– President Obama at recent campaign rally
Fake fanaticism or real rapture?
Either way would be kind of disturbing.
During 2008, Michael Medved on his radio program brought to my attention a strange phenomenon of people fainting at Barack Obama campaign rallies. It was still happening in 2009, 2010; and, well, it is happening again in 2012:
For President Obama, the fainting spells are back.
A woman listening to the president discuss his energy policy in Maryland on Thursday fainted among the standing-room-only crowd.
At a rally at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, Md., Mr. Obama had veered off his prepared remarks to attack his Republican critics when he interrupted himself to alert officials that someone had fainted. Before returning to his message, he dispensed a little advice.
“Remember next time, if you’re going to stand for a long time, you got to eat,” he said to laughs from the crowd. “It’s true. You got to get something to eat. You got to get some juice.”
More like, ease off drinking so much of the kool-aid. :p
A New York Times reporter at the speech said another person had collapsed, but he could not say whether that person had fainted.
It is the third time this month that someone has fainted during one of the president’s speeches.
What is the deal, here? In 2008, pundits like Michael Medved and James Taranto speculated whether any of this is staged, given the frequency along with senator Obama’s stock response. Taranto is disturbed just as much if this isn’t staged and people are in fact swooning over the cult of personality that is Barack Obama.
Christina Wilkie writing for The Hill explains the occurrence as “parade ground syncope” where a person stands still for too long on a hot day and the blood does not get pushed back upward toward the heart due to leg muscle inactivity.
But is this really what’s at work here with the frequency in which these fainting episodes seem to occur around the rock star celeb president’s appearances and speeches? It also just seems suspiciously weird how so many of his responses sound so similar (I suppose when something happens often enough, you begin to develop stock phrases).
Anyone have any logical explanation here?
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.