But, the union maintained that they had not violated any union policy so they could not be fired. I was not accepted as a fulltime tenure-trrack teacher because I refused to join the union. Thus ended my teaching career.
I’ve raised five kids. All public school kids. Over the years I’ve had to move several times to get them into schools that actually taught the kids, challenged the kids, educated the kids, and weren’t just glorified daycare centers. I know a good teacher when I see one, I know a bad teacher when I see one.
I blame the power and influence of the NEA for the most part, but also blame a good number of teachers who have no business in the classroom and perhaps should not have been allowed in in the first place.
This Herbert guy…from my experience with public schools in several cities across America…is not at all the aberation, he is pretty much a norm. When we fire a city council member for using a Scandanavian word for miserly, or go after a city council member for using an accepted astronomical term in context…and thousands cheer these events…yes, I have an attitude about the state of education in America.
If I offended you, I apologize. Our education system in America offends me. I don’t expect an apology from the NEA.
coldwarrior on August 4, 2008 at 6:09 PM
There is no doubt about it, the NYT has crashed and is burning…
d1carter on August 4, 2008 at 6:13 PM
That’s my main point!!! Its PUBLIC!!!! What if there was a public street festival with heterosexual sex (you know, the normal kind)???? Would the police stand idlely by during that????? F— SF!!!! Geez, it truly is an evil, corrupt city. I hope an earthquake the 10x the size of the one in 1906 strikes that hellhole. I thought New York was bad.
Andy in Agoura Hills on August 4, 2008 at 6:14 PM
But did the Construction Worker try and stop this mess? Or the Indian Chief?
(I didn’t go to the site, but “gay” and “policeman” is just too easy.)
emailnuevo on August 4, 2008 at 6:19 PM
I mean this is new heights of stupidity, doesn’t this guy have any friends or something to point out to him he is about to say something monumentally stupid on Cable!?
I go right to the Maddow clips for the stupidity, what are you saying I need to watch the Morning Joe clips now too? This is asking a little much allahpundit. I can’t handle all that stupidity, you know Mika is not vying for the Nobel any time soon.. I’m afraid this is all you dude, you’re going to have to shoulder this burden alone. Maybe wrap your head in tin foil or something if you are going to be viewing this stuff regularly, it’s not healthy.
Be careful out there!!
saus on August 4, 2008 at 6:20 PM
From 2007: Toddlers at the Folsom Street Fair.
And a photo from the event in 2005 on that page.
The caption on the photo reads: “Veronica Kruschel, 2, drinks water while her twin sister Zola enjoys the Folsom Street Fair environment. Their parents Gary Beuschel and John Kruse (not photographed) watch nearby while having a lunch break.”
…. a 2008 Sodom & Gomorrah.
wise_man on August 4, 2008 at 6:23 PM
Please, no crotch shots. Thank you.
pedestrian on August 4, 2008 at 6:25 PM
Heh. Br’er Rabbit.
};-]
leepro on August 4, 2008 at 6:26 PM
Relax Dude, it’s the pitchers, right? Like most of us, you don’t believe it until you “see” it. Intellectually I ‘knew it’, but emotionally didn’t really believe it until those images.
You see images of some stoner smokin’ a little weed, and you kinda giggle a little, or go ‘tsk tsk’. You see your government chose to legalize gambling, and you kinda shrug and say ‘what are we gonna do’.
You try to engage the left in reason debate, you try to keep your arguments on an academic level, but once you see those images and realize that is the road the democrat party is taking this country, you get P’Od.
Then you try to explain to the libertarians that there have to be limits to behavior, and they reject your arguments.
So now we have a choice between McCain, and Obama. Pick one.
rockhauler on August 4, 2008 at 6:28 PM
Beware, leepro. It’s Br’er Rabbit with about a hundred of his friends all wearing leather straps with a hardon performing sex acts on each other in public.
wise_man on August 4, 2008 at 6:28 PM
No, it won’t. BUT! It will make them continue to show their true colors…which is fine by me.
SouthernGent on August 4, 2008 at 6:30 PM
Thanks Herbert, You took a dumb ad and made an even dumber commentary. Herbert, are you secretly working for the McCain campaign?
RobCon on August 4, 2008 at 6:30 PM
Racist!!!!!!!!!
- The Cat
MirCat on August 4, 2008 at 6:31 PM
ha ha, That was a rorschach test and we discovered his proclivities.
All I could see was a c-word.
Bwahahaha
TheSitRep on August 4, 2008 at 6:32 PM
Racist!!!!!!!
MirCat on August 4, 2008 at 6:33 PM
Herbert is seeing just as many phallic symbols as Louis Farrakhan saw conspiracies all over Washington’s monuments at the Million Man March. (Remember that hilariously nutty speech, guys?)
Next thing you know, they’d compare Obama and Britney to O.J. and Nicole. This is absurd!
newton on August 4, 2008 at 6:33 PM
Rac. . umm. . Sexist!!!!!!!!
- The Cat
P.S. Ok, I’m done now.
MirCat on August 4, 2008 at 6:34 PM
I saw the ad. I saw the Berlin Victory Monument. I thought of marching jackbooted SS, hackenkreuz flags flowing in the breeze, the Horst Wessel Lied playing in the background. [Which is why I thought it a dumb idea for Obama to have his first major foreign event there.]
Herbert saw the same ad and saw a phallus.
Guess I’m a Nazi.
coldwarrior on August 4, 2008 at 6:39 PM
Been there already (the blurred version).
Just a joke on the “don’t go there” warning!
[duh!]
leepro on August 4, 2008 at 6:39 PM
Nice one Allah.
I think I saw a guy in that ad with a straw sticking out of his drink and the girl next to him was staring at it like she was dreaming about wild, crazy two-on-one sex in a Coca-Cola factory with Obama and his pet goldfish.
Anyone else notice the same thing? There’s no doubt. It’s there dude.
BWAAAAHAAHAAA.
fogw on August 4, 2008 at 6:41 PM
With morons like Herbert it is easy to see why the profits of the NYT are falling like a dagger. This has to be the most idiotic interpretation of reality in history.
volsense on August 4, 2008 at 6:57 PM
And some of us teach in them.
Bob's Kid on August 4, 2008 at 6:58 PM
Only a brainwashed liberal like Herbert would say the Victory Column in Berlin looks like a penis. The Germans should be very proud. Where is the apology?
volsense on August 4, 2008 at 7:04 PM
Dude needs to get his head checked.
WisCon on August 4, 2008 at 7:12 PM
Sounds like old Bob has seen too many Enzyte commercials.
Sanjoboy on August 4, 2008 at 7:18 PM
No body’s missing anything but you Bob. Clearly, the ad had to be, and must have been racist…uhhh huhhh! /Sarcasm
byteshredder on August 4, 2008 at 7:22 PM
And the funny thing is; these are the very people that would be stoned to death, beheaded and their bodies desecrated by the people we are fighting to protect these butt pirates from, but, they want us to “just get along”. A$$holes.
Big John on August 4, 2008 at 7:38 PM
If you believe you have to campaign in Europe to win the presidency of the United States of America, you are more or less admitting that your are screwed.
All hail the messiah!
RMR on August 4, 2008 at 8:40 PM
So, the question remains:
Why did Obama choose to give a speech in front of a phallic symbol like the Victory Column?
Buy Danish on August 4, 2008 at 9:20 PM
“…and he says ‘Rectum…hell, it nearly killed him!’”
Oh, man…stop it, Bob, stop, you’re slayin’ me.
Jaibones on August 4, 2008 at 9:55 PM
So which zombiephoto is Herbert in?
platypus on August 4, 2008 at 10:09 PM
Which photo? I don’t know about that, but I suspect that from now on when ever someone says ‘Bob Herbert’ we’ll all immediately think ‘Dick Herbert’.
rockhauler on August 4, 2008 at 10:17 PM
Bob Herbert should have been talking with Dick Cheney. He’d tell Bob that not since President Johnson has there been such a new direction in subliminal manipulation. What woody do if he saw such behavior from Obama’s chief of staff? Willie respond appropriately or like like a ding-dong.
Really though. Nothing subliminal going on around here.
MoCoM on August 4, 2008 at 11:09 PM
A gem, Sir (or Madam).
SlimyBill on August 4, 2008 at 11:13 PM
I feel for folks like this. They are so obsessed with race! They need serious help, or perhaps just a bigger shovel?
Gatordoug on August 4, 2008 at 11:14 PM
I went on the Bob Herbert NYT website and again on moron Gergen’s website to remind them how utterly ignorant they are. Herbert has to be an affirmative action hire for the gray rag. ON second thought most of their writers are light on fact and heavy on stupid. Gergen was given the post about the 2005 quote by Barry about PAris and I asked him if this was Chicago code for “uppity!”
wepeople on August 4, 2008 at 11:16 PM
Let me guess, Herbie’s in the bag for the Chosen One?
GarandFan on August 4, 2008 at 11:38 PM
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