Child of the 50s figures Obama out
Jack Kemp (not the late politician)
Too much of my misspent youth was in front of a television set, yet there are some valuable things I learned from observing the middlebrow folks’ theater of 1950s sitcoms.
President Obama is like Eddie Haskel on Leave it to Beaver. Eddie would arrive at the Cleaver home, smoothly charm Mrs. Cleaver with a compliment, and as soon as she left the room, he would bully young Beaver, berate him by calling him “squirt,” all to prop up Eddie’s insecure teenage ego. Eddie was obviously more knowing and powerful than the prepubescent Beaver, and he acted like that was some great accomplishment he earned through serious effort rather than just going along with his cultural cues. To hear Eddie tell it, you’d think his swagger came from being captain of the swimming team and a National Merit Scholarship winner. In fact, he was just an older punk kid who probably would never develop the character that you could read in the kindly younger Beaver Cleaver’s face.
Eddie Haskel, however, was less brazen of a liar. He would say things that seemed plausible to Mrs. Cleaver, but since she never traveled in his teenage circles, she could never verify the truth. Like Obama, Eddie would tell her what she wanted to hear, but unlike Obama, he didn’t have to deliver on his promise by holding down a highly responsible job.
But maybe I’m being too harsh on Eddie. He would never “scratch his eye” in public so as to give Mrs. Clinton the finger during a televised debate. And I never heard him refer to any adult female as a “typical woman,” white or otherwise.
In fact, the real Eddie Haskel, Ken Osmond, grew up to be a responsible adult dealing with the demise of his steady work on a hit show. The Internet Movie Database describes him as: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0652119/bio
“Osmond struggled badly in its aftermath. After a hitch in the Army, he grabbed a few TV remnants that came his way on such lightweight comedy shows as “The Munsters” and “Petticoat Junction.” Following a minor role in the youth-oriented flick C’mon, Let’s Live a Little (1967) starring pop singers Bobby Vee and Jackie DeShannon, Osmond pretty much called it quits. He subsequently made a very un-Eddie-like career choice by joining the Los Angeles Police Department. He grew a mustache to help secure his anonymity. A long-time member of its vice squad, he was wounded three times during the line of duty, eventually retired and earned a medical disability pension from the police force.”
END OF QUOTE
I’ve seen Osmond describe being shot in real life on the mean streets of L.A. That makes him a street combat veteran who has served the public at great personal risk. Something tells me the adult Eddie Haskel wouldn’t call police “stupid” or call doctors overcharging exploiters. As a native Angelino, he might even have some good words for car company executives and maybe even health insurance companies.
So when I say Obama is like Eddie Haskel, I’m talking about the phoney character seen on television, not the real decent American guy that he grew up to be.
Maybe we should be calling Obama “squirt.”