Me and a friend discussed this over a couple of cold ones, a rather hypothetical hypothetical.
What if a bussload of extreme, really disturbing porn tapes starring Obama suddenly leaked and made readily available on the net for the world. With no question that this is actually the US president.(or similar highly embarrassing scenario )
A lot of chaos in the beginning of course, and he would probably have to leave his post rather soon. But would this have any long lasting major implications on US, the world and the political landscape worldwide?
Granted the republicans would do a lot of high-fives…
Are any of the acts on the tape illegal? If not, I figure his presidency’s legacy gets permanently tainted but life goes on until 2012, by which time the public will be distracted by other, fresher scandals. The Republican candidate, if chosen by or with the influence of tea-partiers, is unpalatable to many Americans and the election, though close, goes to the incumbent.
Actually I think the republicans could revitalize the scandal for the 2012 election and make Obama or anyone he endorsed unelectable. They have shown some skill at smearmongering in the past, and having an actual extreme, really disturbing scandal to work with could only aid them.
You’re fighting the hypothetical - the tapes were explicitly stated in the OP to be extreme and “really disturbing”. The vapors are a given, in the literal sense of the term.
Personally I’m hoping that the president elects not to videotape it when he brings in the girl guides and the latex rabbit.
And really, while the tapes would offend the more prudish, the fact that they were leaked would offend many or most of the people who support him more. Just as there was much more anger on the Left over the fact that the Republican Congress was asking Clinton about blowjobs than about Clinton lying, since they don’t think that’s the business of Congress. “He should have lied, or just told them to go to hell” has the typical sentiment I recall hearing.
Something like a sex tape just doesn’t hurt someone who doesn’t go around lecturing people about “family values” the way it does the hypocrites who do.
Well, really disturbing imagery is fodder for Saw movies. If it is shocking, the major TV networks won’t be able to broadcast it anyway, which (I expect) will deny a great many non-Internet-connected old biddies (presumably the most vulnerable to shock) from ever seeing it. Sure, Fox News will hint at the content and dance around it furiously, unable to get explicit in their descriptions… Meantime, the younger, more tech-savvy crowd will watch it and many websites will spring up to perform comparative film analysis, contrasting it to the Paris Hilton and Pamela Anderson sex tapes.