Amused Cynic

I’m sure you’ve seen this video which has been circulating the blogosphere over the weekend:

It is eerie, and I commented on it back in July [Edit: The smile phenomenon, not the video]; since I’m kinda busy today, this leads me to the last refuge of the busy blogger….The Repost! From July 1, 2009:

Big Hollywood’s Myrna Sokoloff is on to something here:

Presidents have nicknames. Clinton was” Bubba” or “Slick Willy,” if you didn’t like him. ”The Comeback Kid” if you did. Reagan was “Dutch” from his sportscaster days or “The Gipper” from the movies. But love him or hate him you had to admit Reagan was “The Great Communicator.”

President Obama should have a nickname from our side. Words mean something we are reminded all the time. So I am going to name him “The Smile.”

If you watch him at “town meetings” when he’s pressing his agenda and making statements that go unchallenged from the adoring crowds, he comes across as calm, reassuring and easy going while he’s attempting to dismantle American capitalism. His answer to everything is to smile.

From my perspective in Hollywood, I see that people respond to him like they do to a movie star. It’s the face, the eyes, the smile, not what he says. This phenomenon shows up in the polls. His personal popularity holds around 60%, but if you ask about specific policies, Americans don’t agree with him. Americans by wide margins do not want to close Guantanamo, are against affirmative action, and against late term abortion. The majority want him to cancel the stimulus and hate the bailouts!

But out here in L.A. we understand this. Star quality is not scientific. We just know it when we see it. Fans react to a star with an adoration which makes them buys tickets to movies and buy the DVD so they can watch it over and over. Just listen to the fans screams for the stars on the red carpet at the awards shows.

President Obama’s crowds in the campaign and his town meetings have the same reaction. All he has to do is smile.

But it reminded me of an even more appropriate moniker for The One….The Mask. See what you think.

Would that what lurks behind Obama’s mask were as innocuous as the Stanley Ipkiss/Jim Carrey character from the movie. We will not be so lucky. “From Zero to Hero,” indeed.