Tea Party Mans the Swift Boat: Obama As Angry, Bobbling, "Uncle Slam"

As the Tea Party moves into place as the far-right’s 2012 Swift Boat posse, it’s already testing various lines of attack on Obama. One we think could be effective is embodied in the simple caricature above on sale at a recent Tea Party Express rally.

Where Obama presented himself in ’08 as a symbol of optimism, hope and effectiveness (“Yes, we can”), the Tea Party — without resorting to religion or racism, by the way — is adapting some of Obama’s less flattering, but demonstrated personality characteristics to drive home an opposite picture.

Although it hasn’t received as much focus as the perpetually- (some would argue, terminally-)bipartisan and conciliatory Obama, what the American people have also witnessed, on the flip side, is the angry and disappointed Obama, the one who lashes out at the uncompromising opposition by comparing GOP leaders to his daughters. What the doll does, while fully granting Obama his patriotism and the identity of the father figure, is to take the persona of “the only grownup in the room” — a net positive (and one which doomed McCain), and nails Obama with it.

Holding the father role over Obama’s head, the bobbleheaded epitome of government is characterized as a complainer with a superiority complex. Combine that with the also-clever labeling of Obama this week by the Republicans as “President Zero” (coupling August’s zero employment gains to the charge that Obama can’t deliver) and the irritated and angry expressions we see out of Obama (illustrated recently by the “they left me at the alter” line or his “Frustrated” blast email) only reinforces the subtext behind the doll that “Yes, we can!” is really “No Can Do,” with the President overly inclined, in the face of the nation’s problems, to complain, wag that finger and blame someone else for it.

(photo: Jim Young/Reuters. caption: A U.S. President Barack Obama doll is seen for sale at a rally for the Tea Party Express in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, September 1, 2011. The organization is on their 5th national bus tour making stops in 29 cities and ending in Florida on September 12.)