Political Commentary

But Don’t Call Him A Narcissist

57 Comments

Another example:

I couldn’t help noticing, when we sat down to talk in the dilapidated storefront that houses his Springfield campaign headquarters, that the blue-pen drawing he’d doodled on his newspaper during fundraising calls was a portrait of himself.

Amazing, but even more so is the denial of many of his dwindling supporters about it.

57 thoughts on “But Don’t Call Him A Narcissist”

  1. Yes, he’s President Zaphod Beeblebrox.

    Ford: “Where’s Zaphod?”
    Arthur: “He’s in his quarters signing photographs of himself, ‘To myself, with frank admiration.'”

  2. Well, what would one expect? He’s a perfect product of his environment. His mother and grandmother doted on him, he had no pop at home with whom to compete unsuccessfully (an early component of the training of young men the importance of which is usually overlooked), and then he spent all his time as an intelligent black man in academia, the very center of the culture of unearned admiration and the fetishization of self-esteem. He could hardly have been less buttered up were he the Dauphin of Louis XIV or the son of Nero.

    What a pity he can’t serve as the poster child for what went wrong with American education in the last 30 years.

  3. What a pity he can’t serve as the poster child for what went wrong with American education in the last 30 years.

    Yes He Can!

    Or he will, I suspect, in the eyes of history.

  4. So, does this trait give a wedge to the liberty lobby? Can his ego over ride his ideology? Will he be a “Great President” by balancing the budget, bending the curve of government spending and bring the country out of the “Bush” depression?

    If I were the GOP leadership, that’s a plan that might be worth pursuing.

  6. On a (weird) side angle to this.

    I sent the other Narcissus link to a friend of mine on another blog. He is of the opinion that THE best way for The One to salvage his image is for him to be assassinated. My friend further surmises that our beloved leader will set it up HIMSELF, to further his main goal in life.

    Making sure everyone loves Barrack Hussein Obama.

    On one hand it reeks of a bad grade B, British b/w movie from 196? (Oliver Reed plays the part, as a cockney kid, made good) On the other hand it seems plausible given his idea of self.

    He’s a scary dude. Plain and simple. A Scary, scary dude. (so is my friend for thinking this up)

  9. And apart from the nightmare of President Ban-Water Biden, the assassination of Obama would be an unmitigated disaster for these united States. Ignore for the moment what it would do to race relations to see the second first black president slain – can you imagine how much harder it would be to resist the man’s ruinous Euro-socialist agenda if he were a “martyr?”

    (No, seriously. “Doh!” Biden once tried to have possession of bottles of water declared a felony:
    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,58663,00.html
    Guess he took the “Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide” petition a little too literally…)

  14. “His appeal is less loud, more profound, less distinct, more stirring—and sooner forgotten”

    ~Joseph Conrad~
    “The Nigger of the Narcissus”

  16. I think is is very unwise to speculate about such an event as has been mentioned. All such comments are taken very seriously by the govt, which, I am sure, screens all emails in this country, if not the world.

    There was a crazy guy in a mental institution who never had any visitors. So, he would write a letter every so often to the White House where he would threaten the President. (Any one in office). He got one visit each each from a couple of Secret Service men.

    Once, a five year old boy got a visit by the Secret Service because as a class project, he wrote a letter to the white house which contained something vaguely threatening.

    The best thing for the world is for that man to serve his full 8 years in office. Anybody who doesn’t understand the situation by then will be too stupid to worry about. That man has single handedly united the responsible elements of this country. They are putting behind silly partisan issues in an attempt to salvage the American experiment in republican government. I wish them well.

  18. It’s more than mere narcissism. It’s Narcissistic Personality Disorder. There is no core to this man, no conscience, no connection to a reality the rest of us share. Many Americans realized something was not right about this stranger who was suddenly strutting and preening on the national stage in 2008. It’s in his voice when he assumes a phony accent. It’s in the arrogance of of his posture. Now the rest of the country is catching on but it’s too late. Caligula is in the White House.

  21. Joel, I wonder what happened to all those who made the horrible movie about the assassination of President Bush while he was in office? Guantanamo, I guess..
    PS Was ‘the crazy guy’ Michael Moore?

  22. Joel, I think you’re right. I have a friend, and he and his wife are both academics who emigrated to the US from a central European country. The wife and their kids were spending a few weeks visiting with their grandparents back in the old country, and when she called her husband (here in the US) to tell him that the kids didn’t want to come home, he jokingly said, “Well, then kidnap them!”. The next day he got a visit from the FBI.

  23. I have repeatedly stated on my own site and perhaps one or two others my opinion (hope?) that one thing Barack Obama does have in common with the icky hoi polloi is a desire to go on breathing.

    If he really wanted to have himself martyred, he’d fire Biden and make Hillary his vice-president.

  24. The best thing for the world is for that man to serve his full 8 years in office.

    You do realize he only gets eight years if he gets re-elected in 2012, right?

  25. Ixnay on the assassination talk, huh? The best and most just fate for Mr. Obama is to become a one-termer and live the rest of a very long and healthy life as the 21st Century’s Jimmy Carter.

  28. that the blue-pen drawing he’d doodled on his newspaper during fundraising calls was a portrait of himself.

    Enough of me talking about myself. Tell me, what do you think of me?

    There’s no conceit in my family. I have it all.

  30. Indeed, let’s not talk of assassination, people. You can get in Very Big Trouble that way. (Cue Clint Eastwood voice: “Now, you shouldn’t have gone and said that. Don’t you know it’s a federal crime to threaten the life of the President? Even if you don’t mean it?”)

    Speaking for myself, I don’t want him to die in office; I don’t even want him impeached. No, I’d rather he suffer the fate I think he’d find truly intolerable. I want him to be universally ridiculed.

    And frankly, the way he’s going, I think I have a better-than-even chance of getting my wish.

    respectfully,Daniel in Brookline

  31. No, Obama will be even more popular as a former president with no genuine responsibility. There will be no downside to sucking-up to The First Black President of the US™, personally or privately. His popularity should reach pre-inauguration highs. Expect paid $100,000/speech and mountains of hot air to be spewed about his “vision” etc. ad nauseum. The only real mistake in his Affirmative Action fairy tale was giving him real power – once that’s over, they’ll blame his failings on whitey teabaggers. Meanwhile, he can resume his primary career: assuaging liberal white guilt with his tokenism.

  32. Resign in disgrace might be nice, but I can’t think of anything that would trigger that–it would require him to admit that he did something that wasn’t quite perfect.

    Throw a hissy fit and quit is more his style.

  33. Again you’ve all fallen into the trap. It’s not about Obama! It’s about his legion of followers and associates. His appointments. His new laws. Those are the things to target. In the overall scheme of things, Obama is nothing (but a joke.)

  35. “I am prefectly fine with Obama serving 8 years as long as he does the last 4 somewhere else.”

    Like Joliette…

  36. Titus said: Meanwhile, he can resume his primary career: assuaging liberal white guilt with his tokenism.

    Titus, Obviously that shouldn’t be the primary job of the President of the United States, but I can’t tell from your comment whether you are criticizing the entire notion. This is a bit off-topic, but I’m curious: do you think there should be any “white guilt” associated with the history of African-Americans in this country, and if so, what would assuage it?

    If you turned the table and asked me the same question question, I’d find it difficult to answer. Reflexively, I’d answer “no, people shouldn’t feel guilty unless they themselves did something wrong. Guilt because of racial identity is nuts.” But on the other hand…
    … I’m quite moved by the historic photo of West German Chancellor Willy Brandt kneeling before the monument to the Warsaw Ghetto. See http://www2.facinghistory.org/Campus/Memorials.nsf/0/DC396F572BD4D99F85256FA80055E9B1
    I suppose what made the act so moving was that Brandt was acting as a representative of Germany and I suppose that means I do believe in German guilt, even if I think it would be wrong to hold any particular German person accountable (if they are in fact innocent of everything but being German.)

    I support many of Obama’s policies in his role as chief executive, but I suppose I’m moved by his presidency due to his role as the first African-American head of state and how it can symbolize the process of overcoming our country’s history of racist injustice. Unlike Brandt’s action, this says nothing about Obama himself, but it does say something about the majority of American voters.

    Tokenism? It remains to be seen whether African-Americans are eventually represented proportionately at all levels of government, but I think it is too early to write off Amercian voters.

  38. Bob-1, the Holocaust happened within living memory. Some of the people responsible for it are alive today. The slavery thing ended almost 150 years ago and even then, most people weren’t slavers. And what happens if none of your ancestors were in the slavery business (such as most people born in New England before 1950)? Why do “white guilt” apply to everyone even though a lot of “white” people weren’t involved? I think it a sham, an excuse to parasite from the public treasury.

  39. Curt, no, that was my point: Watts’s policies weren’t mine, but it was a good sign that Watts was elected in a 90% white district, and if he had been elected the first African-American president, the symbolic aspect of his presidency (being the American head of state as opposed to being a Republican chief executive) would have been equally moving. T

    Karl, institutional racial injustice didn’t end when slavery ended. And as for national guilt: young germans had nothing to do with the Holocaust, but they are the inheritors of their country, and I don’t want them to think the Holocaust has nothing to do with them. My ancestors were Jews escaping from Europe, but

  40. Last sentence should have read: My Jewish ancestors escaped Europe between 1890 and 1940, but as an American, I consider 1776 part of my inheritance, as I do all of American history, and so I consider institutional racial injustice part of my inheritance too.

  41. Bob, to answer your question honestly, if white guilt is what it takes for white collectivists to treat us as equals, I’ll deal with it. If the alternative for white collectivists is a return to Jim Crow, I’ll deal with it. Yes, I’d rather have Obama, Professional African-American Showpiece of How Racist America Isn’t, as president than for us to be in chains again. And yes, as much as I’d feel diminished and insulted for anyone to think I got where I am by AA, having taken zero career and educational options that weren’t open to “white” people, I’d rather have that and my six figures a year at age 29 than to be under a whip. In a perfect world, you’d treat us as equals because it’s right and concern for the righteousness of your actions would motivate you 24/7 regardless of the fashionable “ethics” of the day, but I know the world isn’t perfect.

    But as Karl said, it’s like the bad discussion that will not end. Ever had one of those that you just wanted to drop, but then someone keeps bringing the topic back up again and everyone goes right back to jump street agonizing all over it, and you’re all “WTF, ppl! Just DROP it already so we can move on!” This Original Sin garbage is one of the worst aspects of the collectivist genotype, I swear.

  42. Titus, thanks for the answer. When people say “Never forget” about the Holocaust, they aren’t saying it because they want Germans to do things to feel better about themselves. If there is “German guilt” today, its purpose should be to remind Germans to learn from history. And of course, “Never forget” is intended to remind everyone to learn from history, not just Germans. Rand certainly takes that message to heart! My joke is that it is always WWII at this blog, with everything from Rand’s comical parodies to his heartfelt warnings about modern day Fascism.

    Should Willy Brandt have felt “German guilt”? He was in the resistance in WWII, but he apologized for his country when confronted with a memorial to the Holocaust. But once the apologies and personal reparations were over, “German guilt” became a way to learn from the past and not make the same mistakes again. When it comes to the Holocaust, I don’t want people to “just drop it already” – I want them to keep learning from history.

    Some people call slavery the American Holocaust. Other people don’t like that terminology, or they argue over the definition of genocide, or whatever, but the point remains: Slavery was too horrible to forget, and it led to racism which didn’t end with slavery, and continues today.

    Brandt acted 25 years after the end of WWII, and it was a big deal at the time. Obama was elected 45 years after MLK’s I Have A Dream speech, 40 years after the Civil Rights Act was signed, and in a time when racism continues, so people are making a big deal out it. Rand still keeps WWII front and center 65 years after it ended. Americans sharing a wide variety of political positions harken back to the Revolutionary War when they consider modern-day dilemmas. (You wouldn’t tell a Tea Party activist to just drop it already, since people do have representation along with their taxation, right?) So: “White guilt?” I think that’s just a way of saying “Never forget”; a way of saying that there something to learn from this country’s struggle with racism that makes it worth keeping the discussion going.

  43. Bob, if you have to wear a clown nose every day to remind yourself to be a good boy and not kill black people, I promise not to laugh.

  44. PS In keeping with the “American Holocaust” argument, it would make more sense to call white guilt “American guilt”, but people would have no idea what that was referring to.

  45. TItus, you and I can drop it, but your comment made me realize I didn’t say WHAT could be learned from history. “Don’t kill black people” isn’t the lesson I had in mind, anymore than “Never Forget” is only supposed to remind people to not kill Jews. The lesson from American history I had in mind was something like “look for racism as a cause of institutional unfairness and worse. ”

    For example, ask whether police forces really engage in “driving while black” traffic stops? Or, do non-English-speaking illegal immigrants from Mexico get treated differently from non-English-speaking illegal immigrants from Canada and Europe, because of their race?”

    And I think this is the point in the conversation when someone might want to criticize Affirmative Action programs…

  46. Yes, Bob, the insanity of collectivists past should remind us that collectivists will be insane in the future. That point wasn’t lost on me. Just don’t go overboard with AA or witch-hunts to find “racists.”

  47. Slavery was too horrible to forget, and it led to racism which didn’t end with slavery, and continues today.

    Slavery didn’t lead to racism — it was a result of racism, which is an intrinsic feature of human nature, and not one solved by reverse racism. And slavery is not, despite the mythology of the left, invented by Americans, or a uniquely American institution — it is an age-old one, and alive and well in the Arab culture and much of Africa today. Americans made their reparations for it with the blood of hundreds of thousands of white Americans.

  48. Maybe I should have said that slavery led to worsening racism. Regardless of the practice of slavery elsewhere, I think the perceived advantages of slavery led to justifications for racism in this egalitarian country. Perhaps I’m wrong, blinded by my patriotism. Certainly the slavery practiced elsewhere is/was sometimes not racist at all, but here it became viciously racist, with African-Americans being treated far worse than anyone else, including other non-whites.

  49. Americans made their reparations for it with the blood of hundreds of thousands of white Americans.

    If the resistance movement to the Nazis had grown into a civil war, with half the Germans trying to stop the Holocaust while the other half continued it, and the resistance had won, would there have been no need for reparations to the victims of the Holocaust?

    Still, I didn’t bring up reparations for slavery — it is too late for that. It might not be too late for reparations for racism, but it is gets complicated. Heightened vigilance is all I was suggesting. (And for all your jokes about ultrasonic hearing, I don’t hear any don’t hear dog whistle jokes about Fascism.)

  50. If the resistance movement to the Nazis had grown into a civil war, with half the Germans trying to stop the Holocaust while the other half continued it, and the resistance had won, would there have been no need for reparations to the victims of the Holocaust?

    Reparations are never “needed”. That’s parasite logic. And who would pay? The resistance didn’t cause the harm.

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