The day a nutjob preacher from New York bested David Alan Grier of Chocolate News fame

The nutjob is the Reverend James David Manning, a former toiletry and auto marketing executive turned professional curmedgeon, if not a hatchet man from the fever swamps of Harlem trash. And the David Alan Grier mentioned in the heading is the notable alum from In Living Color who is rocking Comedy Central with Chocolate News, a show described by Grier as what Tavis Smiley would sound like if he was funny. (More on this comedy hat-trick in later posts.)
If truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, then the two videos featured in this blog show that bulging-veins demagoguery can sometimes be funnier than scripted comedy.The video in which Reverend Manning calls “Oh-bama” a “long-legged Mack Daddy” would be ready for prime time, Saturday Night Live style, were it not for its egregious trashing of the bounds of acceptable comedy.

The things he says about Obama’s mother are unrepeatable for reasons that go beyond “PC” sensibilities. Reverend Manning ain’t no Archie Bunker and his comments (beyond what is transcripted in this blog) lack the artistic license of “All In The Family” Bunkerisms.

If Sarah Palin “wrote” her own punchlines for Tina Fey’s get up on Saturday Night Live, then Reverend Manning bested the Alaskan Governor (in the transcripted portion) by a New York mile. The congregation which had a hard time keeping a straight face through it all, seems to confirm this impression. Watch the altar boys standing in behind the Reverend struggle to maintain their composure.

“Oh-bama is a Mack Daddy.
He pimps white women and black women.
He got started. You didn’t notice him
until he brought out those big-chested white women,
with their tight tee-shirts and their short pants.
That is what a pimp does. Oh come on!
You don’t get your campaign started
with a big chested white woman.
She must be a 54D. Double-D.(Audience snicker)
And a pair of white … and a pair of shorts on.
That is what started his campaign.
He put his name on two big 54Ds.(Audience laughter)
Oh-bama! That is where you first saw his name.
That is the first place I saw it – on two big ol’ tits.” (Audience laughter)
Reverend James D. Manning.

The comedy abruptly ends as suddenly as it began with the pastor veering off into a harangue about Obama’s mother and President Bill Clinton. By the end of it, Rev. Manning is firmly ensconced within the lunatic fringe of certifiably senile sexagenarians. For the record,  he believes that Oprah Winfrey is the Anti-christ. And remarks made on his eponymous Manning Report, expose him as nothing but a political hatchet man masquerading as a man of the cloth.  © Cyberaxis – Dendroaspips Polylepis, 2008.

And just for the sheer voyeurism of it, compare the two vids with Alan Keyes here.  He is gonna be an interesting character to watch along with Rev. Manning in the next 4 years.

Oprah Winfrey: Think Angelina Jolie with an Obama Boost ….

Schmooze-licious Big "O", putting the WIN in Winfrey: Inadvertent or not, Oprah's stock has just gotten a major boost from the other "Big O".

Now that Barack Obama has won, people will forgive Oprah ….The ones who held her support of Barack Obama against her that is. It has to do with the psychology or sociology of winning. People love winners, and the people who back them. If not, they tolerate them. And the reason for doing this may have something to do with the surmise that those who back winners know something everyone else doesn’t.

Forget that she has become the most powerful woman to rule the media roost. The capital she has at this point is something other people only dream about. Barring some scandal or unforgivable foible, Oprah’s Obama gambit has just positioned her to transcend her native realm and chart new paths beyond fame and fortune. Think Angelina Jolie with an “Obama Boost”. It sounds like a Jamba Juice smoothie, doesn’t it? © 2008 Cyberaxis – Dendroaspips Polylepis

Oprah’s Gamble On Obama: the gift that will keep on giving …

Oprah Winfrey: scaling campaign heights without protective gear.

When Oprah said she was “feeling Obama”, the country should have believed her. But what she did with that was clearly a gamble. However seventeen months later the gamble is beginning to look more and more like a gift, and one that will keep on giving long after the dust settles on this fractious election. The upshot?: The queen of talk was onto something before the rest of the country caught on. Americans love winners and ….. and people who back them.

The talk about Oprah being being appointed U.S. Ambassador to Britain is as premature as it is misplaced. The payoff has more to do with fingering a real contender, win or lose.

At the time of Oprah’s endorsement on 5/1/07, Oprah did not convince a lot of people, beyond her fans that is. And even among her fans, she did alienate a few, beyond ruffling a few feathers on the right of the political spectrum. Leaving her customary soap box was a huge financial gamble and a bit of a stretch. The sight of her trying to rile up the masses from the height of a campaign podium felt, looked and sounded strange, on so many levels. Her stamp of approval of Obama did not the convince fence sitters. Her preoccupation with self-help fads and the culture of confession as therapy, swelled the ranks of those who were skeptical about her. Her new age leanings and the substance, if not the demographics, of her book club did similar damage to her credibility. Some people remembered Oprah’s mawkish endorsement of James Frey’s “A Million Pieces” which, on short order, turned to be as bogus as Jayson Blair’s New York Times reports. And as L.A. Times reader B. J. put it, “Her embrace of “The Secret” and the “New Age Jesus” writings of Eckhart Tolle … alienated religious conservatives.”

So the long and short of it is that while Oprah’s endorsement unquestionably helped Obama, it did little to persuade fence-sitters. The only dent in this wall of skepticism was the Democratic National Convention of 2004, when the lanky Senator had made a ringing speech that electrified the country and forced many Democrats and Republicans alike to sit up and take notice. In other words, Obama was Obama before Oprah met Obama. What Oprah did with her endorsement and the 2008 election approaching, was make people put an mental stick-it note next to the name of Barak Obama. Time Magazine took note and queries about Obama on Google sky-rocketed.

The primary/caucus season lent credence to Oprah’s choice and more recent polls are cumulatively chiselling it into stone. The country is witnessing the emergence of a political rock star the likes of which has not been seen since John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Oprah’s name is tatooed somewhere on his arm.

Barack Obama Superstar- Portland, OR on May 18, 2008

“It is entirely possible that no one could have beaten the political force known as Barack Obama — under any circumstances.” (Kathleen Parker, conservative political columnist, Washington Post)