Obama: the only thing we have to fear is…
…fear itself. Oh, and frustration:
Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we’re hardwired not to always think clearly when we’re scared,” Obama said Saturday evening in remarks at a small Democratic fundraiser Saturday evening. “And the country’s scared.”…
He faulted the economic downturn for Americans’ inability to “think clearly” and said the burden is on Democrats “to break through the fear and the frustration people are feeling.”
Obama really doesn’t learn. His above-it-all condescension, his tendency to play the social-worker-in-chief, his suggestion that he and his supporters are fact-driven and his detractors are emotion-driven, all come across worse as time goes on. And when he speaks at fundraisers in front of moneyed supporters, these repellent traits tend to come out in especially sharp relief. Bitter clingers and all that.
So let me respond. Yes, Mr. President, many people are afraid and frustrated, but not just about the economy in general. A great many of us have become afraid of the damage that can be done by you and your fellow Democrats remaining in power. We have become afraid of (and highly frustrated by) the attempts of you and your party to jerk us by the too-tight collar and lead us much further to the left than we think best. We have felt those twin emotions, fear and frustration, as well as others such as anger and a sense of betrayal, as we’ve watched over the last two years as you and/or Congress have passed one counterproductive and unpopular bill after another, ignored our clearly stated opinions and wishes, sucked up to dictators and apologized for this country, and broken promise after promise and then lied about it.
Who’s thinking clearly, and who is not?
[NOTE: And don’t think Obama is planning to abandon his agenda if he and his party do manage to bitterly cling to power. At this meeting and other recent ones, he’s made it clear that he will persevere:
He said he needs Democrats in the Senate “because every bit of progress that we need to make is going be a matter of grinding it out.”
“Grinding” is a word Obama returned to several times Saturday as he tried to empathize with Democrats who are frustrated with his administration and leaders in Congress.
“Now we’re in the midst of not just advocating for change, not just calling for change ”“ we’re doing the grinding, sometimes frustrating work of delivering change ”” inch by inch, day by day,” Obama said.]
The man has his elitest head so far up his you know what that he is to blind to see that the electorate is in fact paying attention. They are not stupid and they are tired of being talked down to and lied to. This is easily one of the most pathetic creatures to ever inhabit the White House. And there are people who actually applaud this clowns leadership? What leadership. Lies and deception. that’s all there is.
A real leader and a horse’s ass. Guess which is which. Hint: 33 men are alive thanks to leadership
Mr. President, you are the source and not the solution to our fears. But we are not cowering in fear. We, as is the tradition in this great nation, are acting to address the cause of our discomfort.
I just read this via RCP:
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/10/16/valerie-jarretts-advice-to-boss-obama-stay-the-course-and-kn/
He really needs to get rid of his favorite dolt, but I guess she’s been feeding his narcissism too long to expect a change there.
I’d like to add a bit of advice to The Won: Psychoananalyst-in-Chief, psychoanalyze thy self. You are the one with a head problem, not me.
In a way Obama is right. We are not hard-wired to think when we are afraid. We are hard-wired to act. If our ancestors had not been hard-wired to recognize danger quickly and then act quickly, we would not be here.
If anything we have become lulled into inaction by persuasive thinking (such as how attractive socialism or communism sounded years ago) and become less able to recognize social, economic, and political dangers and then to act appropriately.
Best wishes,
Jim
If your car is stalled on the tracks and you see the train coming, the proper response is fear and then action. Obama and his lefty allies are trying to run us over.
Obama might just find himself on the receiving end of the grinding process sooner rather than later. I’m thinking of the saying of Sextus Empiricus (3rd c. physician as well as philosopher): ‘The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind small.’
Looks like Justice Alito is planning to cut the next SOTU: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/10/16/supreme-court-justice-alito-plans-skip-state-union-address/?test=latestnews
Good for him– not that the Grinder in Chief will get the message.
“facts and science and argument”…what courses in science has Obama taken? What serious books on the subject has he read?
And why do so many of his supporters believe in things like magical crystals and various mystical “forces”?
Has there ever been a president so insulting to the people?
I find it amusing for ∅bama to talk about “science.” I doubt he took any more than 2 or 3 STEM courses in his life, and I suspect that they were more of the “Science for Poets” variety. [STEM= science, technology, engineering, mathematics.]
I know it’s unfair to pick grammar apart when somebody’s speaking extemporaneously, as I certainly hope he was (bring back that teleprompter!) But this is the Greatest Orator of Our Time, or so I’ve been told. So couldn’t he do better than he did in this quasi-sentence: “Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we’re hardwired not to always think clearly when we’re scared.”
“Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now . . . ”
Our politics SEEM tough because they ARE tough. And also because they are plural.
“. . . and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time . . . ”
Facts and science and argument DO not seem to be winning the day, in part because they have been awfully scarce in the environs of Washington, D.C., lately, and also because, like politics, they are plural.
“is because . . . ”
This harkens back to the beginning of the sentence, which started off with “Part of the reason . . . ” and therefore should have ended up with “THAT.” “The reason is because” is redundant.
“we’re hardwired not to always think clearly when we’re scared”
We’re also hardwired to avoid splitting infinitives if we can help it — or we ought to be, even when we’re so scared that our syntax is falling apart.
“science” = Global Warming.
What other science would Barack Obama consider himself an expert in?
Obama is a great rationalizer. His cycle of blame and excuses is never ending. Positive course correction is rarely the product of this victim mentality.
Affirmative Action in action. As we sow, so shall we also reap.
Isn’t it delightful to be so disrespected by Dear Leader? The truth is he simply does NOT like Americans. Lovely.
Grammar aside, I was particularly outraged by these remarks from Obama’s MTV Town Hall with young voters:
” [W]hat is important is that we make sure to work together, that we understand our strength comes from unity and not division.
And that’s going to be something that I think your generation is going to be especially important because if all of you lead, then your parents and your grandparents tend to follow.
If you say, well, Mom or Dad, actually, I don’t agree with your opinion about such and such group, they listen.
I will be 50 next year and I will tell you, as you get older, your mind gets a little more set. And it needs the poking and prodding and breaking through of stereotypes that I think young people provide. So you guys are going to be the messengers of this continued strengthening of the diversity in this country.”
Could there be anything more characteristic of this bitterly divisive president? After giving brief lip service to the importance of unity over division, he barely paused for breath before trying to ingratiate himself with his young audience by turning them against their parents. In Obamaland, everybody over 30 or so — at least, everybody who might not agree with Obama — is racist, sclerotic and clueless. I’m telling you, it is REALLY getting crowded under that bus.
As a Marxist there is only one answer to the question, and so there is only one way to be, answer, etc… he cant learn, because he has already learned all he needs, which is what ideology offers, everything in a nuts shell…
Marxists do not learn because to do so is to deviate from the prophet. the rest is just social engineering (manipulation), or force (if the cost isnt too high or unpredictable).
if you want thinking go with a real person, not an automaton whose only way to pretend they are part of something is to align their thinking to the rules, and so pretend to dance with each other. doing the same thing at the same time is not the same as doing something together in the sense they want to believe it.
doing something at the same time doesn’t mean your doing anything together. the collective is a false illusion, it never gives what nothing can give, which is the actual ability to know your not alone.
I absolutely detest Obama. That’s all my reptilian brain stem (essentially his words some time ago) allows me to say now, I’m so angry.
No…I can say this…we gotta get rid of this arrogant S.O.B. and his sycophants. First in 2010, the sycophants. Then him in 2012.
Mrs Whatsit re Obama’s stirring up of intergenerational conflict….Obama divides American into dozens of different groupings, and the attempts to foment anger across group lines. This approach seems to be key to who he is. While an executive of my acquaintance was fond of the phrase “fix problems, not blame,” Obama is far more interested in fixing blame than in fixing problems.
His “leadership” approach is toxic, and would eventually destroy any organization that chose him as his leader, be it a company, a small store, a commercial or navy ship, a Little League team, or an entire country.
I am reminded of what several years ago ∅bama said to exhort his followers to persuade their friends and neighbors: “get in their faces.”
In my decades of being a politics hound, I can never recall any President who has so publicly disparaged so many individuals and so many different groups.
Most of us who are long-term commenters on this blog figured out long ago that ∅bama’s campaign pledge to “bring us together” was a con. Unfortunately, a substantial proportion of his supporters agree with his divisive tactics.
Mrs Whatsit: I can’t be sure about this, but I have a theory about Obama’s sometimes-messed-up syntax. I think it is purposeful, at least much of the time (sometimes, of course, it’s accidental). I believe it is—in part at least—a conscious effort to sound more casual.
He knows that he’s accused of sounding too professorial and detached and Spocklike, and so he tries to soften that image and sound like a regular guy by sometimes using what he considers more vernacular proletarian speech patterns. But it is awkward for him.
Sometimes it takes the form of using more causal words like “stuff” (one of his favorites when in this mode) and slightly strange constructions like the ones you point out. Sometimes it means dropping his “g”s in words that end in “ing.” And sometimes it means using constructions that are more from black artists or black culture (like the time he said “talk about me like a dog” that might have been a reference to a Jimi Hendrix lyric).
But whatever form it takes, in general I don’t think it’s an accident
neo,
When Obama wants to talk tough, he talks ghetto.
Must be a community organizer thing.
With all due respect, Americans aren’t afraid. There are many things we may be, but we aren’t afraid of him and his thugs. We are angry, and he is the one who’s afraid. I guess this would be a case of projection, and in another couple of weeks he and his cronies will find out why.
But he has the support of 45% of the electorate (we think, we’ll know for sure Nov.2) and only the soft-hearted are predicting a Senate Republican majority and a greater than 50 seat switch in the house, and that after 20 months of the worse governance in US history.
America is too good for Americans.
Hmm, very well put RPL…
Keep talking, Mr. President, keep talking. You’re hemorrhaging support every time you speak, both for yourself and your Party… but you just don’t see that, do you?
The electorate will have a message for you on November 2nd. Perhaps you’ll listen to that… but frankly, I doubt you will, unless it’s one you want to hear. Your recent New York Times Magazine article made that clear — your core beliefs are not falsifiable, and so everything that happens, good or bad, simply confirms what you’ve been saying all along (or what you say you’ve been saying all along, which unfortunately is not at all the same thing).
Keep talking, Mr. President. Keep talking.
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
In re the NYT Magazine article, by the way — I still can’t believe that he attributes his problems, and his falling popularity, to the American people not understanding him. He still thinks that he just needs to get the message out a little better.
Excuse me, but weren’t we told in 2008, ad nauseam, that Obama was the best communicator of the age? That he was a natural orator? That he was the anti-Bush in that regard as well as others?
Well, it seems to me that Mr. Bush’s syntax and pronunciations were sometimes laughable… but so are Mr. Obama’s. (Remember “corpse-man”?) And with Bush, when he said something, we knew he meant it — always.
So now Mr. Obama thinks he just can’t get his message across. How are we supposed to listen to that without laughing our heads off?
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
DIB wrote “So now Mr. Obama thinks he just can’t get his message across. How are we supposed to listen to that without laughing our heads off?”
You should know the drill by now. We are supposed to blame ourselves, hang our heads in shame and ask forgiveness.
“Remember “corpse-man” ”
That always reminds me of an incident from my 5th grade class. We were learning to sing the Marine Hymn, and some of the kids were pronouncing “corps” as “corpse”. The teacher stopped the song to tell everybody that it was pronounced like “core” and that a corpse was a dead body. To drive the point home, when we started again she sang very loudly, “Here’s health to you and to our DEAD BODIES which we are proud to serve”.
So I think everyone from Miss Barolis’ 5th grade class at Rawson School in Hartford CT knows what our genius President didn’t know, how to pronounce “corps”. The other thing is that he probably never went to a school where he had to learn the Marine Hymn.
I saw a photo at Gateway Pundit that is damn scary looking. I don’t know whether it’s real or a Photoshop, but I fervently hope it’s the latter.
Pure, unadulterated word salad.
All that’s missing is the Green Goddess dressing.
(But then that’s what it’s been all along….)
Pingback:Dear Mr. President: | Primordial Slack
He’s just mad that Michelle didn’t bring him back a burger & fries.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/30375590/
Here is a question, both Reagan and Clinton had polls in the 35% range at one time. Obama, who is far worse than either has polls in the 45% range. Why is he so much more popular although being so much worse iin so many more areas?
If my analysis is correct Obama not only has a good chance of being re-elected, but if he runs against Palin it will be an easy victory.
Daniel in B,
I think the same thing. Keep talking.
Unfortunately, he has the 90% support from one group and a divide is happening.
Keep it up there, Cap’n Wonnerfull, keep it up. Most of us are no longer listening to you–you’ve become so whiney even Bo has a hard time hearing you, but that might be because he’s got the good sense to stop listening as well. How does it feel, Perfesser, to be dumber than than your pooch? Now, just because I’m a nice guy (really, I am–trust me on this), I’m gonna clue you in on something your partner in this dog act would call a “really big f’ng deal”.
The only people listening to and hearing you are members of your own party, and they’re the ones who are scared. They’re the ones running away from you like you’re radioactive toxic medical waste. They’ve got your number, Jugears, and so do the rest of us. But keep on jacking your jaws–at least until November 2nd. After that take all of the tee times you want, just keep in mind that you’ll be paying your own greens fees after January 2013. Let your VEEP do the heavy lifting–he’s just as effective and inspirational as you are but with better comedic timing.
Scared, Urkel? Of YOU? Please, you’re embarrassing yourself so badly you’re embarrassing me, and I don’t even like you….
‘Bob from Virginia’ asks the question, “Why is Obama still so popular?”
The first thing to remember (to combat the intended frustration and hence battle capability) is that we are in a war to defeat our will to resist.
Next: Take his popularity numbers with a healthy, dose of scepticism. Ignore the state media polls as they are merely tools of propaganda. Remember that Obama’s policies poll about 10% less than he does.
Last: Give them their due. They won many minds while we slept. They won a significant minority and coupled with their power have attempted “a transformation.” We won’t win most of the minds back. Their emphasis on education, on “critical thinking” was well placed. The duped think with their emotions and their programming.
You are mostly right in your analysis: Obama is still popular. Wrong in your conclusion: Obama is going to prevail.
Our battle should not concentrate on the duped, but on removing the leaders from their positions of influence and control. This is happening: In media, in politics, in education. The last, in my opinion, should be where we should particularly place our focus. In twenty years, if we can teach the new generations correctly, the battle will be something else. And we will have answered the call to preserve liberty and freedom.
Bob from Virginia: my attempt to answer is here (see also the comments).
rickl: I don’t know, but my guess is that the photo is real. As Heinlein pointed out more than sixty years ago, taking bad photographs of a politician is not difficult. (His suggested method: get one photographer to flash a flashbulb in the politician’s face, and then a second photographer takes a picture right away, before the victim can recover from the reflex; then throw the first photo away.) These days it’s even easier; in any film clip, you’ll catch weird split-seconds here and there. Freeze ’em and print ’em.
In re President Urkel: I love it! (Apparently I’m not the only one.)
That imagery just brings a different comparison to mind: pictures of two Presidents. One of them looks a lot more like a wartime leader than the other, at least to me!
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
‘Bob from Virginia’ asks the question, “Why is Obama still so popular?”
I have a different take. I think the admission of an Obama epic failure by his initial supporters has hit a snag. The snag being lots of them connect his failure to them personally as failures also.
Look at candidate Obama compared to President Obama. His initial supporters judgement wasn’t just a little off. It was grotesquely off. Monumentally off with the very fabric of society at stake.
He sits at 45% because 20% of his approvers are trying desperately to not seriously consider what they were a part of. The shame upon self reflection would be overwhelming and they’re avoiding it like the plague.
“Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we’re hardwired not to always think clearly when we’re scared,” Obama said Saturday evening in remarks at a small Democratic fundraiser Saturday evening. “And
the countryObama’s scared.”…Fixed it fer ya.
I think you’re note that he has no intention of abandoning his agenda may be the most telling point. This man is not a politician. Certainly not in the classic sense–no. He is an activist.
He even told us who he was. We didn’t need to unseal school records or find a missing birth certificate. Just as Dewey and the secular humanists laid out their plan to take over the school system in plain sight, Obama’s record, “work” history, voting record and who he hung with scream at us.
But too many of us didn’t listen.
mk out