Really, good people, this is urgent: The president has some serious psychological issues - President's personality disorder is a very difficult problem - and he needs help.
Personally, i read less and less MSM punditry these days, and when i do, i kick myself in the butt almost each time. But nothing that i've read lately made me want to hit my head against the wall like Charles Blow's piece in the NYT yesterday.
Under the title "The thrill is gone", Mr. Blow - someone that i still read from time to time, or use to read from time to time... - wrote something not only confused and confusing, but also outrageously condescending and at times just simply unbelievable.
The whole point of the article (i think, i could be wrong) is to explain why...
President Obama’s relationship with America, like many a young marriage, is growing sour.
Using a day-time-soap-opera 100% cliche "marriage" analogy - never mind that as Booman noted (and his reaction to this article is far less polite than mine), almost half of the voters didn't attend their wedding - Blow developed an incoherent theory about why the American people - the wife in this case, correct me if i'm wrong - are unhappy despite the fact that...
It must be acknowledged that on balance, this president is doing a good job — not perfect, but good — particularly in light of the incredible mess he inherited.
You see, dating - The campaign, right? ;) - was such fun, but 18 months of economic catastrophe, two wars, terrible political environment, oil spill disaster etc., etc., really killed the thrill of the young couple. The husband' (That's Obama, you're still with Charles and me?) insistence on not buying the hype around his own magical skills, really didn't help:
But once the marriage was official, reality set in and Obama tried to lower expectations. Life would not be lit by the soft glow of an eternal sunrise. Change would come slowly; pain would be felt presently; things would get worse before they got better.
It's not just the husband's fault, of course. Blow is ready to share some of the blame on the wife, that is...
fickle and excitable, hotheaded and prone to overreaction, easily frightened and in constant need of reassurance.
So yes, the wife needs to adjust and (Insert sour face icon)...
have to stop waiting for him to be great and allow him to be good.
But, it's the husband who really needs to change. And here comes the most preposterous and outraging passage i've read from the 'liberal media' in a loooong time. Worse even than Maureen Dowd' nonsense. According to Dr. Blow, Obama is:
The emotionally maimed type who lights up when he’s stroked and adored but shuts down in the face of acrimony. Other people’s anxieties are dismissed as irrational and unworthy of engagement or empathy. He seems quite comfortable with this aspect of his personality, even if few others are, and shows little desire to change it.
I had to read it a couple of times and i still shake me head. "Emotionally maimed"?? "Other people’s anxieties are dismissed as irrational and unworthy of engagement or empathy"???? What exactly in Barack Obama's history can lead anyone - assuming they know anything about the man - to write such bullshit "psychoanalyze" of one of the most empathic and "of the people" presidents ever? Is it really all about the theatre? Should the next president be Harrison Ford? Michael Douglas? Martin Sheen? Hey, it's not like we didn't have Reagen the saint...
And one more:
The constitution of Obama's inner self needs a wake-up.
Ah? I swear i don't even know what's that suppose to mean.
So in the end, if the marriage ends in divorce, it'll be mainly the husband's fault, because:
"The presumed transformative president is stymied by his own unwillingness to be transformed. He would rather sacrifice the relationship than be altered by it".
Oy vey. Shoot. Me. Now.
******
Completely OT: Anyone who feels like watching a very sweet Obama-the-father little clip, here you go.
Happy Father's Day.