Obama: checked out
I keep hearing that Obama has checked out and is no longer interested in being president.
But was he ever interested in the work of being president? I don’t think so. From the very start, what interested him was giving speeches and campaigning. For the rest, he truly believed that just being his glorious self would somehow magically cause all the things he wanted to happen to actually occur, with a minimum of effort.
And although that sounds rather deluded, in a sense it was reality-based in his case. Isn’t that pretty much how his life had gone up till now?
Obama never was very engaged with the work of government, although much of his career has been spent in government. As president, even his signature “accomplishment” early in his administration, Obamacare, was designed and pushed mostly by others (Pelosi, for example), who did the heavy lifting for him.
Obama is used to adulation and feeds off it, and when the adulation stops he’s really not very interested in going on with the activity. Campaigning and elections are tailor-made for a personality such as his. They feature speeches and promises and debates (words) rather than the need to work with others and accomplish something concrete. The main activity is travel—constant movement—and speaking before adoring crowds.
Most important of all, they are time-limited and have an easily-defined and perceived payoff—the election results, which Obama has almost always (with the single exception of his run for Congress to unseat Bobby Rush) won handily. Campaigns last about a year or a little more, and then the candidate gets his/her reward. It is a relative sprint compared to the longer-distance race that is a presidency, especially a two-term presidency.
Finally, we know that Obama is easily bored. No less an expert on Obama than Valerie Jarrett has said so, in the strongest possible terms: “He’s been bored to death his whole life. He’s just too talented to do what ordinary people do.” That, from the woman who (except for Michelle) probably knows him best and is closest to him.
So, no surprise. Obama hasn’t checked out because he never really, completely, checked in.
We need to check out the Leftists from this planet.
Deep Exile
‘Zackly, neo.
Couldn’t’a’ said it better myself. (And didn’t.)
Dictator yes, “interested in the work of being president”, no
ie. like many others he assumed he would have a lot more power than he actually had and this lack of power and autonomy frustrated the heck out of him until he didnt care much… lame duck has even less power, other than ability to cause calamity…
No destiny attacks us from outside. But, within him, man bears his fate and there comes a moment when he knows himself vulnerable; and then, as in a vertigo, blunder upon blunder lures him
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
[sadly people dont usually know these other works by this man]
“Perhaps that is why desire causes men calamity. By identifying with our desires and taking them too seriously, we not only increase our susceptibility to disappointment, we actually create a climate inhospitable to the free and easy fulfillment of those desires.”
― Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume
He said what he had to say to get their adulation. He didn’t even really know what he was saying being so much more wealth and white than poor and black. But it was his pride to be able to manipulate them. No wonder they are dissing him now.
I’ve often wondered at his “work ethic” regarding campaigning. Thank you, Neo, you’ve answered my question. It wasn’t an ethic. It was an addiction.
Er ist nicht ein Mensch, er ist ein Schein
If he is bored, it’s not because he’s lost interest in some matter, it’s because his only interest in life was and remains Obama.
The dramas that are his pathologies would call for an entire DSM volume devoted to the litany of his disorders. The most extraordinary thing about him is not that he is an epic of imposture and a primer on hoodwink but that the fact of the matter should not yet be fully recognized by every sentient hominid on earth. At some point apologies will be forthcoming.
I am not a psychiatrist but it is plain to me that bho is a conflicted person with a paper thin ego. Were he not president I would feel a bit of pity for him, as it is I loath him and his associates.
Well said, Neo.
He can’t be over something he’s never been under.
Obama is the embodiment of the common belief among liberals that having good intentions will get you good results.
Most liberals support well-intention programs that turn out to be disastrous. But at least they are doing something. Obama thinks just sitting there in the Oval Office with good intentions is going to change the world.
On the other hand the less he does, the less he screws up.
I’d gladly contribute a couple of hundred to his retirement account if he’d just go away and shut up.
Bho does not have “good intentions”. His intention is to “fundamentally change” America into just another 3rd world hell hole.
By his own standards they are good intentions. He does not intend for America to be 3rd world hell hole. He intends it to be a liberal paradise that will never exist. Third world hell hole is just what the real world result is going to be.
I’m also not saying that having good intentions is the same as being a good person. Most tyrants have good intentions, they are still tyrants.
He’s just a figurehead. He is the face of the left-wing cabal that has seized control of our country.
The real work is being done in the shadows by the dozens of unconstitutional Communist “czars” that he appointed throughout the regulatory agencies.
You give Obama too much credit. He doesn’t write his speeches (which is not unusual for a President) but I don’t think he even contributes to the writing. I think he just reads like most news anchors.
As black helicopter as it sounds, I have come to believe he is a total puppet. He has no thoughts or ideas of his own nor understands what he is reading most of the time.
Skullbuster,
I don’t see anyone here saying he writes his speeches. Nothing I wrote is inconsistent with anything you wrote.
He enjoys giving speeches and taking in the adulation, and he enjoys the campaigning for the reasons I stated. Whether or not he’s a puppet (and I happen to think he is a leftist, and is allied with other leftists and is their useful instrument, but is not merely their puppet) is another question.
“He’s been bored to death his whole life. He’s just too talented to do what ordinary people do.”
I’m still amazed at the cluelessness of Jarrett, saying this utterly damning thing about Obama while clearly believing she was describing his wonderfulness. When I was a child with nothing to do during summer vacation — back in those days when adults did not believe it to be their duty to entertain or schedule the lives out of their children, but left us to wander around on our own on the long hot days, lying on the lawn chewing blades of grass, climbing trees, poking under rocks in the creek with sticks — anyway, back in those long summer days, if we ever whined that we were bored my mother inevitably answered: “If you’re bored, you’re not very smart. Intelligent people are never bored because they have Inner Resources.”
Annoying as she was, my mother was right, of course. Curiosity, wonder, the ability to appreciate nuance or explore detail, the urge to try to understand new and unfamiliar ideas, all of those characteristics and more go with intelligence and bring lifelong immunity against boredom. Jarrett was revealing that Obama, with that mental laziness and lack of intellectual curiosity or interest in ideas that all of us have noticed by now, is not, in fact, very smart at all.
Hussein isn’t the leader of the Left, but a good focus crystal to Burn Down the Race. He can be easily replaced and will be, whether it is the Clinton or somebody else that does it.
However, in order to hate the Leftist alliance and everyone in it, it’s difficult for most people to hate the Abstract concept of an organization. It’s easier to hate individuals. And Hussein is an individual. Freeze, isolate, separate.
When people can transfer their hate from Hussein to where it truly belongs, then the real work can progress.
“Annoying as she was, my mother was right, of course. Curiosity, wonder, the ability to appreciate nuance or explore detail, the urge to try to understand new and unfamiliar ideas, all of those characteristics and more go with intelligence and bring lifelong immunity against boredom.”
At a house party, some people were by themselves sipping drinks, others were on the couch watching a DVD from WWII (China vs Japan theater), or preparing the food. I was doing Taiji Chuan steps, to improve my balance.
So people who are bored, obviously have a crutch issue.
Sentinel, convoy guarding, or post guarding is one of the most boring jobs in existence, until the fire heats it up. So there’s a lot of small miniature mind games that go on while people have to stare at a certain screen or area of operations all day.
We really can’t know, we can only surmise.
Anyone and everyone who has been involved in a news story in some way, can tell you that the news story is inaccurate.
Anyone and everyone who has known somebody of public interest can tell you that public perception of the person is significantly inaccurate.
I say BO regards himself as a world-historical figure, ridiculously but truly. What do I know?
He is a red diaper baby, and given to religious beliefs never even faintly affected by feeding himself, making a living, paying a mortgage, fixing a tire.
Based on my experience, I have to say many, many people are not based in reality, or more importantly a desire to appreciate reality, truth and objectivity. Many, many people are based in an understandable narrative, largely fictional, corresponding to many factors, including their particular experience in life.
The justifications and rationalizations follow the experience, in a bizarre but understandable way, although external experience is just a part. Mothers and fathers, or lack, for instance, play a big role, deeply emotional and psychological.
Personally, I think some rational person should have split Hitler’s head open with a hammer. But I know I would not have done it, as much as I wanted to.
The intermediate area of existence is the biggest part of existence, by far the governing part.
BO is a despicable creature, a fact we now know is not subject to correction.
Obama was never the President in spirit. He had no interest from Day 1 or ever in doing and being what real Presidents do or are.
It can’t be repeated enough: The entire sum and substance and clue to this so-called man” is that he is a so-called president who actually hates the country and people he is president of. He is the Reverend Wright president – the “God damn America” president.
That’s it.
All the other analysis is BS. Total BS if it does not get that central and decisive point.
If anyone wants to counter Obama, they will NEVER do it if they don’t admit that fact. Never. On the other hand, if you want to beat this louse of a human being, that fact is his kryptonite. He will be brought to his weak knees if it is put in his face all the tie.
Mike Says:
August 15th, 2014 at 8:57 pm
And what does that say about the people who voted for him?
Slightly off topic, here, but am I insane?
I read this characterization of Obama in The Nation and snorted my coffee back out through my nostrils:
“Sunstein has been proved correct. There is no doubt that Obama is an authentic Burkean–someone who, in Bromwich’s description of the ideal, “stood out wherever possible as an advocate of pragmatic compromise.”
Earlier in the article:
“Brooks was not alone. Cass Sunstein, a Harvard law professor and another occasional Burkean, was well positioned to wave Obama’s membership card in the reformist club when others were prematurely enacting the rites of a revolutionary new age. Obama understood the need to be “fearful of those who are gripped by abstractions, simple ideologies, and large-scale theories,” Sunstein wrote ten days after the president took office. As a result, Obama would “respect traditions, and [would] not believe that long-standing practices should be altered lightly or without a careful analysis that includes many voices.”
http://www.thenation.com/article/180956/burkean-regicide?page=full#
The reviewer is a joker named Samuel Moyn — some poor ignorant hack, I thought, before checking out his bio — professor of law and history at Harvard.
Groan.
Again, apologies for posting off topic, or at least slightly askew, but really — how could anyone utter such a grotesquerie with such self-assurance?
I’m not convinced that Obama has checked out. I can’t say Neo is wrong but I don’t find the evidence convincing.
If you begin with the understanding that Obama is either an Islamist himself or is an Islamist sympathizer, then everything makes sense. In that case it is possible that Obama is still very active and engaged but is deliberately working against the best interests of the majority of Americans who are not interested in living under an Islamic regime.
An example of how Obama is still engaged is the moratorium placed on shipping missiles to Israel which had already been promised. It is highly unlikely that a administration officials took it upon themselves to block weapons to Israel without informing Obama. Blocking the shipment to Israel shows a president who is very much engaged just not in a way which benefits most Americans. I fear that those who think Obama has become so bored with the presidency that he will not continue to engage in this type of subterfuge is just engaging in wishful thinking.
gpc31 Says:
August 15th, 2014 at 9:55 pm
That explains a lot, actually.
M J R, 4:44 pm — “‘Zackly, neo. Couldn’t’a’ said it better myself.”
Illuminati, 10:17 pm — “If you begin with the understanding that Obama is either an Islamist himself or is an Islamist sympathizer, then everything makes sense. In that case it is possible that Obama is still very active and engaged but is deliberately working against the best interests of the majority of Americans who are not interested in living under an Islamic regime. [dot dot dot] I fear that those who think Obama has become so bored with the presidency that he will not continue to engage in this type of subterfuge is just engaging in wishful thinking.”
Also on target. Now I get to reconcile the two.
I keep hearing that Obama has checked out and is no longer interested in being president.
As if it really matters much at this point.
He was always the empty suit paraded to the public, and he is not now nor has he ever been the real power in this administration. Obama is a true believer, but he does as he’s told. When the going even begins to seem like it’s getting rough, the wimp checks out & goes golfing.
The person doing the ‘telling’ in this administration increasingly appears to be Valerie Jarret. This administration was fraudulently elected to a second term. They have nothing to loose and everything to gain by going for broke. Afterall, with this crowd, Cloward-Pivoning the government beyond the breaking point does not seem to be a bug, but a feature.
Recently quoted,
Any reasonable objective observer cannot help but conclude that the actions of this administration go well beyond corrupt and incompetent. (My opinion here which, along with a dollar will get you a cup of coffee.)
A brief and not by any means complete recitation of the stellar achievements of this administration;
Obama care
De-fanging the Inspectors general
Fudging unemployment statistics
Fast & Furious (arming drug gangs in Mexico and aiding in the de-stabilization of it’s government)
Embracing the Honduran thug
Abandonment of Israel
Abandonment of Iraq
Upcoming abandonment of Afghanistan
Backing the Muslin Brotherhood in the Egyptian uprising
Libya (but what difference does it make?)
The bright red line in Syria
Our southern border
Dismantling of our military
Etcetera, ad nauseum….
This goes way beyond incompetence.
M J R:
The two are not mutually exclusive.
Obama can be dedicated to any number of goals (and I’ve talked about a lot of them—chief among them weakening the US, and establishing the Democrats in one-party rule in perpetuum) and still be lackadaisical and uninvolved with the actual operation of how to get there, except in the broad outlines.
Mrs Whatsit:
Are you John Berryman’s sister?
Did you follow the link in my post to the previous post where I quoted Berryman’s poem, with the following lines:
neo,
I’m reminded of a scene in “Fiddler on the Roof” [I hope I get the sense mostly correct; it’s been a looong time]:
There’s a debate raging. One of the townspeople makes his point, and the protagonist exclaims, “you are right”! Another of the townspeople voices the opposing position, and the protagonist exclaims, “you are right”! Someone points out to the protagonist, “but they cannot both be right.” The protagonist comes back with, “*you* are right!”
But seriously . . . neo, *you* are right: “the two are not mutually exclusive.” They can feel mutually exclusive, only because the malignancy involved is so multifaceted. Was I emoting rather than thinking?
I don’t see that he ever checked in. He doesn’t seem to do anything — he’s on vacation right now, AGAIN. It’s as if he gets to have all the perks while other people do all the work. Seriously, how many times has he appeared on television since taking office? How many fundraisers has he flown to? Michelle Obama seems to do more work with trying to revamp school lunches than he does running the country.
Neo — for heaven’s sake! I’m dumbfounded. I am not John Berryman’s sister, I did not click on the link in your previous post (I was on vacation in a house with a sloooooow internet connection and could not click successfully on much), and my mother truly did say that, in those words, often. She was a reader of poetry and herself a poet — though not a Berryman — and I suppose it’s possible that she was quoting the poem when she lectured us. The timing is right.
As for the capital letters, that must have been subconscious. I have no conscious memory of reading the poem before, but I surely read your post about it when it appeared, likely both times, and that may be why the phrase appeared so vividly in my writing mind in capital letters.
And while we’re on the subject of strange linkages, I checked John Berryman’s bio to see if there was any possibility that our mothers knew each other (it would seem not ) and there learned — in connection with one of the other subjects we’ve been exploring here over the past few days — that he was haunted throughout his life by the suicide of his father when he was 12.
That’s similar to something I wrote a week or two ago, namely that it’s hard for Obama to check out when he never really checked in. Someone at Ace once wrote “Obama likes to BE president. He doesn’t like to DO president.”
At this point, Conservatives should stop getting on him for vacations and golf and parties and stuff, and push him to do these things more. He’s worthless, and his little ventures into Presidenting cause more harm than good. The less he gets involved the better.
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What an absolute Freak-Bizarre-Anomoly this Twit is in our history. Especially his Re-Election!! And, what a vast cost he has been and will be.
Yer Infantile Majesty, Einstein and Madison had the right to get bored. Neither did, so far as I know. You, Moral & Intellectual Midget, have not one breath of said right.
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