One Lonely Job
Claire Berlinski, Ed. ·
Aug 10, 2011 at 5:29am
What on earth must it feel like to wake up and see headlines like this:
Dashed Hopes: How Obama Disappointed the World
I reckon the President right now has the singular distinction of having disappointed more people than any man in history--this just by virtue of global population.
I doubt that Obama's internal world resembles mine all that much, but when I imagine headlines around the globe to the effect of "Dashed Hopes: How Claire Berlinski Disappointed the World," and imagine realizing that I am not dreaming, I imagine that I would feel quite murderously angry toward the world.
It's a bit discomfiting to think about the implications of that.
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Jun '10
Re: One Lonely Job
Claire Berlinski, Ed.:
I imagine that I would feel quite murderously angry toward the world.
It's a bit discomfiting to think about the implications of that. ·
Even more discomfiting, I think, if you believe the man in the White House is a sociopath.
May '10
Re: One Lonely Job
The guy thinks so little of everyone outside the Ivy League faculty crowd that he might just endure all this with complete equanimity.
Some day soon he'll return to Harvard and be told we weren't good enough for him. He'll believe it and be fine.
Must be nice.
Re: One Lonely Job
He sure doesn't look as if that's what he's feeling. He looks as if he's losing it.
But I may be projecting.
Re: One Lonely Job
Claire,
I wonder all the time what it must feel like to be BHO. For his entire life he was told he had special powers and by the time he ran for office (when, remember, he wrote speeches better than his speechwriters and did policy better than his policy shop folks, etc., etc.) he definitely believed it.
So after taking all this credit for himself, now he's despised. Does he then transfer blame back to his speechwriters, policy director, the average American (or global citizen)? Or what? How does he process that?
It must be humiliating to realize that you're not only not specially gifted but perhaps specially abysmal. Is it humbling? Infuriating? Inconceivable? I wonder.
Re: One Lonely Job
I think that we can rule out humility. Obama has an easy out. The problem is America. We disappointed him.
As an ex-President, I predict, Barack Obama will make Jimmy Carter look good. The latter has never been able to forgive his country for repudiating him, and he has made himself a thorn in the side of virtually every President since. BHO will not go quietly into that good night, like every prior to Carter. He will bide his time and seek revenge -- on his successor, on Democrats less radical than he is, and on the American people. It is not until he is out of office that he will reveal himself for what he is.
Oct '10
Re: One Lonely Job
Very simple Mollie: you blame the world and consider yourself a tragic martyr. Being hated by many, betrayed by those he thought were his friends and "crucified" in the next election are more likely to enhance his messiah complex than diminish it.
Re: One Lonely Job
His is an inherently lonely job, but he has made it even more so. Through his ideology and stubborn refusal to acknowledge its failure, he has ostracized himself from American society. He was ashamed of us, and now he is himself shamed. He thought he could transcend logic, economics, and the sum total of human history. He probably longs for the echo chamber of academia, where iconoclastic theories are lauded, and nothing is stained save the paper on which they are printed.
Feb '11
Re: One Lonely Job
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.: Claire,
I wonder all the time what it must feel like to be BHO. For his entire life he was told he had special powers.....
Like levitation or invisibility?
Apr '11
Re: One Lonely Job
I can almost understand the mania that led the elites around the world to crown Obama as their lord and savior. He's a perfect representation of class and race and ideology. What is stunningly difficult to comprehend is his joining in with this mania. Did he really believe he was all that? This is a Field of Dreams. He doesn't really exist but as long as folk believe he does than the fantasy is possible? Is that what modern progressive politics has degenerated into? It's no wonder we're destroying ourselves.
The belief in Obama (Yes, we can!) was always a Cargo Cult.
Edited on Aug 10, 2011 at 7:31amOct '10
Re: One Lonely Job
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
He sure doesn't look as if that's what he's feeling. He looks as if he's losing it.
But I may be projecting. · Aug 10 at 5:58am
He's angry because he just can't believe a majority of the U.S. population is too stupid to understand his greatness (though he does believe they're too stupid to understand macro economics or human nature)
Feb '11
Re: One Lonely Job
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.: Claire,
I wonder all the time what it must feel like to be BHO. For his entire life he was told he had special powers and by the time he ran for office (when, remember, he wrote speeches better than his speechwriters and did policy better than his policy shop folks, etc., etc.) he definitely believed it.
So after taking all this credit for himself, now he's despised. Does he then transfer blame back to his speechwriters, policy director, the average American (or global citizen)? Or what? How does he process that?
It must be humiliating to realize that you're not only not specially gifted but perhaps specially abysmal. Is it humbling? Infuriating? Inconceivable? I wonder. · Aug 10 at 6:16am
An approval rating of 43% doesn't exactly indicate that he's despised yet.
Feb '11
Re: One Lonely Job
Relevant reading: The Caine Mutiny, by Herman Wouk. A good portrait of a man whose job requires more emotional strength than he possesses.
Even if you're seen the movie, there's a lot more in the book.
Oct '10
Re: One Lonely Job
That's a fascinating article - for what it tells us about how Obama in particular and the US political scene in general is perceived in (left-leaning) mainstream German journalism. Let me beat the drum once again about the fierce urgency of a US 'mission to the gentiles' about the virtues of the free market, limited government and individual liberty (not licence) - the virtues of virtue, if you will...
Ed G. has an excellent point - Obama's personal approval ratings are positively reality-defying, being miles above what the public thinks about what he actually says, does and stands for. I fear that all he has to do for victory in 2012 is sit behind his billion-dollar re-election stash, do nothing and let the MSM carry him over the line.
Of course, the only humane thing to do to ease the crushing psychic burden the Presidency must become on our best and brightest is to radically shrink the role - by radically shrinking the Federal Government. Do it for the children (who will have to grow up to be Presidents)!
Edited on Aug 10, 2011 at 6:58amFeb '11
Re: One Lonely Job
I think it would take a superhuman to easily give up one's ideology. When it comes to economics, sociology, or socioeconomics it's difficult if not impossible to directly trace cause and effect from ideology to present circumstances especially given that it takes time for the effects of a policy to show up in the real world and policies are rarely implemented exactly as we'd like. Failure and less than desirable results are rationalized, e.g. "My plan was never really implemented because I had to compromise with those [insert other side here]" or "My plan will work if we give it just a little more time; after all we started in a hole caused by [insert opponent's ideology here]".
I'd be stubborn about my own ideology too, even if the country were enduring bad economic times. After all, I wouldn't have taken it as my ideology if I didn't think it were the best plan.
Feb '11
Re: One Lonely Job
Acknowledging the failure of one's ideology...."Confirmation bias" is the tendency to search for data confirming the hypothesis one already holds. It is a concept well-known to accident investigators ("hmm, wonder why the runway lights aren't on? Oh, yeah, I saw that they're doing some electrical work at this airport...that must be it" rather than "No lights--are we really on the right runway?")
Everyone engages in confirmation bias to some extent, but it's surely much stronger in some people than in others. I'd guess Obama has it in extreme form.
Dec '10
Re: One Lonely Job
I'm with geneferei. That article is sumpin' else!
Here's the drill. Whenever we speak of "the world" or "world opinion", what we really mean is "the Left" or "the Left's opinion". And I suspect in the German media, as in huge swaths of the American media prior to the new alternatives, the Left's opinion is pretty much all you get.
Are you disappointed by Obama? I'm not disappointed by Obama. I'm getting exactly, and I mean EXACTLY, the incompetence, destructiveness, and decline I expected. Domestically and internationally.
Obama said we're a great country (or at least suggested) he wants to fundamentally transform. I know I'm not the only one to understand his meaning. He wants us to be . just . like . Europe! He wants us to be weak militarily so we won't be tempted into those evil "wars of choice", and to suckle our subjects, er.. I mean citizens, on a giant welfare-state teat.
Meanwhile the European social democracies are in tatters wherever they're not on fire. I've got news for the Left. They're not disappointed with Obama. They're disappointed at their colossal failure of an ideology.
Jan '11
Re: One Lonely Job
HIDE the DECLINE.
Ed G.
An approval rating of 43% doesn't exactly indicate that he's despised yet. · Aug 10 at 6:36am
If climate 'scientists' can hide the decline of global temperatures, do you not believe that social 'scientists' will hide the decline of Obama's approval? If the number is too low they will just normalize it to offset the racism factor.
Dec '10
Re: One Lonely Job
Sorry, my rant is not quite over.
From the article:
"Obama's election was the self-affirmation of a nation that wanted to prove that the American dream was still alive. Not voting for Obama would have been cynical, timid and un-American."
This could only be written by someone who has absolutely no clue what it means to be American. Unfortunately, that includes at least 43% of Americans asked their opinion of Obama. And, hoo, the arrogance! As a German to believe you can identify un-Americanism!
I'm not questioning anyone's patriotism here. I just think there's a certain American disposition which most Europeans, left or right, and many Americans, particularly on the left, do not embody. They are willing to submit to their betters, the experts, the officials.
We know a lovely couple from the UK who moved here years ago and had their children here. They have moved to a community with a long-time building moratorium (making housing very expensive) and in which the codes and enforcement are so strict they will be forced to pay into escrow to make sure their remodel meets the standards. They are "subjects", not free citizens.
Re: One Lonely Job
When Ronald Reagan ran for office, he always got a bonus of 5% in the balloting not predicted in the polls. More people liked him than would admit it. My bet is that the opposite will prove true of Barack Obama. He is, after all, our first African-American President. More people dislike him (and his policies) than will admit it. Consider how they voted in 2010.
Jan '11
Re: One Lonely Job
I would pity him more on the issue if he hadn't encouraged a world-wide cult in the first place. Gotta take both the benefits and the consequences of one's actions.
Claire Berlinski, Ed.: What on earth must it feel like to wake up and see headlines like this:
Dashed Hopes: How Obama Disappointed the World
I reckon the President right now has the singular distinction of having disappointed more people than any man in history--this just by virtue of global population.