Daddy complex

It's fairly obvious that many conservatives and those in our media feel comforted by having an authoritarian, masculine-appearing, "daddy" figure in power. While very noticeable in our political coverage, this issue is rarely discussed in the media or among polite company. Considering its vast implications on public policy, you'd really think the complex afflicting these guys (yes, usually men) would be worthy of further scrutiny. Glenn Greenwald, has covered this issue fairly extensively as of late in his writing at Salon.com. Check out an excerpt from his latest post:

"I've written a fair amount recently about the media's obsession with the faux-masculinity of GOP candidates in general, and the tough-guy military persona of Fred Thompson in particular, and don't have all that much to add about that specific topic at the moment. Still, this dialogue last night about Fred Thompson from Chris Matthews -- who is really just the slightly less restrained id version of most media stars -- is simply too extraordinary not to note:

Does [Fred Thompson] have sex appeal? I'm looking at this guy and I'm trying to find out the new order of things, and what works for women and what doesn't. Does this guy have some sort of thing going for him that I should notice? . . .

Gene, do you think there's a sex appeal for this guy, this sort of mature, older man, you know? He looks sort of seasoned and in charge of himself. What is this appeal? Because I keep star quality. You were throwing the word out, shining star, Ana Marie, before I checked you on it. . . .

Can you smell the English leather on this guy, the Aqua Velva, the sort of mature man's shaving cream, or whatever, you know, after he shaved? Do you smell that sort of -- a little bit of cigar smoke? You know, whatever.

What can even be said about that? And nobody really seems to find this odd or disturbing or objectionable at all -- that night after night, one of the featured "journalists" of a major news network goes on television and, with some of our most prestigious journalists assembled with him, speaks admiringly about the smells and arousing masculinity and the "daddy" qualities of various political officials, and that this metric is, more or less, the full extent of his political analysis."

(photo of Guiliani in drag from Political Cortex)

UPDATE:

Gotta love the headline from Atrios: Aqua Velva and Tiny Penises

Also, as usual, Digby has much, much more:

This really is one of the oddest political phenomena out there and this cycle does seem to be producing a comic overreaction even by their normally neurotic standards. The only thing that makes any real sense is that they have screwed the pooch so badly on the war that they are humilated --- and the Democrats may just bring in someone who doesn't even have a penis to fix it. Oh the humanity.