Watching Tiger -- and behind the scene, his enablers from IMG -- manipulate a mostly in-the-tank gathering of sports "reporters" at the Masters this Monday, reminded me of the Master of all Manipulation. That being President Obama.
If you are a major public figure and are desperate to deceive a majority of the public, the first tool needed to carry out the most effective subterfuge is a complicit, sympathetic, lazy, politically correct, and even corrupt media. With that prerequisite in mind, both Mr. Woods and Mr. Obama are blessed beyond their wildest imaginations.
After the Woods press conference, it was almost impossible not to feel both embarrassed for and disappointed in the Golf Channel as their analysts slobbered all over the world's premier golfer. One only wonders if these analysts also swept the sidewalk before Tiger as he walked, washed and polished his car, and told him repeatedly how "handsome" and "powerful" he was. While it's well understood that the Golf Channel feeds continually from the cash and ratings trough supplied by Mr. Woods, even at that, they elevated "sycophant" to a whole new level.
As to why the Golf Channel bent over backwards to praise the performance of Mr. Woods while the "reporters" in the audience mostly lobbed softballs at him, the answer is easy to understand if one remembers that the majority of sports reporters and analysts are now liberal and work for liberal organizations which often put political correctness well before ethics, qualifications, or professional journalism. As such, many of these "reporters" believe it their duty to go soft on Tiger.
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To that point, a professional athlete I spoke with after the press conference said, "Many people I know believe Tiger has zero conscience and is the most hedonistic and manipulative person in all of sports. They further think he considers fooling the media and the public to be great sport and that he has no intention of losing."
As with Mr. Woods, there is a rapidly growing number of Americans who consider Obama to be possibly the most self-absorbed person in politics who will say and do anything to advance his far-left agenda. The obvious difference between Obama and Woods being if Tiger flies off the rails again, he only hurts his already suffering family while if Obama succeeds in transforming our nation into a nanny state which would be the envy of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, the tens of millions of us who still believe in traditional values and a free and strong United States, will suffer.
To understand the President is to carefully listen to him. There is little doubt that he (along with David Brooks at The New York Times) considers himself to be the smartest person on the planet. As such, he gets quite frustrated and even angry when those Americans not yet under his spell don't bow and pander before him. Sure, the President knows that if he says the sky is suddenly "purple," his adoring and unquestioning servants in the media will scream, "Yes, Mr. President. It's deep purple."
But what of the rest of us? The President fully understands that he still has a serious problem with a majority of Americans. That being, like a bad magician, while he is doing his tricks with one hand, those suspicious of him and his motivations, are carefully watching the other hand as well. For it is that other hand, which holds the keys to a socialist state.
Tiger Woods seems to have spun his way back into competition and increased wealth. We have until November of 2012 to see if Mr. Obama can distract, intimidate, belittle, and manipulate the required number of Americans needed to win reelection and finalize the transformation of our Republic.
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