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Goodbye to One Selfie President, Hello to Another?
On February 12, 2015, President Obama made a selfie-stick video for BuzzFeed. You may remember it – or perhaps not – because if there’s one thing Barack Obama delivered during his eight years in office it was plenty of celebration of himself. The country was treated to Obama slow-jamming the news with Jimmy Fallon, sharing his Final Four brackets, fantasizing about what superhero powers he’d most like to have, and on and on. His fascination with himself was inexhaustible. Except the selfie day was different – because it was just hours after the president learned that another one of ISIS’s American hostages had been killed.
President Obama had been criticized (even by the New York Times) for enjoying himself on the golf course after ISIS beheaded American James Foley in 2014 (he was photographed with that broad grin). And yet, his coldness persisted.
Kayla Mueller was a 25-year-old idealist from Arizona. A committed Christian, she felt drawn to aid to those most in need. In 2013, among the most desperate people on Earth were the people of Aleppo, Syria. Mueller traveled there from Turkey to volunteer for Doctors Without Borders. She was kidnapped by ISIS outside a hospital. What followed was the worst nightmare imaginable. For 18 months, she was held in confinement, often solitary. We’ve learned, from the accounts of other hostages who were subsequently released, that she was incredibly brave. When one of her captors told others that she had converted to Islam, she contradicted him. ISIS terrorists denied her sleep and medical care. They shaved her head, repeatedly raped her, and pulled out her fingernails.
Her frantic parents attempted everything they could to secure her release, only to be threatened by the Obama administration with criminal liability for aiding terrorists if they paid ransom. (There was an attempted military rescue, but it failed.)
There is a good argument for not negotiating with terrorists, obviously. But the Obama Administration was inconsistent. The principle seems to have escaped them when they exchanged five terrorists held at Guantanamo for deserter Bowe Bergdahl (to say nothing of the Iran deal). But even granting that not paying ransom for kidnapped Americans is the right policy, it doesn’t explain the weird emotional detachment Obama consistently displayed.
On February 10, 2015, the Muellers learned that Kayla had been killed — and that was the week that Obama clowned around at the White House for BuzzFeed’s amusement. To jaunty music, the president filmed himself practicing speeches, sticking his tongue out in the mirror, dunking cookies in milk, and snapping selfies. It was all about him.
Why mention this now, when he’s got one foot out the door? Well, his elevation to the presidency, and the fact that his narcissism received relatively little mockery (on the contrary, many in the press were its enablers) seems to be the malady of our time.
Obama’s extreme self-regard proved to be a severe weakness. If he had shown just a little less arrogance, he might have welcomed some Republican cooperation on health care reform, for example, which would in turn have cemented the health care law as a bi-partisan initiative. In that case, it would not now be on the chopping block.
Donald Trump is Obama’s rival in the narcissism sweepstakes. Many of Trump’s early decisions — most of his appointments — have been reassuring. But that ol’ devil vanity keeps tripping him up. He might want to consider how badly the trait served his predecessor.
Regarding Putin, Trump’s nearly unyielding praise for the strongman may arise from his misinterpretation of an anodyne remark Putin offered in 2015. He called Trump “colorful” and “talented.” Trump passed this through the translator in his head and converted it to “Putin called me a genius.”
He didn’t. But so what? Even if Putin had called him a genius, Putin remains Putin, i.e., a ruthless, bitterly anti-American, international menace and killer. Is whether one praises Trump the only yardstick of people’s worth? If Putin criticizes him tomorrow, will Trump suddenly decide that Putin is a loser whose nation is failing? Is that really the level at which Trump wants to operate now?
This is deadly serious business. The realm of reality show one-upsmanship has no place in international affairs. In some ways, particularly his choices for Education and Defense, and perhaps most of all in reaching out to Gov. Nikki Haley (who opposed him), Trump has shown signs of shedding some of his old skin for his new status. The example of Barack Obama, who arrived in office on a cloud of good will and squandered it due in part to delusions of grandeur, should be cautionary.
Published in Politics
So while the actions of Trump reveal a serious man, we can look beyond that using cod psychology to his inner narcissist and caution him against the sins of his predecessor. Or something.
Not exactly a saint.
International Solidarity Movement
She’s listed as one of their casualties in Syria. Seems like another Rachael Corrie also an ISM member.
No more comments needed, genferei! Nail’s head hit.
Thus speaks the establishment…
It’s nice that Mona has the power to know Trumps inner thoughts, that she can insert herself into the mans thought process. I wish I had that kind of superpower.
After Trump’s epic smack-down of CNN and the modern news biz in general yesterday, I am giddy with anticipation for this presidency. It truly will be like nothing we have ever seen. Will it be all perfect? Of course not, but let’s give him a real chance and not fret with baited breath about every potential stumble.
Like I keep telling all of my friends, we elected the most narcissistic president in history in 2008, and reelected him in 2012. However, on January 20th, Obama will become the second most narcissistic president in history.
The historian Robert Nisbet was alarmed in the 70s that the presidency had become royal. It seems both men imagine themselves benevolent kings.
Well, selfie doesn’t appear to be the medium of choice, but he is still egotistical. But didn’t this begin with Bill Clinton? Even LBJ was supposed to be very self centered.
Perhaps someone should inform Marco Rubio. International affairs involves diplomacy and war. Sen. Rubio seemed to want to harm diplomacy.
Putin is not a good person but he is the leader of the 2nd largest nuclear power. In a point scoring move Sen. Rubio pushed Rex Tillerson to label Putin a War Criminal. It is perfectly plausible that Putin has ordered war crimes. Do we actually think Putin will be hauled to The Hague? Will we fight a potentially nuclear war to do this? If we are not willing to do anything necessary to prosecute the case at the War Crimes Tribunal, what benefit is there to the United States in calling Putin a War Criminal? How will this help diplomacy?
We were warned that Trump could blunder us into a nuclear war. It seems like his nominee to Sec State is behaving more tactfully and maturely to a large, somewhat hostile, nuclear power than our grandstanding GOP Senators.
Oh for goodness sakes give the man a chance.
This is a gripping post.
Re: comment 2: Kozak , Mona Charen isn’t arguing that the young woman had a wonderfully good understanding of certain situations in the world. Good people, especially good, brave young people, are mistaken about all kinds of causes.
Re: comment 10: Reading and thinking about this post would give him a better chance, MRK.
She paints the woman as a saint.
She was a Palestinian activist, and was affiliated with a radical pro Islamic group. Terrible death. But she hung around with folks who aren’t much better then her murderers.
Re: comment 12
People, especially idealistic young people, are misled into evil causes all the time. One name: Whittaker Chambers.
President Obama and President-Elect Trump share something in common. They both have large egos and high self-regard. But based on Trump’s campaign talk about rolling back crippling business regulations, lowering taxes, addressing the failing Obamacare system, promoting better trade negotiations to benefit American workers and controlling illegal immigration I am hopeful. Plus Trump seems less delusional than Obama and he has some great nominees to head various government agencies.
My heart breaks for the Mueller family. Idealism can end tragically for individuals and countries. I still hope Trump is more rooted in the “real” world and his business life suggests he is.
Khan: “He tasks me. He tasks me, and I shall have him. I’ll chase him round the Moons of Nibia and round the Antares Maelstrom and round Perdition’s flames before I give him up!”
Yeah and? I’m not going to cry when they end up getting smacked by reality.
I’m a lawyer, not a psychologist. But I think the differences between the two men can (on much more than a superficial level) be found in their campaign slogans. Obama was about “hope” and “change” – but he was very clear that all of the positive things were about him. Electing him would cause the waters to recede and the planet to heal. He is hope, he is the change we have all been waiting for. (It was not that different from Hillary’s “I’m with her” – the crux of the issue being that we find our highest calling in being “with her,” rather than her finding her calling in being with us.)
Trump’s “Make America Great Again” might have been, well, more showmanship than anything else, but it at least put the focus on the working people of America who have been left behind by an increasingly larger and more powerful Washington. Trump’s message is that he wanted us to be great and have great lives.
This is not an endorsement of any candidate or a statement that they even meant any of it, or that their policies will have the desired results (if they can be implemented). I do think Trump can be an egomaniac, but I think it’s in the colloquial, not the psychological, sense. Obama seems to veer into sociopathy or NPD (again, not a psychologist).
That is, before his epiphany, don’t you mean?
Re: comment #18
Yes. Exactly. I don’t think he was a bad person when he was a Communist. (I’m not saying he wouldn’t eventually have become twisted had he remained one.)
Be careful. Mind reading is one of the worst things you can do at Ricochet.
I like your comment. The more I think about Trump, the less I consider him a “selfie” person. Like a good businessman he’s focused on outcome and the bottom line. Not on self aggrandizement. If he was thinking about self aggrandizement, he’d be embarrassed on half the crap he says.
Name another: Mohammed Atta.
Doctors Without Borders has been an anti-Semitic organization for many years. They consistently refuse to work alongside Israeli physicians even when help is desperately needed; Israeli physicians are refused access to disaster sites and are turned back. Palestinian members of the organization have also been charged in plotting terror attacks against Israel.
These are just two examples but there are many more:
Doctors Without Borders Condemns Israel, Ignores Hamas War Crimes
https://www.algemeiner.com/2015/09/27/doctors-without-borders-openly-supports-hamas-condemns-israel/
Doctors Without Scruples
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Doctors-without-scruples
OMG he’s a narcissist. Shut up No Way! Stay laser focused on this stuff girrrl. There’s a Pulitzer in it for you.
Are articles like this made out of left over Never Trump Mad Libs.
Maybe 80% of it was done months ago but you just added some nouns, some Putin, some golden shower, some Doctors Without Humility , and an adverb or two and voila! A minimal effort hit piece and here it is, the Tuna Helper of Trump derangement casserole.
1 He is incapable of embarrassment, which is a strength and a weakness. As for self-aggrandizement, well, slapping his name in huge letters on big buildings doesn’t exactly indicate an unwillingness to celebrate himself, although of course that’s also a branding strategy.
2 I think Obama is deeply shallow, in the sense that he has an unexamined fealty to ideas he received at an early age and has never questioned, because they are part of an adamantine viewpoint of the world in simple terms masquerading as wisdom and insight. Trump is not profound, and has never needed to be profound; if you want to go ice skating, what matters is whether the ice will hold you, not whether the lake is a mile deep. While it would be nice for him to demonstrate more intellectual curiosity, you have to admit that while we liked Reagan’s long study of Communism and its perils and flaws, what we really appreciated was the simplistic goal: we win, they lose.
3 The press gave Obama a pass for taking selfies on a day when an American was killed by ISIS, because their self-image was inextricably wound into their celebration of him being Cool, which is the best thing anyone can be. The press will savage Trump if he responds with anger to the death of an American at the hands of terrorists with a late-night tweet, because it will be inappropriate, inflammatory, and probably expressed undiplomatically.
4 The press has yet to learn, it seems, that people picked up on a theme about the media’s attitude towards Obama: don’t care what he does, it’s who he is! The opposite is true for a lot of Trump supporters, which is why the personal attacks are like droplets of mercury shot at a Kevlar wall.
Their eight-year swoon for O wasn’t healthy for the country, and their OMG HITLER dials-turned-to-11 pre-inauguration spaz isn’t healthy, either. But it’s all predictable. If Carly had been nominated and beat Hillary, we’d be told that the idea of the First Woman President really wasn’t that important, and the real problem facing the Republic was the procession of extremists she nominated for Cabinet roles.
You say that like that would have been good thing.
Not a likeable person. Lies like a rug.
Trump and Obama are very, very different psychologically. I don’t have a degree myself, but I have studied it extensively, my wife is a PhD. in Psychoanalysis and I’ve talked to her for thousands of hours on various aspect of the field, as well as helped her study for tests, write papers, etc.
By the way, she does not observe malignant narcissism in Trump.
But one doesn’t need much expertise to diagnose these two men vs. each other. They are very different. Trump is not such an egoist. He is a salesman and a fierce competitor, yet, he’s still grounded enough to know he’s playing a game.
Trump has identified himself with his brand and vice-versa. Thus, he is promoting and defending his brand – a business calculation. This has it’s own drawbacks, perhaps most obvious being that some people will come to think he has an oversized ego when he is merely promoting, selling and defending his company.
Trump does not hold his opinions up to such high esteem. He sees the world as a game, as in business, he is a player and he wants to win. He is more ‘what do I need to know/do/be’ to win, over ego concerns.
If any Republican woman were elected we would be told they aren’t really women. Just like like Thomas, Powell and Rice weren’t really Black.
Strange that Mona interprets Trump’s positive utterances on Putin as ‘unyielding praise’. I guess if you think the US President should be a moral scold on international thugs (and also think that accomplishes things) you might want to vote for grandstanding Rubio.
Here we have, ironically, Rubio hectoring the SoS appointee on his failure to call Putin a ‘war criminal’ as though that will accomplish something other than put us further at odds with a nuclear armed power, after we have left Iraq with our tail between our legs and 20 trillion in debt, lacking guts to stay and win. And who’s to say whatever staring actions neocons want to have vs. Russia won’t be undone by their Democrats ‘friends’ across the aisle?
The world Mona and Marco live in, that America is some moral arbiter capable of altering oligarchs with nuclear arsenals with empty threats and insults (true or not) is over.
It is smart to at least try not to insult other world leaders for no reason other than making yourself look morally superior.