Who knows what pain may be felt underneath that seemingly thick skin he feigns in public" But it all did land Sean a pretty good gig -- a prestigious fellowship at the Institute of Politics at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government this fall. This is part of a series of bringing in people from the real world of experience to round out the academic teachers for these Kennedy Center students.
So how's the Old Spice doing? Not so well. As reported by HuffPost's Ashley Feinberg, this "idiotic kabuki of broadmindedness" is supposed to be "engaging student in discourse on topical issues of today." And Spicer brings a look at the inner workings of White House communications.
But, after interviewing a number of the students, Feinberg says that Spicer's discourse is nothing but "a defense of every waking moment he served. He is a flack once more, only this time for himself."
Supposedly engaging the students in both formal and informal discussions on what he has digested from his time at the White House, one student told Feinberg: "He's incredibly inarticulate, so it was really difficult to take any sort of notes."
The Kennedy School does feature mostly a liberal student body, so they may not have given Spicer the benefit of doubt. But their comments seem hard to refute. For example, he seemed to have set of talking points that he would circle back to, regardless of the question asked.
Some of his favorite talking points seemed to be: Benghazi, media bias toward Trump, and Obama's [broken] "promise that you could keep your own doctor," in response to any question about the Affordable Care Act. When asked how he felt about having to lie for the president, his answer was:
"I'm a spokesperson for the president, and my job is to say what he wants me to say."
And his explanation of "alternate facts"? "An alternative fact is 3+1= 4 or 4+0=4. Those are alternative facts. A lie is 3+2=4. Alternative facts are legitimate tools to use in politics."
But of course, that's not how "alternative facts" came into being. It was Kellyanne Conway's inimitable spin on some obvious lying by one of the Trump team -- not, as Sean tries to spin, just different ways of saying the same thing.
Perhaps one of the most telling moments was his reply to a student who asked what was the coolest moment of his time in the White House. Here's his reply:
"The coolest moment as press secretary was having the New England Patriots all standing in my office waiting to go meet the president. When I was growing up, I had to sit in the middle bleachers and watch them from the stadium. Now I have the whole starting lineup in my office and got to take a selfie with them before they met Trump."
Wow! Not being able to chat with some world leader. Or being on Air Force One heading to a world summit with the president. Sean's just a 12 year old good old boy, awestruck by having his favorite football team in his office and getting to take a selfie with them. Well, of course. This is the Trump White House, after all, not John Kennedy's or Barack Obama's White House.
So Ashely Feinberg concludes with some quotes from students about what they were getting out of the time with Spicer:
"I learned that the media was not misrepresenting him in how they were talking about him six months ago."
"I was kind of expecting him to be better than how he was portrayed through the press, but he was pretty much just as slimy and weaselly as I'd thought he was."
Pretty brutal. But, then, she asked. And they told their truth.
Poor, Sean. That's what I kept saying when he was trying to defend the indefensible. Maybe I shouldn't have worried about him. Maybe he is really just simple enough and clueless enough not to know he's in way over his head -- and being ridiculed for it.
Ralph
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