– 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.
Is it just his campaign speeches that cause people to faint? I don’t remember hearing of any incidents during his regular presidential speeches……
Well, it could be the heat and lack of adequate hydration.
Still, bizarre since I’ve not heard of it happening for other politicians with the kind of frequency in which they seem to occur at Obama campaign rallies.
I’ve been to many political rallies and speeches by candidates.
Food and water were widely available at every one of them.
BUT…..
Obama does NOT allow any food OR WATER into his events.
Obama has also developed a habit of arriving late to many of his events.
Obama also tends to drone on and on and on.
I think there is something to the idea of standing still too long without nutrients or water.
There’s an old movie, Bridge on the River Qwai, where soldiers were made to stand still a long time with no food or water and some fainted.
Not everybody can take it.
Even Obama himself was described as having to be carried all slumped into a back room right before some campaign event.
Here is one account:
Maybe a case of misery wants company?
Obama has a habit of making himself look better by comparing himself to those worse off.
Maybe he is just an oxygen thief!
Could there be free, no co-pay, smelling salts mandates on the horizon now?
What does anybody expect ? Obama’s ego sucks all the oxygen out of the air.
Meh, under certain circumstances, excited girls faint when near their Idols. It’s just a biological thing. Watch any newsreels of famous acts and celebrities, and you’ll see it happen; take a historic look at the Beatles, Elvis, Sinatra, both Kennedys and Adolph-freakin-Hitler. What do you see? Fainting girls, usually 16-26 years old. *Shrug*
Reminds me of a North Korean Dictator’s funeral. Way to close a comparison given 0-bama socialist approach.
Given the cult of personality around the President, a para-religious explanation might be in order. People have been lining up to be “slain in the spirit” at many “revivals” since way back in the sawdust-trail, camp-meeting days. I’m not capitalizing that second “s” and I wouldn’t care to meet this particular spirit in a dark alley, but it sounds suspiciously like religious hysteria.
I don’t see what the surprise is – I feint when I hear Obama speak all of the time.
No wait, I think the technical term for what happens to me is called “falling asleep.”
@Wordsmith: What heat?
@ThunderGod: A list of examples with links please
Interesting, every time I hear Barry (which I try to avoid at all costs) I just want to throw up.
This happens when folks get their health insurance premium increases due to Obamacare in the mail.
Good rule of thumb here is to never open your mail at an Obama rally…
I think of two causes, one is cult of personality, the other is Triumph of the Swill.
I think that OBAMA is drinking a substance which enhance his brain power and memory to make him happy
against his will to stand in front of a crowd he does not care about do to a speech he learned and does not believe in,
I bet many would like to know that drink and what’s in it,
Neo
hi
do you mean OBAMA SUCK THE CO2 OUT OF HIS CROWD, BY COMING LATE LETTING THEM WAIT
IT IS UNCARING FOR HIS CROWD, HE COULD NOT CARE AT ALL WHAT HAPPEN TO THEM,
NO WATER NO MUNCHING AND YOUNG CROWD BREATHING THE SAME AIR IN AND OUT BACK IN AND OUT, BACK IN AND OUT UNTIL OBAMA SHOW UP TO AN INTOXICATED WITH STALE AIR YOUNG CROWD
BYE