White House Opens Up To Fanboys

No doubt holding some special edition Inaguration DVD and wearing an oversized T-shirt reading "Commander Guy" in block letters, a bunch of milbloggers descended upon the Roosevelt Room to meet their deity President. And the results are kind of embarrassing.

" Mrs. Greyhawk" of the Mudville Gazette wrote: "It was history in the making. This alone was awe-inspiring and I did have to concentrate hard to keep from having an idiotic grin on my face thru out the meeting, especially since we were all discussing serious issues.

"Unfortunately, I did not get to say much since the President gave very long but thought provoking answers to the important questions given him [by] others."

Mrs. Greyhawk added another highlight: "I tinkled in the Whitehouse."

I also enjoyed the guy who proudly exclaimed that this was the first President to meet with bloggers in the White House. Considering there weren't any blogs in 2000 beyond Suck.com and Josh Marshall (who only started during the Florida election fiasco) and a couple others, this isn't really saying a lot. It's like saying Bush was the first President ever to appear on American Idol.

But there's a disturbing quality to this meeting, not just the fact that the tough guy milbloggers are sitting there preening and drooling as if they're backstage with Foghat. No, it's the language the President keeps using in order to appear "with it" to the kids.

It was very cool. The President of the United States slapped my hand and called me “brutha”. Top that…

"Brutha"? Who is he, Isaac the bartender from Love Boat? And wait, there's more:

On the new Iraqi government’s need to gain the trust of their people: “Does the average cat understand… this is a government for the people?” (yes, the President said “cat”. Groovy.)

Groovy if it's 1973 or you're watching "Shaft in Africa."

I'm beginning to wonder if the President is like Mearth from Mork & Mindy, and he's aging backwards instead of forwards. How else to explain the rapid deployment of the word "cat" like he's an adolescent at an amateur poetry slam?

I've been lucky enough to do a couple of these kinds of meetings with politicians (Dick Durbin, Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson), and I try to ask actual questions and get information if at all possible. I don't go places to say "thank you" and get the pol to sign my cleavage. The authoritarian daddy-right is just letting their slip show on this one.