Red Line

[poliphilo]

Was that red line of Obama's a thing he and his advisers had thought about in advance or was it off the cuff?  Whatever it was, I don't think he expected to be called on it. He's now attempting to convince us he didn't say it at all- or that he was just saying what everyone else was thinking. Both these things are clearly not the case.

When you're in power you can't afford to let your mind wander. Every word, every action, has weight.

Auden has a poem about a tyrant which ends, "And when he cried the little children died in the streets."

Comments

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

There's a saying somewhere about cruel men crying in the cinema - is that Auden too?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It might be- it sounds like him- but I can't place it.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

I remember my friends attempting to convince me that Obama was more "presidential" in seeming than the other possibilities. I didn't believe them then, but I am not particularly happy to have been forced to watch it happen.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Obama won the beauty contest- which is what a presidential election amounts to these days- but he's been unimpressive in office.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

I think "unimpressive" is understating the matter. And there's another three years of this in the works? *sigh*

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Will the next president be any more impressive? I rather doubt it.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Good point. :/

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Members of the commentariat have suggested, either literally or figuratively and I don't know which, that he went off-teleprompter with those remarks.

I worked for a guy like Mr. Obama in the 70s -- wore his well-tailored suit and his professorial demeanor and his minority status to gain many lucrative government contracts. He delegated/neglected his way to bankruptcy for his company while continuing to pursue the next great lucrative contract(s). Thanks to him I finished my pregnancy on welfare, since he hadn't bothered to pay into the unemployment fund. I recognized the modus operandi when I finished the first chapter of Mr. Obama's book, The Audacity of Hope, and have violent thoughts every time I see his face.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've listened to the passage in which he introduces the red line and there's a hesitancy, a choppiness, that suggests he's making it up as he goes along.

I think Obama is amoral, self-righteous and totally lacking in self-awareness- rather like our own Tony Blair- who also had that sheen of competence and glamour.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's about right.

I'm not amoral, but I've been self-righteous and totally lacking in self-awareness, but with a sheen etc. in my past. It took me three months as the head of our community organization to realize that the gift of public speaking and the ability to articulate a vision is no substitute for solid leadership and management skills. That brought along with it a real eruption of self-awareness, I can tell you.