With the “I wasn’t born in a manger” joke? It seems as though it would anger and cut into any gain he has made in the Bible belt.
Last I checked, humility was an acceptable trait for most Christians. “If somebody asks if you’re a god, you say YES” is supposed to be a joke.
I think he was taking more of the risk with the ‘‘I’m a celebrity’’ stuff.
I don’t think people would find ‘‘born in a manger’’ threatening because it’s poking fun at the people who claim he thinks he was. He wasn’t saying he was, or people should think he was–he’s saying it’s absurd for people to compare him to the Messiah–as many of his critics have.
In general though, I thought his speech wasn’t self-deprecating enough. McCain does self-deprecating really well, and it’s quite endearing. Obama seems to struggle with true self-deprecating humor. Not really his shtick. While he read the speech he obviously did not write, he kept laughing with a bemused expression–as if he realized how progressively more outlandish the speech was getting but couldn’t really do anything but plow forward.
I got a kick out of it. I bet the Alfred E. Smith dinner is one of the more enjoyable aspects of political work.
I’m guessing the Bible Belt has already had a chance to digest Rush Limbaugh’s constant references to Obama as “The Messiah.”
I did to. And I agree, the smith dinner was probably a blast.
I don’t think he shot himself in the foot at all. In fact he probably made himself more likeable.
BTW - Obama’s next line was this: **“I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father Jor-El to save the planet Earth.” **
Pretty damn funny if you ask me. He shored up the 80’s generation geeks with that one.
Me, too. I hope you guys are right.
My favorite line was,
“my greatest weakness…its possible I’m a little too awesome.”
I thought both candidates were funny actually. My favorite line was actually McCain’s though: “Glad you could make it Hillary.” Brilliant!
I can’t imagine why. Now, if he had said something like “I was sent from Krypton and, let me tell you, they had trouble fitting the manger into the rocket…” then I could see people getting offended. I wouldn’t agree with them but I could see it.
But Obama saying that he isn’t like Jesus doesn’t seem too offensive.
I loved both speeches but I think that we have finally found Obama’s weakness. He definitely lacks comedic timing. When I think back on the speeches, Obama had better one-liners, but McCain was much funnier.