Then again, would you expect anything less of The Best Political Team on Television (in this, The Week Of Obama’s 100th Day)? The other cable channels may have (or call in) body language experts or lip-reading experts but can anyone but CNN claim its own “swagger expert?”
Just now above the chyron “First 100 Days: Assessing the Swagga,” CNN’s T.J. Holmes (billed in the teaser to the segment as “our resident swagger expert”) assembled a panel of other presumed such experts and asked them:
What have you all seen? Maybe you haven’t said it publicly in some interview or something, but, you know, hanging out with your boys, having a beer somewhere. Did you see something that the president did and you were like, that’s a brother right there. Like he just has a bit of a swagger that is familiar to black men.
Evidence of “swagga” offered by the panel included: Obama being corrected by his wife during an interview and accepting it graciously; and, Obama hugging people.
After the segment, fellow CNN anchor Heidi Collins Kyra Phillips (who’d teased the segment by telling viewers, “If you look closely, you might notice the commander in chief has more swagger than Mick Jagger…”) asked Holmes whether any white American president has had swagger, to which Holmes replied:
Maybe it’s one of these things you’re not supposed to say, but you can go from Billy Dee Williams to Shaft to whoever you want to talk about and there’s just a bit of a swagger that we associate with them…
After which Collins Phillips and Holmes (really!) “hug it out” and exchange a “fist-bump.”
(h/t, Matt Yglesias via Twitter)



Hard-hitting stuff, CNN... in the tradition of our finest muckrakers.
#1 Posted by Hardrada, CJR on Wed 29 Apr 2009 at 07:59 PM
I can't tell: Is this piece a parody?
Or is it serious?
#2 Posted by Name, CJR on Wed 29 Apr 2009 at 10:50 PM
You are taking this way to seriously. The use of the word in it's vernacular sound is just to give respect to the pronunciation of those it is important. It is just relating to the people to it shows genuine and open connection. If you have problem with it, maybe you need to stop worrying about how professional you think you are and go relate to somebody in real hardship, so when you get on tv or write an article you can represent the people just the way it should be done.
Kyra may have overdone it some but no harm no foul.
#3 Posted by TC, CJR on Wed 29 Apr 2009 at 10:53 PM
You are taking this way to seriously. The use of the word in it's vernacular sound is just to give respect to the pronunciation of those it is important to. It is just relating to the people to whom it shows a genuine and open connection. If you have problem with it, maybe you need to stop worrying about how professional you think you are and go relate to somebody in real hardship, so when you get on tv or write an article you can represent the people just the way it should be done. Kyra may have overdone it some but no harm no foul.
Had to make an edit my head is faster than my hands.
#4 Posted by TC, CJR on Wed 29 Apr 2009 at 10:57 PM
Bush "swagger": deplorable, mortifying
Obama "swagga": charming, inspiring
#5 Posted by mesquito, CJR on Thu 30 Apr 2009 at 07:23 AM
You've got plenty more edits to go, TC.
Why is writing so hard for so many people? Weird.
#6 Posted by Tom, CJR on Thu 30 Apr 2009 at 09:39 AM