Getting Obama and not getting Obama
I’ve been monitoring Peggy Noonan’s Obama journey over the years, from admiration to a sort of puzzled and regretful dislike. Noonan is interesting to me because she sometimes is so sharp and sometimes seems almost dull, and I think her wavering, confused reaction to Obama is not atypical of a certain sort of Republican who was initially wowed by him.
Here’s a recent piece of Noonan’s in which she really really gets in it—in a sense. In another sense, she really really does not.
Let’s take the “gets it” part first, written with grace, perception, and bite (love her choice of “beady” for Reid’s eyes):
The Republicans don’t like [Obama], for reasons both usual and particular: They have had no good experiences with him. The Democrats don’t like him, for their own reasons plus the election loss. Before his post-election lunch with congressional leaders, he told the press that he will judiciously consider any legislation, whoever sends it to him, Republicans or Democrats. His words implied that in this he was less partisan and more public-spirited than the hacks arrayed around him. It is for these grace notes that he is loved. No one at the table looked at him with colder, beadier eyes than outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who clearly doesn’t like him at all. The press doesn’t especially like the president; in conversation they evince no residual warmth. This week at the Beijing summit there was no sign the leaders of the world had any particular regard for him. They can read election returns. They respect power and see it leaking out of him. If Mr. Obama had won the election they would have faked respect and affection.
Vladimir Putin delivered the unkindest cut, patting Mr. Obama’s shoulder reassuringly. Normally that’s Mr. Obama’s move, putting his hand on your back or shoulder as if to bestow gracious encouragement, needy little shrimp that you are. It’s a dominance move. He’s been doing it six years. This time it was Mr. Putin doing it to him. The president didn’t like it
Let’s take the “doesn’t get it” part now.
In the piece, Noonan thinks Obama can’t change because he only knows one mode of operation, and also because he can’t cope with failure because he’s never experienced it before as an adult. She’s right, as far as that goes. What she doesn’t seem to get is that Obama has no interest in changing; doesn’t see the need. He is pushing on alone because he can, and because he sees it as the best way to reach his goal now that he’s lost the new Congress. He will not let others’ growing dislike get in the way of his goals, although of course he’d rather be liked and even worshiped than disliked; being liked would mean that people have perceived his wonderfulness, and it also would make his job far easier. He’d also rather a majority in Congress shared his goals rather than opposed them. But if neither is the case, he’s not going to worry overmuch about it, or about how to convince them otherwise.
He’s said goodbye to all that. He no longer needs votes, and he is free.
I gave up on Peggy Noonan long ago. She is an expert wordsmith who can put together beautiful phrases and still says so little.
I don’t buy her argument that Democrats hate Obama or that Harry Reid hates him worst of all. Mr. Reid did everything he could to advance Obama’s agenda because Obama’s agenda is Mr. Reid’s agenda. Mr. Reid is angry that Obama didn’t share enough money to help Senate Democrats be elected, but beyond that he supports everything Obama did. If Mr. Reid hadn’t support Obama’s agenda completely Obama would have acted much differently.
Internationally, most foreign leaders, except for European lefties, despise Obama. As Noonan points out, part of his fall might be because they sense weakness but there is much more than just that.
The Chinese leaders and the Russians love their countries and in their own ways they are trying to make their countries stronger and wealthier. They despise Obama because they know that he is a traitor to his own country. Strong nationalistic leaders view traitors as the lowest of the low.
As an example of how Putin views traitors to their own country is how he treated Ukrainian soldiers in the Crimea who switched sides and tried to join the Russians. Putin treated them with the same loathing that is generally reserved for traitors. His attitude was that if they couldn’t be loyal to their own country why should he trust them to be loyal to Russia.
It’s interesting that earlier this year, Peggy wrote a column on New York’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, in which she clearly called him out as an ideologue:
How can she not see just this sort of behavior in Obama? Maybe she does but simply can’t own up to it because then she’d look a complete fool for having backed him in 2008. That, or something very odd is going on in her head.
I seem to recall that Hitler said that the German people did not deserve to survive, that they had failed him by losing the war and deserved to perish. Maybe Obama thinks the same about the Democrats.
Ray…
It was actually Goebbles who was quoted saying that… in the bunker… at the extreme end.
Since Hitler barely spoke to his nation during the war years, it was Goebbles who carried the Nazi message.
&&&&
Barry has to believe in the Leadership Principle.
It guides his universal ambit to this hour.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BChrerprinzip
How else to explain him setting aside Federal bankruptcy law?
… His EPA?
… His war on America’s demographics?
… His totalitarian medical-state complex?
…His whacky DoD policies — and purges?
…His SPY-STATE — digital tyranny?
He’s a top down kind of guy, in plain English: a dictator.
And like Mao, Stalin or Hitler — nothing slows him down even when his notions are ruinous if not crazy.
It’s notable that all three notorious tyrants absolutely trashed their own armies. So keep that in mind when you read about Barry’s DoD policies.
The other scary legacy: all three tyrants REALLY went off the rails only after sitting in the big chair for six years.
And, of course, as a world class Gonnabee, Barry can be expected to totally trash his nation on the way out — if we survive that long.
In business and institutions, Gonnabees normally bankrupt and destroy everything.
Noonan is a republican first (professional status) and a conservative (principles) second. She’s not about to jeopardize her professional status by opening herself to allegations of making ‘wild’ accusations. On air commentary and opinion columns is her life.
Interestingly, George Will is just the opposite but with the same ‘MO’; first principled conservatism and then party loyalty but IMO guilty of the same refusal to open himself to allegations of making ‘wild’ accusations.
I suspect they both know the truth of Barack Obama but leave it to the ‘crazy’ pundits to speak the full truth.
What I’ve been thinking about lately is something that happened early in Barack Obama’s administration and that Neo talked a lot about, and that was his efforts to back the (wannabe) despot in Honduras. The guy was trying to grab permanent power through an illegal referendum and, when he was duly removed by the other branches of government in accordance with their constitution, who did Obama support? The wannabe dictator, of course. I’m not saying Obama’s going to try that here, but it is a good illustration of his lack of respect for constitutional controls on executive power. Keep that in mind in the coming months.
If that wannabe dictator had been coming from the right I wonder if his reaction would have been the same? Probably not.
For those of us who ‘got’ bho from the very beginning of his national rise, it is difficult to understand what took the Noonans of the establishment so long to see the wizard behind the curtain. I can not say with certainty what blinded them, but I think it was their desire for a political messiah to do the impossible, namely end politics as usual. They so wanted to believe that golfer dude was going to stop the imagined rise of the seas with a sharp crease of the pants speech from the teleprompter.
It takes courage to confess you have played the fool. So now they are bit by bit, but not directly, admitting that bho spoke with a forked tongue.
“he can’t cope with failure because he’s never experienced it before as an adult. ”
Correction, he’s never admitted to failure. He’s experienced it, he’s simply too arrogant to admit it. He’s possibly the most narcissistic human being to have ever lived. I cannot imagine what kind of disfunctional parents he must have had.
He’s a disgrace to the presidency, and to the country.
Ms Noonan appears to suffer from the malady that grips Mr Obama — an unwarranted high opinion of herself. In her case it amounts to being convinced she is utterly thoughtful, fair, incisive — none of which are bad things in themselves but when you think you’re the fairest, most thoughtful, most incisive, person in any room you’re in, well… it becomes a too great burden on others to endure.
Love to read the Noonan but she’s persistently behind the pay wall at the link.
G Britain: absolutely nailed it. Although, since many elites probably get all their news from the NYT, some of them might be truly ignorant. But most are terrified of being called RWNJ’s.
parker: I think they were blinded by reverse racism. A light skinned black man that sounded white and acted calm and cerebral. Well, he must of have been sent from heaven, right? Because none of the black men they had ever known were like that. No way that guy could be a dime a dozen politician.
vanderleun, you can bypass the paywall by typing the title of the piece in Google and entering by the link provided.
KLSmith,
The melanin component was indeed crucial for the true believers… next ovaries are candidates for the messiah pedestal of the left. The left needs messiahs, the dear leaders; while we on the pedestrian right seek competence and adherence to founding principles. We run, run, run to stay abreast of the red (as in commie) queen.
Peggy Noonan is too proud to admit that she was wrong. She is too cowardly to tell the truth, about herself and about the wicked and evil man she helped elect as President.
She is certainly deeply ashamed of herself. She hides behind her excellent prose skills to make herself look as if she is being fair, balanced, reasonable.
She is lying.
She is pretending she does not know the truth. She is pretending she did not vote for Hitler.
But she damn well did. And she’d be better off admitting it and getting that part over with. Then she might be a good writer again.
I remember when she basically lifted her skirt for Obama first time around in her WSJ column. I was shocked. I wrote and asked her what the hell was the matter with her. It was the last time I read anything of hers.
To this day I cannot understand how anyone EVER voted for that man.
“To this day I cannot understand how anyone EVER voted for that man.”
But now I understand how they voted for Hitler, and all the tyrants and sociopaths of history. It’s the Noonan’s of the world who get them over the top.
That’s the sad truth of it.
No wonder she is floundering to explain the man. She is in full denial and shame.
I think Obama just never considers that he might be wrong on any issue. I know that when I was growing up, it wasn’t really until I was in my mid 20s that I started to understand that I was fallible. It was a hard lesson to learn, but once I learned it, my life became easier to manage along with my relations with other people. I don’t think my experience is all that different from other people either- it seems to be a very human thing that humility comes after childhood and, often, somewhat after chronological adulthood. When I watch Obama, I see nothing but a thin-skinned, haughty teenager. I am not really sure Noonan gets that about the President, and I underestimated this characteristic in Obama myself 6 years ago.
Mike is so on the money about Noonan. But as to our first affirmative action president, there is another element, tied up with his narcissism. Like most modern liberals, he is shameless. He cannot feel ashamed of himself. He lives by no standards which would measure shame. He gorged himself on Rev. Wright’s Kool-Aid and he has never really regretted it. He damns his nominal Christianity with faint praise. His hate-driven guile is still somehow seen by some as intelligence. Peggy Noonan is one of too many Americans who voted for Obama partly because he is black, but mostly because it would make them feel good about themselves.
I had problems with Peggy Noonan during Pres. George W. Bush’s presidency. Her deepest criticisms were for him and the Clintons. It never fully added up. I found myself questioning her perspective at the time of her column regarding Paul Wellstone’s funeral and it just snowballed from there. By the time she was too good for Sarah Palin I was confirmed in my contempt for her. Peggy Noonan? I’ve got better ways to spend my limited free time.
FYI, not an endorsement, not a censure.
Full text of the piece . . .
The Loneliest President Since Nixon
Facing adversity, Obama has no idea how to respond.
By Peggy Noonan · Nov. 15, 2014
http://patriotpost.us/opinion/30975
Is Obama continuing a scorched earth policy?
http://wheelgun.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/150-years-ago-today-the-burning-of-atlanta-and-shermans-march-to-the-sea/
kcom:
I’ve thought about Honduras a lot too, lately. It was a portent of things to come.
Neo- the real question is what will the republicans do about it, and what will be the threshold at which his usurpations are condemned by the media? Does that threshold exist? Gwynith Paltrow would say no.
From the day he first began running for the office in 2007, it seems Obama may have been angling for this moment all along. The moment being his last 2 years as a lame duck, freed up to do all that he wants with his phone and his pen. This was planned for, and there’s much he wants to get done. Stand by for heavy rolls.
There is only one constraint on Obama left, and it is considerable:
If he so ruins the reputation of Democrats in his last two years that the entire party is soundly rejected in 2016, it will make it very easy for a Republican president to erase much of Obama’s legacy.
There is very little PERMANENT damage Obama can do in two years. Not if the opposition has any spine.
I thought it was a good piece. I don’t think she was saying that Obama wants to change but can’t, I think she’s saying he’s a one-trick pony: This is who he is and what he’ll do, regardless of what happens, and he doesn’t care. And she has said the same thing pretty consistently in all the time I’ve been reading her. I really look forward to her columns. But I haven’t been reading her for more htan about 4 years, so I don’t know what she said before then.
FTFY