Toby Harndon on the narcissist in chief:
There was one world leader absent for today’s commemorations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Surprisingly enough, it’s President Barack Obama, who found time last year to give a campaign speech there last year, which Der Spiegel summed up as “People of the World, Look at Me”.
The White House has cited a packed schedule, though looking at it he had nothing much on yesterday (brief chat to reporters about healthcare – by far his biggest priority) and just blah briefings and a bill signing today until a metting this evening with Benjamin Netanyahu. This time, Der Spiegel has reported it as “Barack Too Busy”.
But Obama is, of course, making time to trot over to Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in December. Didn’t seem to have too much of a problem clearing the diary for that – though his acceptance of the prize and decision to give a another soaring, historical, epoch-marking etc etc speech there will be looked back on as a colossal political mistake and sign of hubris.
Remember the gushing – fawning, really – in the American press about how beloved the Big O is in Europe? I’d say that is more than a bit overly optimistic. This man may be a legend in his own mind, but Europe appears to see considerably less. In fact, they are making fun of the pool-gazer. (And if you do not know the story of Narcissus, go look it up on the interwebby.)
The Wizard of O and his munchkin chorus here in the US may be quite smitten with the Wiz. The rest of the world appears to have seen behind the curtain.
Gene Healy:
Greenspan’s point was that people who seek the presidency today display a pathological power lust that ought to make us uncomfortable, given the powers the modern president enjoys.
George Washington was called “the American Cincinnatus,” after the Roman hero who took power reluctantly and returned humbly to his plow when crisis passed. That’s the model Americans once expected presidents to follow. Things have changed, and not for the better.
The last candidate to pay tribute to the Cincinnatus model was 1996 GOP contender Bob Dole, who praised the virtues of his birthplace, Russell, Kan., insisting it was either the White House or “home.” It turned out that Dole left “home” deliberately vague. After losing, he returned to his condo at the Watergate, making bucks as a lobbyist and Viagra pitchman.
As for the current POTUS, “he’s always wanted to be president,” according to Obama’s longtime friend and advisor Valerie Jarrett. No surprise, then, that, as Newsweek editor Jon Meacham put it in a profile of Obama earlier this year, he “likes and enjoys power,” even “revels” in it.
Revels is too weak a word. Wallows is more like it. Many of us have been pointing out that this man is narcissistic to the point of pathology. Read all of Healy’s piece and be afraid. There is a real arrogance, a real rejection of the ideal of the Cincinnatus model in Obama.
The Wall Street Journal:
Mr. Cassidy is more honest than the politicians whose dishonesty he supports. “The U.S. government is making a costly and open-ended commitment,” he writes. “Let’s not pretend that it isn’t a big deal, or that it will be self-financing, or that it will work out exactly as planned. It won’t. What is really unfolding, I suspect, is the scenario that many conservatives feared. The Obama Administration . . . is creating a new entitlement program, which, once established, will be virtually impossible to rescind.”
Why are they doing it? Because, according to Mr. Cassidy, ObamaCare serves the twin goals of “making the United States a more equitable country” and furthering the Democrats’ “political calculus.” In other words, the purpose is to further redistribute income by putting health care further under government control, and in the process making the middle class more dependent on government. As the party of government, Democrats will benefit over the long run.
On top of that, they create a vast, new bureaucracy to run the program that they themselves are actually exempt from. That wealth of government functionaries becomes yet another power base for the Democrats.
That is really what this is all about. Not the health and welfare of the people of the United States.
The health and welfare of the Democrats.
Start calling folks. This is an economy killer as well as a liberty destroyer.
Obamantics, World news | Gaius November 10, 2009 | 
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