All You Need To Know

1. Shit Got Real
2. Shit Got Really Real
3. A real piece of shit
4. A really big piece of shit

@ManchuCandidate: Not too late for me to redo the alt-text.

And thanks to my hamster overlord for inserting the page break. Sometimes I get a little too excited and ahead of myself.

@SanFranLefty: Intervention aside, what impressed me about your selection was the context: Mitt always smirks — it’s one of the most fucking annoying things about him — but I thought the initial reactions to that last photo were cheap shots.

But match those with today’s memorial photos, and you see the point: Presidency is Performance, and one thing a Preznident needs to perform is feigned gravitas when appropriate. Mitt didn’t know enough to look solemn until he reached the safety of the Green Room, where he could then drop the face and burst out laughing.

I always give Reagan credit for one thing: His address the night of the Challenger explosion. That was pitch-perfect — and it didn’t matter whether he believed a word of it.

Mitt’s smirk recalls another smirker. It’s everywhere: Smirking Mitt Walking Away From Stuff.

@nojo: The funny thing is, I posted this while reading this article in Vanity Fair about Obama talking about how he refuses to play a role. He may be criticized for being as cold as ice, but I want a president who is able to detach enough to view all of this with an appropriate level of detachment and bemusement. I aspire to that level of analytical skills.

@SanFranLefty: I don’t know if it’s the same article, but I like that he replaced all the decorative china with original patents. “I’m not a plates kind of guy”.

I wonder if it’s a Mormon thing. I’ve known some Mormons who smile or smirk all the time. It’s kinda weird.

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: a”beatific smile” emanating from a grand sense of entitlement. kinda like a “smirk”

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: @texrednface: The smirk annoys the shit out of me — as mentioned — but I’m always wondering how much I’m projecting a caricature on it.

Jimmy’s smile was notorious, for example — “I’ll never lie to you,” unless I do, and the smile’s the tell.

And wingnuts go mad over what they see as the Michelle Scowl or the Barry Aloofness.

Mitt’s Smirk is a Game Face: It’s what he projects to the public to hide whatever he’s thinking. It’s the Default Position. I don’t think he intends it to express Pissing On You From a Considerable Height, although that’s how it comes off. Rather, I think he’s scared to death behind it.

It might indeed be a Mormon Thing — akin to Minnesota Nice, or Have a Nice Day Northwest. We’re all painfully polite in Oregon, but that doesn’t protect us against having emotions. We’re just all passive-aggressive to compensate.

@nojo: And wingnuts go mad over what they see as the Michelle Scowl

Someone near and dear to me (Hi Mom!) whines about her “overbite”, which I’m convinced is a RW meme with racial overtones.

@nojo: “Mitt’s Smirk is a Game Face: It’s what he projects to the public to hide whatever he’s thinking….I think he’s scared to death behind it.”

or perhaps a grimace indicating disgust with himself and a sense others see him as a total POS.

/add
Or “grimacing” indicates variety of medical conditions

or this:

the “grimacing” pattern of zygomaticus major activity was observed in those who were less likely to use the cognitive reappraisal strategy to regulate their emotions. Like you said: “he is scared to death”

@Beggars Biscuit: Same article. I laughed at that line, thought it was great that he swapped patents and the Emancipation Proclamation for plates in the china cabinet. I didn’t realize Faux News had created a controversy over Barry swapping out a bust of Winston Churchill for a bust of MLK, and that Mittens has said at campaigns he would return Churchill’s bust to the Oval Office.

How’s the mood at State in Foggy Bottom? Shock and sadness? Disgust with Mittens?

@SanFranLefty: I read the VF article Tuesday night — right before shit went down — and it provided some very useful context to the unfolding events.

That said, I also think it’s twice as long as it needs to be. The scene-setting is a tad overdone.

@texrednface: Are you familiar with A Boy and His Dog? If I wanted to jam on caricaturing the Mitt Smirk, that’s where I’d start.

ADD: The trailer is too Seventies to be of much use (or too Sixties, since you can feel the Strangelove riff), but you can see folks wearing smiley painted faces among the crosscutting — faces they wear while committing atrocities. There’s the caricature.

@nojo: Yes, some editing would have helped. Or less Michael Lewis, more Obama.

@SanFranLefty: The Ambo was much loved. Mittens, not so much. But civil servants try not to wear their politics on their lanyards.