The Trouble With Cool

Following up my observations on Obama as the cool candidate, another way of looking at it -- indeed, probably the correct way of looking at it -- is in terms of Garance Franke-Ruta's old observation (that I can't find on Google for some reason) that Hillary Clinton is the middlebrow candidate in the race. That, more than cool/uncool, captures the Wire versus Ugly Betty dynamic.

And it's also, of course, Clinton's big advantage. TV critics like The Wire but Ugly Betty has a much bigger audience. At the end of the day, how many people know who will.i.am is?

Comments

And it's also, of course, Clinton's big advantage. TV critics like The Wire but Ugly Betty has a much bigger audience.

What's not clear to me is that she has this advantage because she actually appeals to a bigger audience or simply because more people know her last name.

Posted by Jake | February 5, 2008 5:52 PM

Will.I.Am. is actually a perfect example of the middlebrow. He is rap that parents can like (also see Smith, Will). It is not like Obama is talking up Peanut Butter Wolf.

Posted by Clashkid | February 5, 2008 5:54 PM

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Posted by PiriketSeverler | February 5, 2008 5:57 PM

Another way of looking at it is that comparing presidential candidates to TV shows is a pretty good demonstration that you've run out of constructive things to say about the election and are just stretching for bullshit.

Posted by Led | February 5, 2008 5:58 PM

Wait a minute, Will.I.Am is cool now? That's it. I quit. I hereby disavow myself from "cool." Have fun talking about The Clipse, everyone, I'm off to browse iTunes for Shania Twain tracks.

Posted by OhioBoy | February 5, 2008 5:58 PM

Another way of looking at it is that comparing presidential candidates to TV shows is a pretty good demonstration that you've run out of constructive things to say about the election and are just reaching for bullshit.

Posted by Led | February 5, 2008 5:58 PM

Yeah, surely will.i.am is as middlebrow as it gets? It's not like Black-eyed Peas are underground.

Posted by John | February 5, 2008 5:59 PM

In the case of a big night for Obama, I want a post titled "No More Hatin': Big Ups to B-Roc"

Posted by onthegreyriver | February 5, 2008 6:02 PM

And it's also, of course, Clinton's big advantage. TV critics like The Wire but Ugly Betty has a much bigger audience. At the end of the day, how many people know who will.i.am is?

And Ugly Betty is on NBC, while The Wire is on HBO. Everyone with a TV gets NBC. No where near everyone gets HBO.

Posted by Joe Klein's conscience | February 5, 2008 6:04 PM

At the end of the day, how many people know who Ted Kennedy is?

PS- "at the end of the day" is a Britishism. Do not use.

Posted by Bloix | February 5, 2008 6:12 PM

A much more insightful comparison:

Obama = Nirvana
Clinton = Pearl Jam
McCain = Mudhoney
Romney = Stone Temple Pilots

Posted by blah | February 5, 2008 6:12 PM

"At the end of the day, how many people know who will.i.am is?"

I don't know. But at the end of *this* day, I think, the number will be higher.

Posted by Ted | February 5, 2008 6:13 PM

At the end of the day, how many people know who will.i.am is?

Well, certainly everyone knows who Scarlett Johansson are.

(And yes, I made that plural on purpose. Get it? Naughty joke!)

Posted by Woody Bombay | February 5, 2008 6:27 PM

There is no fucking way in hell that Clinton is Pearl Jam.

Posted by Jake | February 5, 2008 6:30 PM

Forget blah's rock band analogy, the real way to look at the candidates in the race is through this year's best picture nominees:

Obama - No Country for Old Men (highbrow critic's pick - Obama is not an "old man," the only film from the pack that promises excitement.)

Clinton - Atonement (the Middlebrow pick. Based on a best-selling novel means built in fan base. Not as action-packed or charming as opponents, but adaption of complex novel supports claims of greater substance)

McCain - There Will be Blood (title says it all. McCain will keep the troops in Iraq for 100 years and bomb Iran.)

Romney - Michael Clayton (boring and corporate, starring a guy who's suspiciously good-looking. People can't believe it's in the running for the highest honor)

Huckabee - Juno (scrappy underdog. Achieved great success without much money. Quirky and funny, but some have found it light on substance. Carries an anti-abortion message)

Posted by Michael T Sweeney | February 5, 2008 6:31 PM

Actually, Ugly Betty airs on ABC and is a critical darling. Is it as cool or critically hip as The Wire? No, but I don't think a show that gay-friendly, immigrant-friendly, and anti-sizist is precisely "middlebrow" either. Now, Clinton also likes Grey Anatomy, and that is middlebrow (and also airs on ABC).

Posted by dckatiebug | February 5, 2008 6:36 PM

People do vote on likability. The coolness factor is real -- although50 cent (G-Unit) is supporting HRC. But I never hoped to see our young voters flocking to a candidate for the same reasons idiots in 2000 and 2004 flocked to Bush -- that is, I'd like to have a beer with that dude, ideally at my aunt's annual barbeque.

I love Barack, but his health care plan sucks, and the punk voted for Dick Cheney's Energy bill. HRC voted for the Iraq resolution, but at least her withdrawal policy is more aggressive than Barack's. As an environmentally conscientious person, I can't support Barack, no matter how cool the cat is.

Posted by Israel | February 5, 2008 6:38 PM

And it's also, of course, Clinton's big advantage. TV critics like The Wire but Ugly Betty has a much bigger audience. At the end of the day, how many people know who will.i.am is?

This is the wrong question if you're trying to draw a distinction between "highbrow" and "cool." Obscurity isn't the same thing as sophistication. And Clinton is not automatically the more superficial candidate simply because she has higher name recognition than Obama.

Also, the (middlebrow?) analogy of Clinton/Obama to The Wire/Ugly Betty doesn't really hold up. Virtually every professional TV critic will say that The Wire is a better show than Ugly Betty. It's not the case that virtually every professional political commentator, every expert on various aspects of public policy, etc., will say that Obama would make a better president than Clinton, or is running a better campaign. So "Rubes prefer X, but smart people prefer Y" doesn't apply in this case.

Posted by JB | February 5, 2008 6:38 PM

Ok here it goes,
Obama - Bob Dylan / Johnny Cash

Clinton - Britney Spears / The Foo Fighters

:)

Posted by Kevin Q | February 5, 2008 6:40 PM

"I'm off to browse iTunes for Shania Twain tracks."

May I recommend the Corrs? Shania's husband "Mutt" Lange co-wrote "Breathless" with Andrea...Most listened to single all over Europe in 2000, and sold a million copies in the US, their primary US success.

The music video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp7fK_JPPsY&feature=related

Live performance in Trafalgar Square in London for "South Africa Freedom Day":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuI1BdUayJE&feature=related

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | February 5, 2008 6:41 PM

Every election cycle I pray that the REAL American people will finally elect the best candidate.

Every election cycle I cry that my countrymen could be so stupid.

Then I look at how dumbed down all forms of media is toward our elections and I no longer blame my countrymen.

The Wire -v- Ugly Betty? Yikes...

How about honest -v- manipulating?

Posted by G Davis | February 5, 2008 6:44 PM

I'd say the better analogy is that Clinton is like a broadcast TV candidate and Obama is like a cable/satellite TV candidate. Because it is capacity constrained and almost entirely dependent on ads for revenue, broadcast TV is forced to program to the lowest common denominator in a handful of relatively broad demographics. Cable/satellite TV in contrast is able to offer many more channels and has subscription-based revenue (allowing the aggregation of demand among niche markets), and thus is able to offer a greater variety and quality of programming.

Or something like that. Really, the point is just that people keep forgetting that Obama has appeal among many different groups, and trying to figure out just one group that supports him is a conceptual mistake.

Posted by DTM | February 5, 2008 6:44 PM

Obama is the Beatles, Clinton is the Stones, Edwards is Hendrix.

Posted by Gary Sugar | February 5, 2008 7:11 PM

...and I am the eggman.

Posted by gaucho | February 5, 2008 7:23 PM

will.i.am cool? God bless you, Matt, but please don't make hip hop analogies anymore.

Posted by Sean T. Collins | February 5, 2008 7:23 PM

KevinQ:

If we're comparing the candidates to classic rockers, I would say that Obama is Jim Morrison - a cool dude who's more famous for his style than his accomplishments. Hillary would be Tom Petty - not a trailblazer or innovator, but chugging along, doing relatively high quality work consistently. What I really want is Blonde On Blonde, but I'll buy a Tom Petty or Doors CD if that's all the store has that day.

I dare somebody to extend this metaphor further.

Posted by Henry | February 5, 2008 7:32 PM

When did Maureen Dowd start writing for the atlantic?

Seriously.

Posted by M.O. | February 5, 2008 7:34 PM

There is no fucking way in hell that Clinton is Pearl Jam.

Seriously. If Obama is Nirvana, Clinton can only be Warrant.

Posted by J.B. | February 5, 2008 8:18 PM

A little birdie told me the Obama campaign is going to start using "My Hump" as its theme song ...

Posted by Other Ezra | February 5, 2008 8:35 PM

As any true hipster knows, whether Obama likes The Wire is not the issue. The real question is whether he liked The Wire before everybody else.

Oh and will.i.am is wack.as.hell.

Posted by UN Plaza | February 5, 2008 8:54 PM

Another way of looking at it is that comparing presidential candidates to TV shows is a pretty good demonstration that you've run out of constructive things to say about the election and are just stretching for bullshit.

I'll say. This is the kind of crap that Dowd's spun an entire career from. We oughta call in David Attenborough so he can capture film of a larval media gasbag going into his final molt.

Posted by sglover | February 5, 2008 10:44 PM

Obama=The Jackson 5
Clinton=The Cowsills
McCain=The Partridge Family
Romney=The Osmonds
Huckabee=The Archies

Posted by The February Fool | February 5, 2008 11:39 PM

"going into his final molt."

I'd say Matt is far from being into his "final molt". That will be when some bigger media operation offers him a REAL pundit job. He'll be pandering with Bill Kristol, then. Right now, he's just a "wannabe pundit".

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | February 6, 2008 2:40 AM

Matt and Garance are right, Hillary is the middlebrow candidate.

Economically I'm middlebrow, but, to toot my own horn, i'm a little more curious than others in my group. (maybe they're too busy making a livin and dealing with life). Does that make me "wine track?" Fine, although I prefer beer and hard liquor.

Hillary's relative win yesterday reminds me of that Mencken quote:

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."

However Obama is doing much, much better than the mainstream-middlebrow media would have led you to believe up until the Iowa primary and he has demonstrated to a cynical culture that change is not impossible.

Posted by Peter K. | February 6, 2008 12:05 PM

Who the heck is will.i.am?

I think the Best Picture analogy is the best so far even if I kind of like McCain.

I'm not sure what analogies I'd do. Obama is not really liked by a fairly small group of smart people, he's nearly equalling Clinton, so I don't think "the Wire" works. Possibly Obama is "House" while Hillary is "Grey's Anatomy." The ratings aren't that dissimilar, but I believe "Grey's" is generally ahead. They are dealing with similar subjects, but with a different style. Both have soured a tad from their prime. "House" is more clever, but in a very real sense it's also pretty formulaic.

Or you could reverse it with Obama being "Grey's" and Hillary being "House." Obama is emotionally appealing and ethnically diverse, but said to be somewhat lacking in substance. Similar is said of Grey's. Meanwhile Hillary is seen as tough, competent, and a go-getter who has strong problems with likeability. Granted that's more like "House" the character, with Bill being her Wilson perhaps, than the show itself.

Posted by Thomas R | February 10, 2008 7:25 AM