Now he's angry - thank heavens!
Adam Freedman ·
June 8, 2010 at 2:08pm
The news this morning declares that Obama has issued his "angriest" words yet about the Gulf. And I think I speak for a number of you when I say: who cares? It strikes me as an odd trend in public life that we focus on emotions rather than actions, or competence. A judge must have "empathy." Wall Street executives must show "remorse." And now the President must be "angry."
And will it make the lousy jobs report any better if the President gets angry about that, too?
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Comments:
May '10
Re: Now he's angry - thank heavens!
Exercises in excuse-seeking. The Establishment Press can't admit that Obama's wrong (though what on earth he could do about an oil spill eludes me), so they say his message isn't getting through, or he needs to show anger, or fight back more.
This is why we're about to be treated to yet another PR offensive on Obamacare. He's selling a fundamentally flawed product, and people saw through it some time ago. But in the Beltway, the idea seems to be to talk louder and more slowly so eventually the hicks will buy it.
Jun '10
Re: Now he's angry - thank heavens!
Interesting that during the 2008 election, Mr. Obama was the cool, collected, and thoughtful one but his opponent McCain was deeply angry, with a loose temper.
During the ObamaCare debates, town hall meetings, and the burgeoning Tea Party movement - the opposition to the administration was almost always identified as 'angry'.
The Department of Homeland Security suddenly got worried about right wing anger from returning veterans and potential home-grown terrorists.
Now President Obama seems to be finally angry and everyone in the media seems overjoyed that he has any emotional response at all. It seems, Angry is the new chic and now very appropriate, perhaps even fashionable. A sure sign of effective leadership.
May '10
Re: Now he's angry - thank heavens!
I'm currently reading Peter's book, and one point he makes is that all the speech makers could intuitively make Reagan sound like Reagan. There was a track record, a style, a manner, a theme that he had since the sixties. How would a speechwriter today know how to make Obama sound like Obama? Do I go with cool competence? Grand, trancendent healer? A** Kicker? Tough gig.
Re: Now he's angry - thank heavens!
Not that I'm a speechwriter, but to me Obama sounds consistently narcissistic. The tone of any particular speech flows from the specific situation rubbing up against the president's ideologically-fueled ego.
May '10
Re: Now he's angry - thank heavens!
George, I agree. His speeches come across to me as flagrantly self-referential. He manages to weave himself into speeches about events he had nothing to do with, like the Selma march. I seem to remember that he gave a speech somewhere in Europe to the effect of "If the United States can elect me as President, anything is possible." Do you know which speech I'm talking about?
May '10
Re: Now he's angry - thank heavens!
And besides, Adam, since when has left-wing politics been about actual results? It's a whole culture built around holding the right "attitudes" and symbolism. The people most "concerned" for "the poor" give the least to charity. Merely holding liberal beliefs about social welfare programs or school choice "proves" that you are concerned about the children, even if your policies cause them net harm.
Re: Now he's angry - thank heavens!
He's given so many speeches that they all sort of blur together in my mind, but I wonder if this is the one you're thinking of. Obama in Prague, April, 2009:
Re: Now he's angry - thank heavens!
Adam, it's not about how you feel, or how Obama feels. It's about how I feel.
And, truly, was there anything creepier than this spectacle -- the Chairman of Toyota forced to show remorse for something he probably didn't even do?
Of course, what's amazing about Obama is that it's the oil spill that makes him angry. And why exactly is he angry? Because his poll numbers are down. This is a guy that takes everything personally. Oil spill? Environmental challenges? No. It's about Me.
Adam, we're both about the same age -- that is, both only a few years younger than our self-loving, pouting president. Doesn't he seem like exactly the kind of person we knew in college -- a perfect specimen of his (and our) generation? The perfect college student, circa 1983?
It's all about the personal response. It's not about what happens in the novel; it's all about how the text makes me feel. It's not about the Immutable Laws of Physics. It's about "Voices and Visions in Contemporary Physics: How Gender and Race Identity Represent the Physical."
It's identity politics on a micro-level. Not just My Group, but Just Me! I'm mad at this oil spill.