Mandarin Mail – Letter from Krypton….
Your Mandarin would like to share with you, the loyal Gormogon reader*, an email from JM, our mid-south operative:
Robert Gibbs, Obama’s press secretary, has rubbed me the wrong way for a very long time.
Probably what bothers me the most is that Team Obama, arguably one of the slickest operations of all time, has a bumbling goofy Rubinesque white-guy as their press secretary.
Bush had a ‘straight-man’ Ari Fleisher, and ‘a charmer’ in the late Tony Snow.
Clinton had ‘tough guy’ Joe Lockhart doing blocking and tackling during the Monica years.
Obama, the one, has chosen a guy who does not give the outward appearance of anything remotely Obamaesque.
Then it hit me while watching Superman cartoons with my son…
I was thinking of Kevin Smith’s view of Clark Kent. When Kal-El, the last son of Krypton, created a secret identity for himself, he created a parody of how he saw people, meek, bumbling, and incompetent. Not a flattering view of the human race.
Robert Gibbs’s persona is how Team Obama views Middle America. He is the administrations Clark Kent.
JM, I find this analysis of Mr. Gibbs fascinating, but wonder if you give this pompous ass too much credit. I’m sure you are correct that his view, and that of the administration, is that Middle America is a hive of rubes, boobs, and idiots, but doubt that Mr. Gibbs possesses the intelligence to actually create a persona to reflect these views. I think what you are seeing is the true Robert Gibbs.
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The Mandarin, whose real name is 吏恆, joined the order in 1309, and introduced the Gormogons into England during the 18th Century.
The Mandarin enjoys spending time with his pet manticore, Βάρἰκος, or Barry (who can be found in the Bestiary). When not in the Castle…well, frankly, nobody is quite sure where he goes.
The Mandarin popularized the fine art of “gut booting,” by which he delivers a powerful kick to the stomach of anyone that annoys him. Although nearly universal today, the act of gut booting or threatening someone or something with a gut boot is solely due to him.