Recently, Barack Obama and Joe Biden went on a little road trip to Ray's Hellburger in Arlington Virginia with the supposed purpose of ordering a burger for lunch. This triggered a firestorm of criticism from the right wing media, everything from "why did he choose a place called Hellburger?" to "What kind of man orders a burger with Dijon mustard instead of ketchup?".A message for right wing host Laura Ingraham: ordering Dijon mustard is not a sign that men love each other at Hellburgers. Maybe if Obama had ordered "an Au Poivre burger with a black peppercorn crust, aged Danish bleu cheese, cognac and sherry sauteed mushrooms, and grilled red onions." you could call that a fagburger. But at Ray's Hellburger it is called the B.I.G. Poppa.
Of course, any intelligent person, liberal or conservative understands this lunch break was what we call a photo-op. I'm not trying to be insulting about the "intelligent" but come on, nobody can think that driving 40 people and eight armoured SUV's out to Arlington would be less expensive than sending out a car with one guy to get the burgers. The whole event was obviously just to manipulate the public image of President Obama. The question is, what was Obama trying to accomplish, and did he succeed?
On the surface, you might think he failed, because the right wing press accused him of pretending to be a real guy "hangin out with his 'bro", and so they made him look like a phony instead of a real guy.
But propaganda works on a subconscious level. The real story is perception of security. Obama is the most threatened president ever. There are more Americans who could potentially try to assassinate him than any other president. We don't think about it all the time, as the security tries to be discreet. But it is not a pretty picture.
This photo-op shows us that Obama can mix in with ordinary people without a crowd of secret service people around him, without a bulletproof plexiglass shield, and order his own burger and even take his own sweet time about it. The "real guy" message is irrelevant. The most important message is Obama is not afraid to stand in line at a burger joint for fear of an assassin's bullet.
There are many ways that Obama is trapped by the security situation. I'm sure Obama would also like to send his kids to a public school but how long do you think that would last before some lunatic burst into the school with a dynamite corset and blew up a lot of innocent kids? Nobody is going to sacrifice their kids, or even their classmates to polish their image.
I have done a few blogs about motorcycling self defence. But it is based on the idea that nobody wants to kill me because nobody cares who I am. With the president of the USA security is a difficult job, and the secret service has lost a few over the years. But pushing the security envelope in a controlled situation has long term advantages. That's true for any kind of defence strategy. After this story hit the press, some one might decide to begin hanging out at Hellburger, waiting patiently with a gun for the next time the President needs a burger. If they do, they will be easily scooped up for questioning. I'm pretty sure the secret service likes to occasionally yank the chain of would be assassins and see what comes out from under the rock, instead of just waiting, hoping to be lucky enough to jump in front of a bullet.
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