The Vapidity of Barack, The Cipher
By Bronwyn's Harbor on November 28, 2009 at 8:00 PM in Current Affairs
Have you noticed this too? That, all of a sudden, wherever you turn, there’s yet another former Obamabot aka Obama groupie lamenting what their (vision of) Obama has become as president. Those Obamabots fell for the speeches, which of course were written mostly by others, and for what they saw as a “cool dude.” To me, he was always a cipher. An undefined being. A zero. A sum of nothing.
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He is someone who has seemingly floated through life, relying on a modicum of charm and some brains, but who never really put his heart and soul into anything unless it was to win some new title. Who never worked hard at anything unless it was to bestow on himself acclaim and notoriety. That’s why he runs his presidency as a campaign: He only knows how to run for something, not BE anything.
Today, Andy sent us NQ writers a great commentary by the ever-sharp Jennifer Rubin, which accompanies an NPR discussion on “The Case Of The President’s Missing Charisma.” (The link takes you to both a transcript and the audio.)
Here’s Jennifer Rubin from her “Questioning What Went Wrong“:
Politico’s Arena section recently featured back-to-back questions for discussion. “Obama’s Charisma, Where Did He Leave It?” was followed by “Should Obama hit the reset button on the White House?” Well, that speaks volumes, huh?
Like a Saturday Night Live skit, the questions depend on shared understandings that Obama isn’t who the liberal intelligentsia once thought he was and that his presidency isn’t doing so well. One of the ordinary folk who chimed in on the topic of charisma, reminded readers that not all of us thought Obama was so charismatic to begin with:
Lest you forget: millions of people, me included, never found Obama charismatic at all. Half the country, the truth to tell. I voted against a Democrat for the first time in over 40 years because of his candidacy – he always seemed to me exactly as he has turned out- a man who probably can take a test well, but has zero imagination, a man who thinks leading is telling people what he wants (though he sometimes doesn’t even do that), a man who constantly speaks ambiguously in order to always have an out.
But a great many people, ignoring the vapidity of Obama’s rhetoric about lowering the oceans and “we are the world,” did think s0 and were in full swoon. Now they no longer are. That includes a great many self-styled moderates and many members of the liberal media. The import is clear for the presidency: Obama is neither galvanizing the public opinion nor leading. His countless health-care speeches have done nothing to sway public opinion on ObamaCare. Even the rest of his agenda (e.g., cap-and-trade, card check) seems to be on permanent hold. His decisions on Guantanamo and KSM have been wildly unpopular. And on the world stage, the IOC, the mullahs, and the parties in the Middle East — well, just about everyone — are unmoved by Obama’s supposed mystique.
So we move to the “reset” question: since his poll numbers are tumbling and his agenda is on the skids, shouldn’t he do something about it? Well, we get bizarrely self-contradictory advice (”Resetting toward an agenda that creates jobs quickly and kicks Wall Street speculators in the face will make President Obama and the Democrats very popular next November.” Uh. . . I think Wall Street is where the investment for job growth comes from). There are others who just want to tough it out. Still others are dreaming of a different presidency altogether (”Imagine if he admitted that spending cuts and free trade, not tax hikes, bailouts for unions, and protectionism, were the keys to prosperity.” Well, that was the other 2008 candidate, I think.) And Lanny Davis says it’s the media’s fault. (My, how things have changed.)
But so far, the Obami themselves show no concern over their political belly flops. … Read all.
Vapidity. That’s a word that Jennifer Rubin uses to describe Obama. It means something that is undefined. I actually prefer my word of choice, cipher. And that’s simply because I don’t believe that there is any there there.
Larry Johnson, but of course, hit the nail on the head last week in his commentary, “Barack Losing Mojo and Modo“:
When New York Time columnist Maureen “The Modo” Dowd decides that butt snorkeling for Obama is no longer fun, you know the hopey-changey holiday season is kaput. …
Oh, do read Larry’s post. You’ll nearly pass out from laughing so hard. If you’re not also crying. For us and for this nation.
Larry included the unforgettable SNL skit, and added his thoughts as only Larry can:
Too bad this wasn’t cable. Then the writers could have said it outright–”if you’re going to fuck me I want to be kissed and get some flowers and candy.” In other words boys and girls the lamestream media is catching on that we’re being ravaged by an incompetent politician. Sweet!
Alas poor Barack, we knew he wasn’t ready.
I’ll go further: Someone like Barack will never be ready. He doesn’t have what it takes, which is to be a fully integrated human being with a work ethic and gifted leadership skills.
We had that person. A woman with the gift of leadership qualities and the dogged desire to work her tush off to do right by the American people. But The One’s ones were so enraptured, they savaged her and naively, stupidly believed that a speech means that one can be a great leader. Nothing could be further from the truth. Besides, Hillary had the speech-making skills — that she honed through sheer hard work — and now, too late, the American people realize what a truly great public servant she is.
Regrets, I have a few. But I will always be so damn proud that Hillary was my choice for president and that Barack never did it for me. I don’t always make the best choices, but this time I had it right. And so did you readers.
(May I share my fantasy with you? Everyone says it’s silly. But i imagine Hillary running in 2016. She’ll still be young enough. She’ll still have the same energy, the same drive, the same discipline, and this time she’ll arrive on the campaign trail having already won the hearts and minds of a sobered-up American people.)
by Ronald Scott
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