Is stress unhinging Obama?
If an incident at Copenhagen described in a recent Die Welt article (translation here) is true, things are even worse than we previously thought with Obama.
And that was already bad enough.
Here’s what’s alleged to have occurred:
According to rumors from the Bella Center, President BO is said to have asked for a conversation with Wen jibao to bring up the matters. But O had to wait. Wen, according to the rumors, almost never left his hotel room and could not be found. Finally the US Delegation succeeded in finding the chinese premier in a conference room. An obviously angry Obama is said to have stormed into the room. “Are you ready yet to talk with me Mr Premier?” he is said to have shouted. “Are you ready now? Mr Prmier, are you ready to talk with me?” What a stage entrance for a US President.
However, Wen was not alone in the room, as Obama literally burst in, according to members of the congress. The Chinese (premier) was in the middle of talks with India’s head of state Mammohan Singh and the South African president Jacob Zuma. Suddenly the group found itself forced into a conversation with the US president.
At the insistence of the impatient Obama, this unplanned and coincidentally-assembled negotiating round and participants, agreed on a minimal compromise.
Obama should have discussed, coordinated with and agreed to this compromise with his closest partners: the European Union or the G77 Developing Nations. Instead, at about 10:25 PM, he called together a number of American journalists for an impromptu press conference. There he announced, the “Copenhagen Accord” as the conclusion and product of the two-week long conference. He was aware, that many countries would consider the result as insufficient and unsatisfactory. More, however, was not achievable.
The Chicago thug in Obama appears to be spilling over from the domestic into the international arena. Whatever happened to the urbane, articulate, exquisitely sensitive Obama-as-diplomat? He probably never existed, except in Obama’s own imagination and speeches (and once again, can you imagine the wall-to-wall press coverage if George Bush had done something similar?)
And speaking of Bush—I think that Obama actually believed the liberal/Left hype George Bush was an idiot. So it stands to reason that if that idiot could manage to talk to world leaders without any major faux pas, how hard could it be? Surely the brilliant Obama could do better without even trying.
Come to think of it—maybe this sort of behavior by Obama isn’t due to stress, because it seems to be an old pattern. The blog Small Dead Animals (hat tip: commenter “Kate” at Belmont Club) reported back in March that this was exactly the sort of behavior Obama exhibited during his first big attention-getting gig, the one that set him up for all the rest: the Presidency of the Harvard Law Review. Here’s a report from Carol Platt Liebau, managing editor of the Harvard Law Review at the time of Obama’s presidency there [emphasis mine]:
[W]hen he was at the HLR you did get a very distinct sense that he was the kind of guy who much more interested in being the president of the Review, than he was in doing anything as president of the Review.
A lot of the time he quote/unquote “worked from home”, which was sort of a shorthand – and people would say it sort of wryly – shorthand for not really doing much. He just wasn’t around. Most of the day to day work was carried out by the managing editor of the Review, my predecessor, a great guy called Tom Pirelli whose actually going to be one of the assistant attorney generals now.
He’s the one who did most of the day to day work. Barack Obama was nowhere to be seen. Occasionally he would drop in he would talk to people, and then he’d leave again as though his very arrival had been a benediction in and of itself, but not very much got done.
Sound familiar?
[NOTE: I originally had attributed the article to Spiegel, but I’ve corrected that to Die Welt.]
Obama has no competencies in administration or negotiation.
To develop competencies in these two fields, Obama would have had to study strategies of how to administer and how to negotiate, would have had to WORK at using these strategies and would have had to evaluate which were effective and which were not under specific conditions. He is too lazy to do any of this; he has relied on his charm and his ethnicity to get where he is.
Because he has not acquired the mental and behavioral schemata which underlie effective administration and effective diplomacy, he cannot tell when he is effective or not, nor discern other leaders’ overtures and withdrawals. Many messages are undoubtedly being sent to him via looks, speech, and behaviors during meetings with foreign leaders. But Obama does not grasp them because of his lack of competence in administration and diplomacy.
Because Obama cannot quite grasp what is going on in his meetings with foreign leaders and diplomats, he naturally gets very frustrated. Interestingly enough, Asians will never overtly inform him of his problem. They simply laugh at him behind his back. Obama is too old and too lazy to be helped now.
No, the lack of narcissistic supply is leading him toward fits of narcissistic rage. He is quite unhinged already. That does not preclude, however, a real psychotic break.
Hope one of the big boys is watching the nuclear football.
All I can say is, what do you expect. For those who can see , it was obvious from the beginningthat he had various narcissistic personality disorders.
That’s the second event in as many months wherein Prime Minister Singh had to deal with an uninvited guest.
If you were counsel to the president of the USA who walked, unannounced, into a room in which the heads of state of four or five countries were in some sort of discussion among themselves to which he had not been invited, what should you have advised?
I would have counseled the president to excuse himself for the unintended interruption and then leave.
I would have counseled the president to excuse himself for the unintended interruption and then leave.
I’d have thrust my head past Obama into the room, brightly ask the assembled worthies if they know where the men’s room is, thank them, apologize for interrupting them, yank Obama out by the collar, slam the door behind him, and then try to smooth things over with him before I went to update my resume.
Very funny, Occam’s Beard! I can picture it.
Key word here “Rumors”…best to stick with facts and opinions. Rumors are a whole other ballgame.
“According to rumors” is not exactly the level of reliability I would prefer when making judgments. I am content knowing the President is a left wing fascist with a severe character disorder, probably sociopathic who will allow the Iranians to sail nuclear weapons into our ports just so he can claim he is not a cowboy like George Bush. Beyond that I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
This is why Obama chose that dim-witted, loudmouth braggart and buffoon Biden as V.P., next in line of succession.
Obama will really have to go off the rails before anyone will seriously think of having Biden move up to fill the Presidency and, after all, who is going to tell Obama its time to head for the rubber room–Michelle, Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel or Valerie Jarrett, and why would they choose to do so, since the destruction of the Capitalist system and American democracy is moving forward at warp speed?
Most of the day to day work was carried out by the managing editor of the Review, my predecessor, a great guy called Tom Pirelli whose actually going to be one of the assistant attorney generals now.
Crap…. Please tell me an editor of the Harvard Law Review didn’t write this.
According to this account, Obama cleverly used this to meet with all of the countries at once.
If you believe this, I have some real estate in Florida you’ll be interested in. It’s above water 12 hours every day.
Bottom line: the Guardian confirms the general outlines of the incident, although without characterizing Obama’s demeanor.
Gray, yeah, I kinda had that reaction too. No wonder English teachers drink. They’ve got reason.
Gray, yeah, I kinda had that reaction too. No wonder English teachers drink.
I think it’s symptomatic of the profound and relentless ‘dumbing-down’ of every institution and every field in my lifetime.
We’ll never go to the moon again, we’ll never have supersonic travel again, we’ll never have HLR editors who can write again, we’ll never have an American car worth a crap again, we’ll never have movies worth watching again, we’ll never have competent doctors again.
It’s all gone. WTF? Did the last adult die in 1986?
Gray: It’s from a transcript of an audio interview. She definitely did not write it.
Obama’s the queen of the quota system.
Haven’t you seen this at your job?
And let’s cut her some slack, anyway. Two of my degrees are from schools no one has ever heard of; I know better but on-line have been known to write “their” when I mean “there.”
On the other hand, way back in ninth grade Mrs. Hoffmann taught me that the umpire at the ball game should be disinterested but not uninterested. Lots of people apparently never had a Mrs. Hoffmann.
It must be killing Obama that policies started by that idiot Bush seem to be the only ones that make sense or are doable. His brain must be turning cartwheels to protect his ego.
Hot Air mentions another Bush initiative that Spiegel says Obama is following on climate change.
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/12/21/der-speigel-copenhagen-a-club-for-losers/
I do think he is feeling the pressure, but I doubt that he will ever look to himself as the cause of his bad ratings.
when a creature that is cargo cult is put in a position where merit is key, this is the result.
like a person who cant swim being thrown in the water, nothing they ever read, or was told will help. they either learn real fast or sink real fast.
his behavior fits someone who never stayed long enough to be fired and never understood what was actually happening when a boss came into a room. ultimately he has the marxist prol view that bosses dont actually do anything to deserve what they earn.
He is in way, WAY over his head.
I’m reminded of that Saturday Night Live skit (before the election) in which Hilary fields a 3 am phone call…from Obama. It’s hilarious, and ends with his admission, “…this job is HARD! I mean, I had no idea! It’s a real ball-buster!”
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/clips/3am-phone-call/229104/
Of course, he seems to be a real pro when it comes to thuggish tactics. THAT he took the time to become proficient at…
In my opinion, Obama on some level is aware that he is a fraud, that he has gotten where he is not by merit but by his unusual circumstances. This is very dangerous as he has not developed methods of dealing with criticism or failure. Who knows what he is going to do next? I shudder to think.
I’m not sure at all that this story is true, in all or in part.
Remember, it’s tempting to believe what suits your preconceived notions, and this is something to guard against.
But yes, of course Obama is incompetent.
Alex Bensky and others: you may have missed the fact that I wrote in one of the comments that Ms. Liebau did not write that. It was a transcription of an audio interview she gave.
Gray: It’s from a transcript of an audio interview. She definitely did not write it.
I’m glad to hear that.
his behavior fits someone who never stayed long enough to be fired
Exactly. I worked with an Obama for over 20 years. He was an even better talker than Obama because he could speak without a teleprompter and with a very smooth impromptu delivery. He should have been in sales — which in a way he was — the product was himself. He was never more at home than at a podium in front of an audience. He rose fast but also hit his level of incompetence quickly.
After that he was put into a nice position with no real standards to meet. He was a minority and possessed political contacts as well. The job required only about 30% of his time and the rest he spent furthering his political connections and other personal stuff. Because of his race and his connections he was untouchable — his superiors were afraid of him.
This person was intelligent but was also lazy and never interested in developing skills. Screw-ups were hung on subordinates or in some cases his immediate superior — one of my best friends – who of course was very unhappy with the difficult minefield of supervising him. No one wanted to work with or for this person.
After he retired from our organization he ran for and easily won a local office and had his eye on the state legislature. A budding Obama without the exotic upbringing and Ivy League background.
But while serving in this first elective office he was caught in a bribery sting by the FBI. At first he played the race card and made all kinds of inflammatory statements because he thought it was his word against 2 white guys, one of whom was under indictment for another offense and was the chief witness. No problem, right? He had employed this same tactic throughout the time I knew him and it had always worked.
It turns out they were just letting him hang himself. After he had spouted off to the local newspaper and TV stations for a week the FBI let his lawyer know that the transaction had been recorded. Their witness had been wearing a wire. A guilty plea with a request for leniency followed immediately. The bribe was for a paltry $2,500 — his split with another office holder for voting to give a contract to a law firm. I’m sure he had accepted many other bribes — these things are usually just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. He, the other office holder and the two lawyers paying the bribe were convicted. He served a little bit of time — not much — first offense, clean record, etc.
During the primaries it struck me how similar Obama is to this person. Obama probably thought the Presidency would be like his other gigs: sinecures without need of real skills or real effort. But it’s not an easy job and I suspect his subordinates are buoying him up. All those Czars.
But the trouble is that O seems unable to consistently hire good folks — which is difficult even for the experienced manager. He farms out a lot of the work to Pelosi and Reid. Thanks should be given that his economic advisors have experience. His chief political advisors seem to be the folks that managed his campaign — which is canny but ultimately cannot forestall the inevitable. For instance, advisors cannot handle negotiations with other heads of state — an activity in which no one around him has any experience doing. Foreign policy is WAY over the heads of everyone around him. Right now our enemies are playing him for a fool and our allies are aghast.
All that said, though incompetent he is still dangerous. The ideologues in his administration and the Congress mirror his own Progressive aspirations for this nation.
Three throughts:
(1) Obama’s life appears to be a repeated demonstration of “The Peter Principal” in action… except that its happened over and over and over.
(2)“Are you ready yet to talk with me Mr Premier?” he is said to have shouted. “Are you ready now? Mr Prmier, are you ready to talk with me?” Isn’t this just a little too close to that scene in where the DeNiro character does his “You talkin’ to me” monologue?
(3) I honestly considered posting a comment under the name “Barack Obama,” demanding that someone talk with me.
Another error:
Its supposed to read:
Isn’t this just a little too close to that scene in Taxi Driver where the DeNiro character does his “You talkin’ to me” monologue?
Remember:
Obama:
“People of Earth: Stop your bickering. I am from Harvard.”
Yeah, like that….
I first came across this story about Obama at Harvard Law Review some time ago, and I fully believe it to be true. Tom Pirelli went to a high school close to mine, and I was aware of his reputation from a mutual friend. I met him at some events, but never got to know him personally. Still, this story seems true to me because it fully fits with my understanding of who Tom Pirelli is and my perception of what Obama is like.
How interesting, if even partially true. Details of the mystery man, the 21st century “Fard” emerge. As with the anecdote offered by Grackle I’ve seen this show at the local level, having worked in State and Muncipal government agencies. No doubt there’s a treasure trove of salacious info available to some courageous reporter. What a great time for a hard-hitting documentary on modern day Chicago politics, ala the Acorn fiasco, to really cement the bastards place in history.
The Washington Times picked this up, attributing it to CBS:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/23/obama-the-party-crasher/
He’s what you get when the Peter Principle is linked to Affirmative Action.
Hmm – I’ve been thinking for months that The Won will melt down, epically. He will loose it, and we will be treated to some really horribly ugly display of pique or bad temper. Please, allow a merciful providence to see that such a melt-down happens live, in front of a large crowd, and it is captured on video. If this story is anything like what really happened in Copenhagen, this will happen soon.
Grackle, you told an interesting and relevant story. My sister had a term for such people, “bullshit artist”. Next question, how long before the rest of public catches on?
What does it matter is this phoney loses his mind? A lunatic couldn’t do more damage then he.
I would fear Obama more when he is somber and concentrated then when he is unhinged.
It isn’t stress.
It is arrogance.
This is bad, so very bad. Upon assuming a leadership position, those not enthralled, will test you, subordinates and opponents alike. Their goal is to see if they can make you dance to their tune, react to them rather than run your own show.
It is a failure of leadership when your subordinates can make you react against your principles by presenting you with crisis. But is is dangerous when your opponents and enemies realize they can make you dance to their tune. The Chinese Premier would not have snubbed Obama if he thought he was going to have to deal with him as an equal in the future. Obama compounding this by bursting into a meeting demanding attention isn’t going to get him respect. They gave him a minimal agreement as a pat on the head. The President of the United States had to force his way into a meeting and all he got was a booby prize.
This wasn’t Obama coming unhinged. It was a failed leader trying not to be ignored.
Their goal is to see if they can make you dance to their tune, react to them rather than run your own show.
Exactly. But you’d have to have executive experience to know that. Hence the problem.
Perhaps most who read Neo have already come across theInstapundit thread of several days ago. I include it for those who have not, as it is relevant.
I have not included the links, as Neo’s filter would most likely have stopped the posting. Go to the Instapundit thread for the links.
Tom said:
I think youve got that right. Affirmative Action really is the institutionalized Peter Principal… the promotion of unqualified people because they fit into some category.
Not doing any actual “work” on the HLR might have had a lot to do with the fact Obama was never offered a clerkship with any judge upon graduation and had to settle for dregs like “community organizing”. He wasn’t much of a lawyer, apparently. BTW- I’ve never found (if any exists) any writing Obama EVER actually did on the HLR, which is supposedly the stepping-stone to greater things. Apparently the business card is the ticket and the actual work isn’t needed (see: current occupant of the White House). A situation setting up Obama perfectly for the way he’s performed throughout his entire adult life: let others do the work, he’ll take the credit. The ultimate these days is someone ELSE even writes his speeches. All he has to do is read the teleprompter.
Clyde:
BTW- I’ve never found (if any exists) any writing Obama EVER actually did on the HLR, which is supposedly the stepping-stone to greater things.
From Obama’s lost law review article, we find out that he did publish something during his time at Harvard, shortly before he became President of the HLR.
More at the link.
Obama was never offered a clerkship with any judge upon graduation and had to settle for dregs like “community organizing”.
This was the basis of my skepticism regarding Tribe’s encomium for Obama (IIRC, “best student he’d had at HLS in 40 years”). Best student ever, but no clerkship – just off to Chicago to try his wings in traffic court? Sure. Happens all the time.
And one lousy article? One? And that buried deeper than whale crap?
Further, consider Estrich’s effrontery. How dare the plebs want to know the philosophical views of a candidate? Why, if they read his Gospel, they might begin to wonder if He truly is the Messiah. Blasphemy!
The LA Times blog “The Daily Mirror” brings up a 1990 LA Times article., which gives a decidedly different view of Obama’s performance as President of the HLR: Barack Obama, Harvard Law Review editor, March 19, 1990.
More at the link.
I am not sure where the truth lies, but there is at least one dissenting voice to the opinion that Obama was a do-nothing as HLR’s President.
Occam’s Beard:
Yes, there was effrontery, but the effrontery came not from Susan Estrich, who as far as I can tell, was not associated with managing the Obama campaign. She made her statement in her capacity as a law professor at USC.
Susan Estrich described the effrontery of the Obama campaign and of Obama. Obama’s attempt to be a mirror, to be all things to all people, would have been damaged by widespread knowledge of that article. The more people know about your stances on various issues, the less you can appear to be all things to all people. There is a reason why we don’t know Obama: that is the way he and his handlers want it.
clyde:
Obama’s “community organizing” came before he went to law school. As Huxley points out, Obama’s not being offered a clerkship tends to discount Tribe’s effusive praise of Obama.
Gringo: my guess is that Obama was a pretty good editor when he was president of HLR. It’s hard to know how much editing he actually did, however. For example, was Ulrich’s experience an exception, or the rule? We do know he wrote almost nothing himself, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t edit.
I base my opinion on the following, part of this fascinating July 2008 article:
This may also solve the question of why no clerkship. He went straight to posts at U. of Chicago, and then to work for a law firm that specialized in the work he was interested in (the subject matter has quite a bit of significance now, in retrospect):
Interesting. Not entirely credible, because of the hagiographic tenor of the article which bespeaks a puff piece, but interesting, and food for thought.
We might also want to mention here that various pieces of information that have come to light tend to cast doubt on Obama himself writing his autobiographical “Dreams From My Father, ” but, rather, point to Bill Ayers as being the more likely ghost writer, or even Dreams’ author.
What are we doing here, people? I admire your webwork, but are we pigs rooting for truffles and at long last finding only a single specimen, and a wretched one at that? An anonymous piecelet?
Let’s stop swooning over his alleged hard work and many hours as HLR editor. May be he is a slow reader. Editing is not hard work if it consists of fine-tuning manuscripts. What’s hard is the original research and the original write. The work of an editor at a journal as august as HLR is to lead the path of the publication, as in Leadership, not pecking away at grammar with “lots of tiny print”.
What are we doing here, people? I admire your webwork, but are we pigs rooting for truffles and at long last finding only a single specimen, and a wretched one at that? An anonymous piecelet?
Let’s stop swooning over his alleged hard work and many hours as HLR editor. May be he is a slow reader. Editing is not hard work if it consists of fine-tuning manuscripts. What’s hard is the original research and the original write. The work of an editor at a journal as august as HLR is to lead the path of the publication, as in Leadership, not pecking away at grammar with “lots of tiny print”.
Ooops!
Tom:
What are we doing here, people? I admire your webwork, but are we pigs rooting for truffles and at long last finding only a single specimen, and a wretched one at that? An anonymous piecelet?Let’s stop swooning over his alleged hard work and many hours as HLR editor.
Neo cited “Carol Platt Liebau, managing editor of the Harvard Law Review at the time of Obama’s presidency there,” who in so many words called Obama a do-nothing during his tenure as President of HLR. In looking for assessments of his time at HLR, I found an alternative view, and presented it. I also stated I wasn’t sure which view was the right one.
I was on the law review at Temple. I was required to write an article in my second year, which was a lot of hard work but was edited very harshly because it was not even near a finished product. I learned a lot from that experience. The editor was a third year law student who had written at least one article and who was voted in by a majority of the members of his class. The editor we elected in my third year was very tough but constructive. He would not have carried any weight if he had not written an article or two himself. So, I find it belies belief that Obama was able to assert a strong hand in editing others work when he could not stand behind something of quality that he had written. The egos are just too strong and the criticism and reactions extraordinarily intense. Moreover, doing a critical job as editor is not something that would be done well by someone who wants to be loved. My experience leads me to believe that he left the hard work to the peons.
Gringo:
My point re HLR is, “So what?” Whether he worked hard or didn’t does not change the Big Picture.
Osler observed, in the late 1800s,”The patient is not interested in the questions to be answered at his own autopsy”. The Republic is near-mortally ill, and questions about what happened at Harvard and HLR no longer need be asked or answered.
Hard work builds character.
Arrogance is born of an attitude of one feeling they deserve better or more…
As the minions pay for Obama’s mistakes – the “Big Picture” as you call it Tom is a big mud puddle in Obama’s brain.
If one doesn’t even understand the concept of not raising taxes during a recession – well….
Through interaction and character building and honest hard work – you gain respect and knowledge and wisdom – all of which Obama has very little.
My daughters have worked harder than Obama. Dance class, karate, theater, charity, performances. They have learned a discipline and stage presence and way of being that tells me they wouldn’t have barged into a room like Obama throwing away decorum and tact.