Yup, they’re occasionally mean
Bookworm on Feb 03 2009 at 3:41 pm | Filed under: Barack Obama
Mary Katharine Ham also weighs in on both Michelle’s and Barack’s periodic meanness. She mentions a few examples I’d forgotten and reminds me of Obama’s snide remark about Pennsylvianians as embittered, religiously fanatic gun clingers. One can be nice and witty. One can be mean and witty. And one can be just mean. Obama hits all three, but with too many landings on the last category.
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Greetings:
It’s hard to be nice all the time when you’re perfect in every way.
Amending an earlier post, two negroes with dictionaries.
I knew all along that the Obamas would inevitably self-destruct once they collided with reality. What I didn’t expect to see was it beginning so quickly.
One problem for the Obamas isn’t that they lack intelligence. It’s just that they’re not smart. They’re not smart enough to see the value in conducting themselves as grown-ups, with a modicum of humility or humor.
Their even bigger problem is that they cannot change their stripes. The are in the position of a barbarian who has been called upon to act like a civilized person. Having had no experience with civility, he does not know how to begin. On the other hand, a civilized person who has been called upon to play the role of a barbarian usually can.
It’s far easier to play down than it is to play up.
Have you noticed all those photos of Obama with his nose in the air?
He reminds me of El Duce except not as thuggish-looking.
At times Obama reminds me of a smart-aleck 8th or 9th grader who has awakened to the fact that those around him don’t seem as bright as they did three years ago, and has decided that the fools that inhabit the world would benefit from his enlightened opinion of them, however scathing it might be.
“Didn’t I just give a witty put-down, or what”? Spoken like an attention-seeking smart-aleck 8th or 9th grader.
These dumb DC people, they don’t have the foggiest of how to deal with snow, the way we do in Chicago. What- I got over 90% of the vote in DC? These ignorant ‘necks- after all we enlightened liberals already realize it- have got to learn that they can’t continue to have their houses at 72 degrees. What- I deal with the snow and cold by having my office hot enough to grow orchids? ( I know the last two sentences don’t exactly fit the theme, but I couldn’t resist.)
Many of us go through that phase- I did- but learn to curb our tongues for at least two reasons. Others are usually not soliciting scathing evaluations of themselves from others, and do not appreciate those who offer those scathing opinions, those witty put-downs. We also learn that we aren’t so smart ourselves, nor are others as stupid as we might have once thought.
Perhaps Obama continues in this juvenile mode because both he and the juvenile are not sure who they are, and therefore put down people as a way of saying to themselves, “say, I’m not that bad off.” One reason that it is said that juveniles are “finding themselves” is that they do not yet know who they are. One more than one occasion in his life, it has been remarked that Obama has appeared to be all things to all people, which is another way of saying that he does not present his true self to others. Because he doesn’t know it himself.
But regarding his “clinging bitter guns religion” remark about dem hayseeds, and I could be considered a hayseed by origin with only27 in my 8th grade class, I do not see this as an intentional put-down. Rather, it was someone thinking out loud among his peers, not realizing it was being recorded, about how to deal with a population segment with which he had no experience whatsoever. Says something about a Presidential candidate who doesn’t have a clue about such a large segment of the population. Guess I haven’t completely left the smart-aleck phase, either.
That’s the fascinating part, Charles – these two were unable to make it ten days. When I was young, the word in the gang out with which I hung would have been parvenu, and though it’s in somewhat less general circulation these days, with the lowered expectation we all have for behavior, it still fits. Like a glove.
Sounds pretty normal to me. I’m occasionally mean.
Charles –
I mentioned something similar elsewhere. It simply did not occur to me that this would come apart so quickly. I knew it would eventually but I was thinking years, months and months at the very earliest.
With regard to intelligence – again, you are so right.
I believe there are people who can complete academic programs successfully, people who are smart, and people who are wise.
SOMETIMES, you will meet someone who possesses all three of those attributes. But we can all think of people we have met who had one of those qualities, but not the other two.
Obviously, the Obamas can complete academic programs so the issue is not about intelligence. But I am not seeing anything that makes me think they are smart or wise.
And that is the worry of it all – we’d be better led by someone who had skipped the completion of academic programs and was “merely” smart and wise.
Deana
P.S. All of my educated friends explained to me at various times that they supported Obama because he’s “obviously intelligent.” They are lawyers and other professionals so they see themselves mirrored in the Obamas.
It’s going to be fascinating watching these people come unraveled.
It’s going to be fascinating watching these people come unraveled.
That happened in the last 8 years. All that remains to be seen is who amongst us they take down with them.
I mentioned something similar elsewhere. It simply did not occur to me that this would come apart so quickly. I knew it would eventually but I was thinking years, months and months at the very earliest.
It takes sustained negativity for years before myths become legends and legends become popularly accepted truth.
An early start is a benefit to us, but like the hare and the tortoise, what matters in the end is victory.
Helen, the fact that you are “occasionally mean” has nothing to do with the Obamas. What’s normal for you or me, namely the occasional surliness or flash of temper, is not what we expect in a president or first lady. Both are expected to hold to a demeanor and standard of behavior that does not ever include meanness or pettiness.
One of the reasons why people are so fascinated by Queen Elizabeth is her uncanny ability to stay cool and calm under immense pressure, and that she never descends to an undignified or unseemly level of discourse. It simply would not have occurred to her to comment on that despicable cover line about Jessica Simpson. That Obama felt compelled to do so, no doubt thinking he was showing some sort of common touch, says that this is a clueless man who is in way over his head.
I like your point about differing standards, Charles, and it’s one I thought of myself, although in a slightly different context. Obama said, re Daschle, “I screwed up.” That’s a very crude phrase. We all use it, but context is everything — and a President speaking to the nation shouldn’t say that. More appropriate would be the simple, clean, “I made a mistake.
Ah, but Book – you can say “I screwed up” with a shrug. It’s a phrase used on the basketball court, among friends, for minor foibles. “I made a mistake” requires a straight back and eye contact.
If Obama is now admitting to mistakes, that is a step forward. Recall his inflated claims that putting air in tires could substitute for all the petroleum obtainable from increased domestic drilling. What really annoyed me about the episode was Obama’s inability to admit that he was flat out wrong in making this off-the-cuff claim.
We all hope that he will change and make fewer mistakes, doing away with the need to admit mistakes.
>>If Obama is now admitting to mistakes, that is a step forward.>>
The question is…just exactly what mistake is he admitting to? Has anyone figured that out yet?
I could make some suggestions as to what his mistake/s was/were – but what does _he_ think his mistake was?
Well, I don’t know about you cynics and disdainers, but when I visited the beach last weekend, the level of the ocean was no higher than it had been a few weeks before.
I can only conclude, using my impeccable progressive logic, that The One has done what he set out to do, namely, stop the rise in the sea levels.
Gringo,
You said in your earlier post that Obama had no experience of a large population segment. I think it’s worse than that: He has no interest in a large population segment. For him, the suburbs are boring and work in the state legislature was boring. He doesn’t seem to be curious or to want to personally test the info from sociological theories against the real world. Judy Collins had a line in her song “Albatross” that fits him to a T: “He asks you why and tells you why, either way you answer.”
Well, I don’t know about you cynics and disdainers, but when I visited the beach last weekend, the level of the ocean was no higher than it had been a few weeks before.
He also stopped the tide? Amazing.
suek:
The question is…just exactly what mistake is he admitting to?
Refer to Book’s #10 comment and “screwed up.”
expat:
Obama doesn’t care about a large segment: Could be. The question could be expanded: whom DOES he care about?
Testing sociological theories… The reason that so many lefties continue with their beliefs is that they KNOW they are correct and thus do not need to be tested in the real world. They know by definition that their beliefs describe the world. Yet many who post here, Book being perhaps the textbook example (sorry about that), once were on the left, myself included. The difference being that we compared lefty beliefs about the world with the world we knew, and found out the beliefs did not measure up.
Regarding testing sociological theories, I am reminded of the sociologist who wrote a book of some renown about a small town. Soon after the book was published, the town that was the object of the sociologist’s research featured an effigy of the sociologist on top of a manure spreader during a July 4th parade. In that sense, why bother testing out sociological theories?