A week of Obama weakness: have you noticed…
…the proliferation of the “Obama is weak” meme in recent MSM articles?
For example, see the Telegraph’s “The UN loves Obama because he is weak,” and George Will’s “Obama’s willowy weakness,”, as well as this Jerusalem Post piece that calls him a weak president who is likely to remain weak for his entire first term (although it blames that fact on the economy rather than some inherent flaw of Obama’s). And then there are the articles by admirers (or former admirers, or soon-to-be-former admirers) that use euphemisms to mean much the same thing, such as this one that worries that no one around the world seems to fear Obama.
The trend may have begun back in April, with the leak of French President Sarkozy’s statement that Obama is weak. But it’s only been building ever since, about matters both domestic and foreign. Obama’s UN speech yesterday did nothing to change that perception, and everything to perpetuate it.
But there are weaknesses and there are weaknesses, some of them intentional and some not. I would wager that Obama most definitely does not mean to portray himself as weak in terms of passing his own policy initiatives, standing up to opponents in Congress (be they from his own party or Republicans), or fighting the Afghan war against Al Qaeda that was a centerpiece of his campaign rhetoric. He wants, however, to be able to succeed in those endeavors while still projecting an image of a kindly fellow interested in hearing all sides, whether reality matches that perception or not.
This would be a neat trick if he could perform it, but Obama is getting less and less successful at the gymnastics required, and this failure then causes him to be perceived as even weaker. This is true even of many of his supporters, who are understandably frustrated at his failure so far to get his more Leftist agenda passed, and his seeming willingness to jettison some of the most extreme parts of the platform, such as the public option on health care reform.
But in one respect Obama’s projection of weakness is intentional: he does not want America to be perceived as stronger and more powerful than other nations. He expressed that thought quite explicitly in his speech to the UN:
No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation. No world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will succeed. No balance of power among nations will hold. The traditional divisions between nations of the South and the North make no sense in an interconnected world; nor do alignments of nations rooted in the cleavages of a long-gone Cold War.
According to Obama, not only is the Cold War over, but so is any long-term balance of power. So much for allies and enemies; such outdated notions! If we can’t have liberty (something Obama rarely, rarely speaks of), then we’ll have equality and fraternity—between nations rather than within them. And if this means America must weaken itself in order to even the playing field, then so be it.
[ADDENDUM: Rich Lowry with a riff on the theme: “Obama comes across as a gullible sap” who is “shockingly weak, if his weakness still retained the capacity to shock.” Here’s more:
President Obama yesterday did his best impression of a high-school soph omore participating in his first Model UN meeting, retailing pious clichés he learned from his pony-tailed social studies teacher.
Even Woodrow Wilson might have blanched at the mushy-headed exhortations to world peace and collective action better suited to a college dorm-room bull session or a holiday-season Coca-Cola commercial.
“No nation can or should try to dominate another nation,” Obama intoned. “No world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will succeed. No balance of power among nations will hold.”
Has an American president ever expressed such implicit hostility toward his own nation’s pre-eminence in world affairs? Or so relished in recalling its failings, or so readily elevated himself and his own virtues over those of his country?
Read the whole thing.]
The left and its conceit. They insist that all countries and cultures are equal, despite the obvious facts to the contrary.
Regarding the concept of “evening the playing field,” whether among nations or people, read Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron. The WSJ used to publish it in full every few years; now would be a good time to do so again.
“… no one around the world seems to fear Obama.”
Well, not exactly true. He scares the hell out of me!
There was a commenter here a while back said it was all an elaborate plan to trick the enemy into false sense of security and then WHAMMO – OFF WITH THEIR HEADS.
I heard that other places for a while too but that has slowly dwindled away.
I still say that Obama isn’t really weak – wait until his numbers plummet enough and I think we will see a VERY aggressive Obama. Sadly that aggression is going to be towards any other political group besides the Dems (and even in there the so called Blue Dog dems will get it too).
I also suspect that if any terrorist attack seems directed at him personally then he will fly off the handle and crush them. If it is simply against a capitalist US then he most likely agrees with their stance, just not thier actions so will be soft in it.
Make no mistake, he isn’t remotely a passivist, he is a product of years of leftist schooling on how to fix the world. He is also a product of how to get and maintain control domestically. And, finally the thing that ties it all together is that he *believes in it* so there will be no personal hesitation to do so.
∅bama is strong http://hotair.com/archives/2009/09/24/school-indoctrination-video-retrieved/
Is this microphone on ???
ARGHHH !
That was a Howard Dean scream. 🙂
Of all our theories about what makes Obama and his advisors tick, I have a (somewhat) new one to propose. But first, a teeny review. I had suggested about a week ago that the book is still out on whether the narcissist or leftist is the dominant aspect, because the two had not yet come in serious conflict to date, and actions which served one served the other as well. This was in response to our ongoing discussion what exactly motivates the man. And, I will say again that folks have provided very good evidence for the various possibilities.
Perhaps he combines the partial fantasy-world of leftists believing that their ideas will actually help humanity with the narcissistic fantasy of a person who believes he makes things better just by showing up. That would equal a person quite disconnected from the reality cues around him. Such a person might become quite skilled in an almost mechanistic way with the events of his universe – as high functioning autistics are sometimes savants within a narrow frame – but unable to “change sets” as we say in the biz. Obama has three narrow areas of skill – 1. Show up and be charming, 2. Apply leftist solution, and 3. Apply Chicago machine politics. Those are his three cards to play – he hasn’t got others. When those don’t work he is lost and starts over with #1 again, like a pigeon hitting the bar hoping for a food pellet. He isn’t really aware of what happens in the world beyond those three things. He thinks the whole world falls into those three categories and that one of his cards will eventually work.
This hypothesis, if it holds up, also provides explanatory power for the debate whether Obama is intelligent or not, for the answer would be Yes, in limited areas; No, otherwise.
Of his three cards to play, one does have strength: the Chicago Way. But Obama can’t punish Putin or Sarkozy in the same way he could in Illinois, where there are presents to hand out and people to threaten. Those levers don’t work in international relations. There are reward and punishment levers on an international level, but Obama doesn’t know how those work. I’m not sure Bush was all that good at it either, but he had at least some familiarity, and some decent advisors.
In contrast, Obama is like a passenger who got elected pilot.
I try to listen to a variety of viewpoints, so I listen to both Rush as well as NPR and a few other talk shows – to varying degrees of liberal and conservative – in between.
There is a really far lefty local talk show that I forced myself to listen to today for at least a few minutes (I can’t stand much more than a few minutes at a time).
The amount of criticism even these socialists were dishing out over Obama staying in Afghanistan was surprising.
Their logic seemed to be: Taliban supported Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda attacked on 9-11, the US crushed the Taliban and run Al Quaeda out of Afghanistan – so hey, it’s time for us to simply pull out now, so why hasn’t Obama done so?
As the two co-hosts were congratulating themselves on how smart they were, all I could think of was that Al Qaeda and the Taliban took control in the first place years ago as a result of the US dropping interest immediately after the Soviets retreated, allowing a power vacuum to be created.
Their logic would recreate the situation that led to 9-11 in the first place!
At any rate, the criticisms they were leveling against their Messiah were pretty entertaining from my perspective.
I look forward to observing more political cannibalism among the far left in the coming years.
If he’s such a big fan of the UN, how does he explain the existence of the permanent members of the Security Council as being compatible with his fairy tale idea of nations being equals?
Apparently this principle doesn’t extend to domestic political parties, where the guiding principle is “I won,” aka might makes right.
Perfect. I’m so stealing …er…”redistributing” this.
Ah, but weakness is strength.
(Surely you haven’t forgotten?
Of his three cards to play, one does have strength: the Chicago Way.
He never played the “Chicago Way” card himself: other people always did it for him while he blustered and contradicted himself.
Check it out: He has f’ed up everything he has ever touched. I can see why that would appeal to his dirty leftist handlers who wish to re-make America.
avi,
I am also curious about the family atmosphere in which he was raised. There have been signals that it was pretty disturbed, and that could have provoked defense behaviors like those you describe: be charming, be above the fray, or fight back. Whatever the cause, empathy is not in the mix.
AVI, your step #2 should have been,
“Adopt Leftist pose,” not “apply Leftist solution.”
Otherwise, excellent!
Madeleine Albright said about the same thing during the Clinton administration. Needed to even things up.
The actual benefit to anybody is….
Well, the only folks to actually benefit are our enemies or the enemies of peaceful, democratic states.
These are known, in normal circles, as “the bad guys”.
The rest of us are known as “the good guys”.
So Albright and zero and all their supporters and sycophants want to do things which, for whatever reason, will in the end damage the folks ordinarily known as “the good guys” which includes us.
As to motivation: I find that a low-return discussion. If somebody says “Why would he do that?”, “he” and “that” being anybody trying to do something whose end is likely to be a very bad thing and “that” being what he is trying to do, I know the whole thing is about to be obfuscated.
If you say the guy is trying to do something nefarious, you’re asked for proof of his motivation. Unless you have in-group communications to hand, you can’t prove it. So you’re a meanie, ascribing nefarious motives to somebody. Discussion moves from the likely outcome to defending your mean self. You’re probably a racist, or a hater. After all, saying bad stuff about somebody’s motivation when you have no proof whatsoever is pretty hateful.
So my response has become, “Beats me. Ask him. He’s the guy who’s doing it.” and stay with the likely outcome discussion.
Which is to say, further, that kicking around zero’s motivations here is okay, we all being BFF and whatnot.
In broader discussions…not so much.
on the world stage obama is acting like a new rich kid on the block. a role he probably has played since jakarta. he is forgetting his old friends, and is trying to ingratiate himself with the other kids by giving them things. the outcomes being a precious moments kind of thing where they reciprocate.
that might fit if he was a lone actor who did it by himself. but you can also spin that dime on this.
he is acting like someone who has seized a gold ring, and wishes to switch sides. he is pushing away his old friends of the past who where never freinds of his. and he is trying to be accepted and patted on the back by the new side he wants to be a part of. on the world stage he has basically been saying forget the old order (old friends and so forth), and let me in the door to the new order cause i am one of you. he is making choices which say this. siding with zalaya, bowing to the sauds, turning against isreal, pissing on poland and granting a big gift to russia (and he shows hostility toward asian socialism which is much more capitalistic), etc. he has shoved away friends. castro can see it. medvedev commented. chavez did. but all they are doing is egging him on.
the problem is that there is no love in sociopathy
(i always liked that better than no i in team).
He is playing into the bin laden “weak horse” theory, anyone notice the proliferation of arrests in the last few days, al qaeda is stepping it up:
Man arrested in alleged attempt to bomb Dallas skyscraper
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/092409dnmetbombarrest.1b177db8b.html
U.S. terror suspects accused of targeting Marine base
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2447383520090924
UPDATE 1-Illinois man charged in plot to bomb federal offices
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE58N6YT20090924
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
Twice in the past two days, SEPTA officials have alerted police to men taking pictures on the Broad Street subway line in South Philadelphia.
http://cbs3.com/local/SEPTA.Broad.Street.2.1206878.html
Zazi Indicted For Conspiring To Detonate WMD
http://wcbstv.com/breakingnewsalerts/najibullah.zazi.indicted.2.1205295.html
Lots of activity in a short amount of time, my theory, they knew President Bush would reciprocate aggressively and now they don’t fear Obama, at all.
With this many being rolled up, good odds there are some that haven’t been detected yet, be vigilant, wonder how many were caught due to practices put in place in the patriot act etc….
I can’t remember who wrote my favorite quote about Obama:
“People of Earth: Stop your bickering. I am from Harvard and will help you. “
“This would be a neat trick if he could perform it, but Obama is getting less and less successful at the gymnastics required, …”
Effectiveness requires credibility, an underpinning for respect; Obungler has lost both to what is now a well documented, even pathological level of crass dishonesty. But Obungler is not just weak, he is the moslem-communist trojan horse; everything about his history and associations corroborates this reality. Additionally, the current Democratic Party is not the same party (of JFK); rather, and even for Democrats, they are a europeanized far-left version not far at all from garden variety dedicated communists, both ideologically and in their political strategies. They’ve not yet had the opportunity to engage in police state violence, which could be inevidible for people with those kinds of ideas, if fueled by enough complacency amongst the masses. They are on track now, given enough rope, to hang us, or themselves…
Mona Charen today: Obama’s Self-Worship.
Amy,
I read Charen’s column too. What I especially liked was that she cited some examples of America that showed the power of average people: Gail Halvorsen’s dropping candy during the Berlin Airlift, Norman Borlaug’s unglamorous persistance in improving crops. The strength and goodness of America will always come from the people, and anyone who occupies the WH should be humbled by that.
Benjamin Netanyahu, not weak. Great UN speech.
Gray, I fear you are correct about Obama and the Chicago Way, and that he only indirectly knows how even that works. Skill at that would not be directly transferable to strength internationally, but it would at least indicate some understanding of the principles involved. If, as you suggest and I fear, others have always accomplished these things on his behalf and he cannot do it himself, that is indeed even worse.
Oblio, point taken, but is there a functional difference between the ideas “Adopt Leftist Pose” and “Apply Leftist Solution?” (Just kidding, artfl; I know there is, really)
i dont know if he is now going to come across weak…
here is a film of MPs grabbing a protestor and putting him into an unmarked car.
Arrest at G20 Demonstrations, September 24, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8CNa_viKg0
of course these left wing protests have no violence, and such… right?
so these guys dont scare pelosi, but the nice ones at the mall did.
well, watch the video.. because if you want to know if the miltiary guys will do what they are ordered to do, you have your answer.
they WILL… for i have no recollection in history of them doing anything else ever.
Even though the Border Patrol now reports that almost 1,300 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border is not under effective control, and the Department of Justice says that vast stretches of the border are “easily breached,” and the Government Accountability Office has revealed that three persons “linked to terrorism” and 530 aliens from “special interest countries” were intercepted at Border Patrol checkpoints last year, the administration is nonetheless now planning to decrease the number of Border Patrol agents deployed on the U.S.-Mexico border.
his agency is planning for a net decrease of 384 agents on the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal 2010, which begins on October 1.
I have been angry about the border for years. Anyone have Google Earth? Fly down to the Mexican-U.S. border and follow it from El Paso to San Diego. There is no way you can keep track of how many well worn foot paths across the border you find. Especially beginning in Arizona toward CA. And I do mean well worn, distinct foot paths.
That’s a lot of democrat votes, especially after they are all legalized and given health care to boot. If it comes tha tObama is seriously planning on amnesty and health care for all illegals, expect another 20 million to pour in before the cut off point.
art.
BOGUS. Mixed uniforms. Some not currently issued. Different boots. No headgear. White socks. No other gear such as batons, pistols, gas masks, pepper spray.
Photog missed the license plate. Kind of an accident.
The left is trying, but they’ll have to get their act together. This isn’t even half-good.
art
Further to the arrest. I’ll try to copy a bit from another blog::::::
From the G-20 Joint Information Center:
The individuals involved in the 9/24/2009 arrest which has appeared online are law enforcement officers from a multi-agency tactical response team assigned to the security operations for the G20.
It is not unusual for tactical team members to wear camouflaged fatigues. The type of fatigues the officers wear designates their unit affiliation. Prior to the arrest, the officers observed this subject vandalizing a local business. Due to the hostile nature of the crowd, officer safety and the safety of the person under arrest, the subject was immediately removed from the area.
By golly, it worked.
The cops have various types of bidness uniforms which explains the mixed unis and lack of insignia, coming from different departments and units.
It also explains the question of where did a bunch of vegan hippy anarchists get some big, burly guys who move like they know what they’re doing. Not a fake. Cops. Not the military.
GREAT!!! thanks…
though wearing those clothes among the left and using that method to grab someone, is not conducive.
by the way, i love your comment at the end..
It also explains the question of where did a bunch of vegan hippy anarchists get some big, burly guys who move like they know what they’re doing.
well, watch the video.. because if you want to know if the miltiary guys will do what they are ordered to do, you have your answer.
they WILL… for i have no recollection in history of them doing anything else ever.
Those were cops. As a ‘militiary guy’ who swore to uphold and defend the Constitution, I want you to take that sentiment and shove it up your ass, you miserable slanderous shit.
art.
Looks as if you should have been more skeptical.
Heard of the group known as, something like, Oath Brothers?
It’s cops, soldiers, and vets who have sworn to uphold, protect and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same.
They are currently swearing not to participate in disarming Americans, rounding up Americans, and several other things. Which is to say they anticipate some unconstitutional orders, or at least the possibility.
They are paying attention to the “domestic” piece of the Oath.
Unlike the loudmouth lefties, these are guys who know how to take care of business. Some of us are worried about, say, the knees and the wind, but as one guy said, what it takes, I still got.
Anyway, art, for prudence’ sake, be a bit more skeptical.
Didn’t take but about two seconds to see the uniform difficulties. Anybody could have done it. Were they so inclined.
usually i am more skeptical, but i went back to see why i made the mistake. i was way too distracted and i thought i saw an mp on an armband. which i was mistaken.
never said i was perfect, nor even tried to be.
but i am glad you pointed it out.
given other strange facts i know that no one gets, missing one or two out of them isnt a bad record.
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