JFK, Walter Mitty and Barack Obama
By Uppity Woman on July 12, 2008 at 8:45 PM in Bamboozling, Barack Obama, Current Affairs, David Axelrod, Democratic National Convention, Democratic Nomination, Elitism, George Bush, Germany, Hoodwinking, John F. Kennedy, Michelle Obama, Obamedia
In 1939, James Thurber published a short story entitled, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Standing the test of time, this story was depicted in a movie and later, in the 60s it was a short-lived TV series. The book was published through the late 70s and it remains available today.
Because of the character of Walter Mitty, it was common for many decades to hear someone refer to a daydreamer, bullthrower or fantasizer as a “Walter Mitty”, because Walter Mitty was the quintessential prevaricator. Everybody knew what you meant when you called somebody a “Walter Mitty”. If Walter walked today, we would say that he is one sick puppy Walter has “A Serious Problem”.
Walter Mitty was essentially an ordinary and unremarkable man who had an extreme imagination which allowed him to mentally remove himself from who he was and where he was, soaring above others in greatness, cleverness and success–in his own mind. You might say Walter was really the first “Legend in his own mind” when he was fantasizing without regard to the safety of people around him. Walter’s noisy car, and its perpetual “Pocketa-Pocketa-Pocketa” sound served as a backdrop to his fantasies. Always, when he fantasized about himself, he was performing tasks of great heroism or genius. Sound familiar?
Walter Mitty fancied himself a world-famous surgeon when he nearly collided with another car:
“A huge, complicated machine, connected to the operating table with many tubes and wires, began at this moment to go pocketa-pocketa-pocketa. ‘The new anesthetizer is giving way!’ shouted an intern. ‘There is no one in the East who knows how to fix it!’
‘Quiet, man!’ said Mitty, in a low cool voice. He sprang to the machine, which was now going pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-queep. He began fingering delicately with a row of glistening dials. ‘Give me a fountain pen!’ he snapped.
Someone handed him a fountain pen. He pulled a faulty piston out of the machine and inserted the pen in its place. ‘That will hold for ten minutes,’ he said. ‘Get on with the operation. . . .’
– ‘Back it up, Mac! Look out for that Buick!’ Walter Mitty jammed on the brakes. ‘Wrong lane, Mac,’ said the parking-lot attendant, looking at Mitty closely.”
Walter Mitty was a brave Commander under pressure while he raced down the road:
We’re going through!” The Commander’s voice was like thin ice breaking. He wore his full-dress uniform, with the heavily braided white cap pulled down rakishly over one cold gray eye.
“We can’t make it, sir. It’s spoiling for a hurricane, if you ask me.” “
I’m not asking you, Lieutenant Berg,” said the Commander. “Throw on the power lights! Rev her up to 8,500! We’re going through!” The pounding of the cylinders increased: ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa.
The Commander stared at the ice forming on the pilot window. He walked over and twisted a row of complicated dials. “Switch on No. 8 auxiliary!” he shouted.
“Switch on No. 8 auxiliary!” repeated Lieutenant Berg.
“Full strength in No. 3 turret!” shouted the Commander. “Full strength in No. 3 turret!” The crew, bending to their various tasks in the huge, hurtling eight-engined Navy hydroplane, looked at each other and grinned. “The old man will get us through” they said to one another. “The Old Man ain’t afraid of Hell!” . . .
“Not so fast! You’re driving too fast!” said Mrs. Mitty. “What are you driving so fast for?”
Barack Obama is today’s Walter Mitty of politics. The problem is, he’s not just a regular guy between delusions and mental impersonations of great people. He’s a Presidential candidate.
Barack Obama has imagined that his ancestor freed Jews from three different concentration camps.
He has imagined that he suffered in life as a poor young man who pulled himself up from his own bootstraps in spite of all the odds–when in fact he lived a comfortable life with his grandparents while attending a prep school in Hawaii.
He has imagined magazine articles that do not exist.
He has imagined conversations with classmates that never occurred.
He has imagined that Selma got him born four years after he was born.
Barack Obama has imagined that President John F Kennedy helped his father come to America during the Eisenhower Administration.
While all of these things taken separately may appear as harmless if not downright wierd prevarications–or even as bullcrap flowing from the mouth of a typical lying politician– they become far from harmless indicators when we consider that he wants to be President of the United States. The worst Walter Mitty could have done was endanger someone else’s life while behind the wheel of his car during a fantasy. For Barack Obama, the potential is far greater.
As Obama’s campaign has advanced, so have his Images of his own false Self-Greatness. He has channeled some highly achieved and admired American leaders: RFK, JFK, MLK, FDR and Abraham Lincoln. While this is all a subject of amusement to many on its surface, these prevarications related to his own perceived greatness are far more unsettling when we are speaking of a man who would do anything to become the leader of the Free World.
As time passes, Barack Obama is escalating his perception of his own faux JFK-likeness and greatness. In the face of Axelrod’s character experiments, complete with assessments of reactions of Americans to their hype, Barack Obama himself appears to have finally settled his fixation specifically on JFK, even unto unsettling details, most likely cheered on by Axelrod’s production and media creation abilitities.
The problem with this kind of psychological game is that Barack Obama now actually believes the created hype. In case you don’t remember, this phenomenom is very simlar to the mental state of George Bush when he ran for his first term. Unwilling to reveal details about George himself, George became, through his own admission, “A media creation”. In the process, his surrounding creators and sycophants blew so much smoke up George’s butt that he actually began to believe he was a great man. It appears that this condition is not lost at all on Barack Obama. What started as an Axelrod idea from his bag of marketing tricks, has turned a candidate into a man who believes his own media image and advertising campaign.
We have all seen Barack Obama pretend to be John F. Kennedy, so this is really no subtle trick any longer. But he appears to have gone way beyond the fun of media manipulation and subliminal cuts. It’s no longer a game to Barack Obama. Barack Obama doesn’t just admire JFK, in his mind he IS JFK, or at least he is just like and just as great as JFK. His escalations with this obsession have taken turns that involve extreme detail for Americans to view–and absorb. I am asking you to believe. Indeed.
What carefully crafted extremes has our modern-day Walter Mitty gone to in order to Imagine himself as and convince others that he is JFK?
Recently, Obama has decided to hold his stolen nomination acceptance speech at Evesco field in what his arrogant campaign called a fitting “finale”. This decision will add additional millions in cost to the already financially suffering Democratic Party. But this is an important move for Obama’s ego. It mimics JFK’s Acceptance Speech venue and style.
As with everything else that occurs in the Obama campaign, the Evesco event will be carefully crafted and organized by Axelrod Productions. 75,000 people will be in attendance, and make no mistake, they will be screened. The chants will be pre-scheduled with the appropriate appointees in charge of their invocation. This is a large enough crowd to ensure the literal roar of admiration and worship Obama is so in need of. At various intervals during his speech, You will see him throw his head back after mouthing a cleverly penned catchy phrase. His nose will sniff the air, his head will turn so that his ear is to the crowd taking in the roar, the worship and the love. Someone nearby will shout, “We Love You Barack!” on cue–and obama will respond, “I Love You Right Back!”. The crowd will roar again. Pounding and chants of Ohhhhhhhhhh Baaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh Maaaaaaaaa will ensue and Barack Obama will appear not to enjoy it too-too much. But he not only will enjoy it: he will require it. His mental meter requires that the roar be even larger and louder than the roar received by the Real JFK. His careful planning is the mark of all historic Narcissists, most of whom led their followers directly to hell.
But Obama won’t stop there. Obama’s I-Am-The-Reincarnation-Of-JFK fantasy seems to know no boundaries of escalation as his ever-growing thirst for adulation and worship increases. Having achieved the ultimate staged rallies, complete with faux fainters and “hand made signs” which are actually created by his campaign and given to members of the crowd, Obama now needs even more. Ever-planning his next bold event whereby even more people can worship him, he has a trip to Germany scheduled, so that he might hear a new and fresh crowd roar beyond the USA. Now drunk with power and the desire for adulation, the USA is not enough for his ego. He plans to use the Brandenburg Gate for his own personal gain much to the horror of Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, who sees this idea for what it is: Self-aggrandizing bad taste. But I am confident that, regardless of his bad taste, Barack Obama will not be able to resist fueling his JFK delusion by going where JFK said Ich bin ein Berliner. In the meantime, we Americans ironically still not only do not know who Barack Obama is, but we have no idea what his stance really is on any single issue that matters to us.
When Lloyd Bentsen told Dan Quayle: “You are no JFK,” we all laughed at the concept that a fool like Quayle would dare to compare himself to JFK. But the same words apply today. Barack Obama is no JFK. And in spite of the Obama Media hype, Michelle Obama is no Jackie Kennedy either.
JFK joined the Navy and went to war, instead of expecting others to do the job. He rescued his men like a true leader, at great risk to his own life. How many of you envision Barack Obama towing an injured man through shark-infested waters with a rope between his teeth?
Exactly how many of you even know where the heck in the world his whole Obama-Senior produced family is and how his own governing philosophy is tied to them as well as to his Marxist, Communist, Middle-Eastern theocratic and Socialist-leaning friends? This was not a problem America had with JFK. Nobody had to hunt for his roots or guess what their perception of America was-or how his family shaped his political ideology.
I can tell you with no reservations at all that Jack Kennedy would have never slapped Jackie on the ass on National TV. I also never heard Jack Kennedy publicly tell the opposition that they “Had better watch it“.
Jackie Kennedy would never had called Americans “mean,” nor would she have ever said she wasn’t proud of her country till her husband became a Presidential candidate. You wouldn’t have heard Jackie crudely talk about giving up a piece of your “Pie” either. Jackie Kennedy would have never told the American public that her husband stinks in the morning and doesn’t pick up his socks. She also didn’t dress like she was in an episode of Men In Black every day. Jackie Kennedy had class, culture and was well-spoken.
The Obamamedia and their suggestive conjuring of “Camelot ” are feeding into the absurd fantasy which Barack and Michelle Obama are not only strangely (and badly) attempting to mimic as America’s Couple, but which they are trying to pawn off on America. To compare these two clowns to Jack and Jackie Kennedy nearly borders on the grotesque.
Kennedy didn’t get his surrogates to commit “faux gaffs” so that he could give speeches about the subject and find a way to benefit from it while blaming Americans. He didn’t play on guilt or fear to get votes. While Obama is pretending he brings Hope and Change. JFK truly WAS Hope and Change–and he provided the policy details that accompanied those concepts.
JFK also didn’t attend a whackjob American-hating church for 20 years. He didn’t call women “sweetie” and would never have discussed a vibrating cell phone to remind women around him that it’s not a boner in his pants.
JFK behaved in a humble, respectful, intelligent, kind and peaceful way at all times. He also had a charming sense of humor and his one-liners never ended with “Heh Heh” at the expense of others.
Jack Kennedy would have never given a speech on camera to a carefully-selected crowd and mimicked a rap song like some backstreet thug. If Jack Kennedy had run against a woman, I can assure you he would not have played the equivalent of “99 Problems and A Bitch Is Not One Of Them” at a victory rally.
JFK didn’t hop from a State Senate position into the US Senate for one year and then spend the rest of his time attempting to become President Before His Time. He served three terms as a congressman. He was elected to his first term by bypassing the Democratic Party organization. He could have bribed and bought that organization and arrogantly lorded over it, but instead he chose the difficult and honorable path, depending on his own ability, his family and his friends. He didn’t knock any of his opponents off the ballot either. He had no Chicago Machine, his image was who he really was – And there were no superdelegates to drag his limp self over the line either.
During his three terms in congress, he advocated better working conditions, more public housing, higher wages, lower prices, cheaper rents, and more Social Security for the aged. He backed the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan and wasn’t a coward about it. He didn’t adapt his stances for his audience and he didn’t compromise his own integrity. He was extremely critical of the Truman administration’s record in Asia and he didn’t back down. Flip-Flopping was not a JFK trait, nor was vote pandering. I can also assure you that JFK wouldn’t have been caught standing next to Tony Rezko, Bill Ayers, Rashid Kahlidi, or Mr. Alsammarae, the Iraqi prison escapee. He also wouldn’t have spent 20 years with a guy like Reverend Wright as his American- hating spiritual advisor. JFK would have further considered a position as a “community organizer” as a summer job not worthy of a resume.
It was only after his three terms as a Congressman that he ran for the senate. He didn’t knock his opponent off the ballot then either.
John F. Kennedy, then a U.S. Senator, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his book, Profiles In Courage, in which he tells the story of eight U.S. Senators and their acts of integrity in the face of overwhelming opposition. His book was not a whining fictional self-portrait. JFK’s Profiles In Courage was a literary work of art written by a man who didn’t put himself first above all others. In the face of opposition ala Profiles In Courage, Barack Obama is no JFK. Instead, he panders for votes and changes his stance on any given issue in the face of opposition. JFK would have never committed this kind of compromise to his integrity and the intelligence of his constituents.
As a Senator and as President, JFK was the champion of the working people of America. He never poked fun of them, he never called them Bitter and he never made them feel he was better than they were. JFK could have been an elitist, having been born to one of the richest families in America at the time, but he chose not to stick his nose in the air. He chose to roll up his sleeves and treat everyone in America with respect and dignity. He recognized everyone’s value to the success of America. JFK didn’t pick and choose which people were important to him. Every American was important. He didn’t laugh and sneer and snicker about how they couldn’t speak German or French. He didn’t make jokes at their expense. He fostered pride in America, not shame, and guilt and fear. JFK took responsibility for his own decisions and his own words. He didn’t have to explain what he meant three or four times, and he didn’t look for a fall guy to blame when things weren’t quite right.
JFK was not a Narcissistic, arrogant, sarcastic snob who acted like he was better than everyone else. He was a public servant and he acted like one.
For all of these reasons, Walter Mitty Obama isn’t fit to imagine he is even a fragment of the man who was JFK. He may be able to fool the children who don’t know any better, but Barack Obama will never fool the rest of us into believing that he stands next to JFK in greatness. He is a mediocre man playing Walter Mitty Make-Believe.
And I will tell you one other thing Jack Kennedy didn’t do: Jack Kennedy did not divide his own party in half.
Lloyd Bentsen is gone. So Senator Obama, let me tell you something: I knew JFK as my President. And you are no JFK. So kindly stop fantasizing that you are. It is not only foolish, but it is a sign of an Adulation-Seeking Narcissist with a serious Walter Mitty problem in the final throws of his own Pocketa-Pocketa-Pocketa delusion. Perhaps you need to channel Lloyd Benstsen so that you might learn a quality that is conspicuously absent from your character: Humility.
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, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
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