Obama and his Malignant Narcissism

I highly recommend reading Victor Davis Hanson's piece, The Reckoning. Here's the opening:

Obama Versus the Way of the Universe

I wish the President well, but he is butting up against human nature. And that is a fight one cannot win. If one runs up nearly a $2 trillion annual deficit, and then persists in such red-ink to the point of adding another $9 trillion, all to reach an aggregate $20 trillion national debt, there are not too many options. If there were, everyone-both states and individuals-would simply spend, call it stimuli, and then find academics to offer contorted explanations why it was OK and the money need not really have to be paid back. Does Obama think his debt is like buying  a house in a down market with an up market inevitable?–that is, we borrow to the max and then count on our equity to come to bail us out? But houses do not always go up, and we can’t quite sell off the US to capture our speculative profit.

So we all know the old rules, because the universe works according to time-honored precepts: we either must tax all of us (there are not enough of those evil “they” who make between $200-500K or even enough of the noble generous rich who make over $10 million a year and think Obama should increase inheritance taxes so that their children get only $1 billion instead of $2, while the hardware store owner’s kids sell the business) in insidious ways; OR simply cut government expenditures elsewhere to pay the annual interest payments, OR print money and screw the Chinese, European, etc. , debtors, inflating our way out via the late 1970s.

Sorry, there are no other real alternatives.

It's a fantastic piece that needs to be read beginning to end. In it, he offers up a personal example that seems quite appropriate. A dispute at his farm when he was in his mid-20's and just returned from academia. I think many of us with college degrees, especially those of us with advanced degrees, have been "educated fools" at times. Obama, clearly, is showing all the signs of that dreaded deficit.

Still, it is personally disappointing that so many folks in the comments following the post seem to apparently have so little respect for the resiliency of the country or respect for the "practical" epiphanies Obama has already evidenced (wiretaps, eMail intercepts, Predator drone attacks, shutting down Guantanamo, etc.).

He clearly has a gameplan and reality will clearly overtake said gameplan (I tend to agree with another comment in the thread; namely, that Hillary will seek and find an opening by the end of Summer which will allow her to begin her subtle differentiation away from naïveté of BHO). As Hanson indicates, the only true question is: what will BHO do in the face of a mugging by reality? Specifically, "The only mystery? How the choice of payment is rhetoricized in the hope and change mode." Payment, mind you, whether foreign or domestic. For me, there is an acknowledgment in this question/statement from VDH that Obama is, first and foremost, a politician.

No,Obama doesn't understand the country. No, he doesn't know how to properly respect military service or the imperative to serve in our armed forces, nor does he know how to properly admire a corporation surviving the gauntlet of initial start-up, then finding, developing and servicing a market. Hell, the fact of the matter is that he doesn't even believe in the CIA or its mission.

But he does understand politics.

I'm going to hold onto that little nugget and believe (hope?), along with VDH, that our President is going to "get it" when the inevitable occurs. And I'm going to work to see that he's a one-term wonder because (as someone said in one of Hanson's comments) his was the most un-serious election of my lifetime. As a black man, I remain firmly convinced he NEVER should have been the first African American elected to the Presidency but . . . he was! And I have to respect that.

Additionally, I refuse to believe he is purposely trying to undermine the country any more than Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton were. We're talking about political differences here (okay, and a malignant narcissism!) but those of us who oppose Obama should avoid the craziness of the far left. Any "American" talking about running away from the problems of the country by leaving isn't worthy of the title.

Comments

[Ree]

J.B.,

"There Will Be Irony"

This is how I always watch TV with my face covered, you know we keep extra ski mask around just for those occasions :)

Sarc.

http://bellalu0.wordpress.com/2009/06/06/palestinian-militants-stop-to-watch-cairo-speech-on-tv/

[Ree]

No More Apologies.

http://logisticsmonster.com/2009/06/07/a-rebuttal-to-the-apology-tour/

[gadfly]

J.B.

I liked your post so well that I pimped your title and subject ...but I quoted you here:

http://e-gad-fly.blogspot.com/2009/06/obamas-malignant-narcissism.html

[Royce]

Let's hope you are right about all this... I share the same views. But, I must admit Pres. Obama has moved so far so fast that four years could be a long, long time.

[Ree]

TGIF Week In Review "Tipping Points"

http://youhavetobethistalltogoonthisride.blogspot.com/2009/06/tgif-circus-life-tipping-points-not.html

[Ree]

Happy Father's Day J.B.

Happy Father’s Day & George Washington Father of our Nation.

What Would Dad Do?

http://youhavetobethistalltogoonthisride.blogspot.com/2009/06/happy-fathers-day-thanks-to-father-of.html

[Xixi]

Obama's skin color may be black, but he's not a black American.