You can actually hear, almost to the second, the point where the interviewer moves from hostility to respect. At the beginning, he barely lets Derrick get a word in before jackhammering him with another rudely-phrased question. By the end, Derrick has him laughing and expressing agreement with his ideas.

The man delivers. I don't think I could done that well, considering I am not as well informed. The vato delivers where it counts.

the reporter dude was all this guy don't know jack until he started letting him talk, and he kept on talking over him.

This young man put it all together as to why Obama is his, as well as my, candidate of choice. I like the fact that when the discussion elevates to a political discussion amongst equals Derrick adds "I could vote for McCain". It's a sentiment I share with this young black man. The fact that he is well informed on the issues and could chose to cast a vote for McCain speaks volumes on the obstacles faced by the Clinton campaign to reach young educated voters.

His point about McCain is, I think, a rhetorical trick. Give the guy a good feeling even though he lost the purpose of the encounter he was seeking. The vato is obviously a progressive. Way to go vato! You showed a lot of people how to do it. I am proud of you!

So cool that this particular vid is making the rounds! I was blown away by how he made his points without ever taking the bait to lose his cool. I would have been snarling back at the guy, and anyone watching would have said, "Oh, it's so ugly when women get angry!"

that was an excellent video! i don't have anything else to add that may be mistaken as insightful ;)

Give the guy a good feeling even though he lost the purpose of the encounter he was seeking.

Well he was doing that all the way through, note that everytime he said "oh you're totally right" he'd then go on to disagree with and dismantle the half formed buzz word heavy "ideas" of the guy behind the camera.

Seriously if it turns out that the way to convert people to your political views is to say "oh you're totally right" before you disagree with them, I for one will find myself respecting humanity just a little bit less.

But irrespectiveless of that, I love the smell of rhetorical pwnage first thing in the morning. delicious, yum.

it's called social engineering, and knowing how to defuse an opponents momentum, as well as argue on camera and not come off looking antagonistic.

i'm not sure the derrick fella was out to convert anyone...he was just standing there with a sign and the camera dood rolled up on him with rapid-fire aggression. i really can't imagine a better way to handle it.

if someone using their brain well makes ya lose any respect for humanity, well...i dont know what to say to that!

"if someone using their brain well makes ya lose any respect for humanity, well...i dont know what to say to that!"

Touché!

Total respect and hats off to that brother! I love how he worked himself away from the camera person's talking points and didn't let him dominate the dialogue with bland lazy-assed punditry like he obviously wanted to. Absolutely fabulous.

If someone using their brain well makes ya lose any respect for humanity, well...i dont know what to say to that!

Oh I agree totally, it's these young people with their new fangled brains who are destroying the wholesome middle class american family which has made this country what it is.

Nah, basically it's just that the technique works by appealing to a narcissistic idiot's ego - and then just as the moron is expecting to be showered with the praise and love that they wish they'd gotten from their parents you swoop in and demolish their arguement.

Now I'm not saying that Derrick there is neccesarily some kind of nose twitching witch, I'm just saying that something so cynical has not right to be so effective.

well i'm glad the narcissist idiot got handled, personally. so i guess i'm happy the technique was effective. i would have been much more direct. i don't know that's better than what you call "cynical," though. just different.

oh i get it! obama supporter as cynical! very clever.

but...it doesnt make sense that something "cynical" has no right to be effective. i'm sure i'm not the only one who is well aware that many many cynical means are also very effective. i'm not sure what it means to say they have "no right" to be so. but okay, i get that you do not support derrick a.'s handling of the asshole cameraman. i have no problem with that.

I would never call obama supporters cynical, cupidity is in fact the primary charge I'd lay at the feet of the Obama camp, in fact if I wasn't waving the pom-poms of Anyone But Hillary right now (give us an A! give us a Hole! What does that spell? HILLARY! Woo!) I'd be tearing into Obama's health care plans about now (is it largely a plan that's reacting to right-wing fairy dust? why yes, yes it is).

But what I'm trying rather poorly to say is that, irrespective of what he intended what derrick did (action, not intent) was appeal to the schmuck's ego to lay down a good ol' fashioned aikido tongue throw on the obnoxious little interviewer, and that to the minds of cynical fuckers like myself that shouldn't have worked so well, because if the subject is such an egovore then surely he'd be careful enough not to end up looking like a fool? logical and shit right? And then the interview would still have involved Derrick making the interviewer look like a fool (because derrick seems smart enough to rise to the occasion, and the interviewer is an idiot) but it would have been a very different interview.

But I'm assuming this is just one of those things, like how if you punch a shark in the nose they get all confused and forget what they're doing, or how aligators are rendered harmless by rubberbands.

Or derrick is actualy david bowie from labyrinth, either way theory has to make way for observation and Obama should wear tight leather pants more often (women: we're very easy to pander too).

And this really wasn't worth as many comments as it's taken up.

i love your language, Ms. R. and can't say i ever begrudge the time you spend laying it down here.