Obama, Translated

[4est_4est_Gump]

[In which I shall honor the board's greatest thinker, KO, with imitation.]

I think I’ve stumbled onto a handy heuristic — or, if that word makes you want to smash my guitar on the Delta House wall, rule of thumb — for listening to Obama. Whenever he talks about himself, immediately flip it around so he’s saying the opposite. Think about it. “I’m not interested in photo-ops.” Boom. Translation: “I think photo-ops are really, really important. And that’s why I’m not going to have my picture taken with a bunch kids at the border.”

Now, sometimes, a literal reversal of meaning doesn’t work. But the key is to look at any statement he offers about others as an insight into his own mental state.

When Obama denounces cynicism, he’s actually being cynical. What he’s doing is expressing his frustration with people who are justifiably cynical about him. Why can’t you people fall for what I am saying!?

When he says he doesn’t care about “politics,” just problem-solving, what he’s really saying is he wants his political agenda to go unchallenged by other political agendas.

And — as I wrote about at great length here — whenever he says ideology and ideologues are a problem, what he’s actually saying is that competing ideologues and ideologies are the problem. That is, unless, you’re the sort of person who actually thinks Obama isn’t an ideologue, which is just adorable.

It’s not so much that he’s lying. Though if he were a Game of Thrones character, “Obama the Deceiver, First of His Name” would be a pretty apt formal title. No, he’s projecting. It’s an ego thing. I am fond of pointing out Obama’s insufficiently famous confession, “I actually believe my own bullsh*t.” What I like about it is that’s it’s like a verbal Escher drawing. He believes his own b.s. but by calling it b.s. he acknowledges it’s not believable. It’s like sarcastically insisting that you’re being serious. It’s earnest irony or ironic earnestness. If you take the statement too seriously, you could end up like android #1 in “I, Mudd.”

(Speaking of earnestness and deceit, am I the only one to find the White House press secretary’s name mildly amusing? Josh Earnest? “To josh” means to playfully kid with someone, “I’m just joshing ya!” Earnest means to be overly sincere and deadpan serious. The official voice of the White House is living up to both the verb and the adjective; he’s saying humorously unbelievable things in an overly serious way. He’s a poor man’s Steven Wright. Or maybe I’m overthinking things again. As Steven Wright himself said, a “conclusion is just the place where you get tired of thinking.”).

Anyway, I don’t take psychoanalysis, too seriously (“If you did, what would happen to me?” — The Couch). But I think Obama’s penchant for deriding his opponents as cynics and opportunists stems from the fact that he sees the world through precisely those sorts of prisms. But he tells himself he’s different because he does it for good purposes and besides, he’s so awesome his b.s. is true. No one knows if God can make a rock so heavy He can’t lift it, but Obama can sling such exquisite b.s. even he can believe. And because he believes it, he can’t tolerate the idea that others don’t.

Jonah Goldberg, NRO
__________________
A_J's corollary #6, “The New Age Liberal thinks, ‘When I do/say it, it is right because of my open-minded education and intelligence. When you do/say it, it serves to demonstrate how narrow-minded, poorly educated and stupid you are.’”

 

[miles]

This is nothing new. The Fraud and his Regime are in Bizarro World, where everything is opposite and/or backwards.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

This is nothing new. The Fraud and his Regime are in Bizarro World, where everything is opposite and/or backwards.

I'm sorry.

This is not a valid post.

You did not employ a large C&P.




KO RULES!!!

 

[miles]

I'm sorry.

This is not a valid post.

You did not employ a large C&P.




KO RULES!!!

KO is a JO.

 

[Wat_Tyler]

I've been catching the reports on NPR and listening to the soundbites, and what grabs me is, if he really wanted to be doing something more about what's wrong, he'd find a way, a la LBJ, to lean on those fuckers and get something done. Instead, he's out running his mouth like there's another re-election in his future.


So, in light of that, this needs to become a tit thread.

http://38.media.tumblr.com/77e624ca57938e6bda40ed5da31308a9/tumblr_n8jb8uBHjf1rxkt25o1_1280.jpg

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

He is always running against the policies of Barack Hussein Obama, I think he's a fawkin' racist...

 

[Ishmael]

Ain't it amusing that what seems funny when you're a mere ghetto organizer falls flat when you're the president?

Ishmael

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Ain't it amusing that what seems funny when you're a mere ghetto organizer falls flat when you're the president?

Ishmael

I would substitute the word funny with effective...



... PRESENT!

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Clemens Wergin is something of a contrarian. A German editor of the Die Welt newspaper group, he often found himself defending American foreign policy against European criticism. He would chide his countrymen for neglecting their dependence on the U.S. armed forces. He would lampoon the European belief that moral grandstanding makes for a foreign policy. He would praise American leaders for having the courage to make costly decisions.

Then something funny happened. As Wergin wrote in a New York Times op-ed on July 8, he found himself increasingly unable to distinguish the rhetoric of Washington, D.C., from the rhetoric of Brussels. Last year, when the United States threatened military action against Syria, only to reverse itself overnight and become partners with the Assad government in the destruction of the tyrant’s declared stocks of chemical weapons, Wergin was struck by an insight. “I suddenly understood the problem with this American president and his foreign policy,” he wrote. “He sounded just like a German politician: all moral outrage, but little else to help end one of the most devastating civil wars of our age.” The recognition left him with a feeling not of elation but of disappointment. “President Obama, I thought with a sigh, has become a European.”

Matthew Continetti, NRO

 

[Ishmael]

I would substitute the word funny with effective...



... PRESENT!

Alinsky 101.

Ishmael

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

I think he's taken Alinsky to the 600 level...



PhD in Pre-Cloward-Piven

 

[Ishmael]

I think he's taken Alinsky to the 600 level...



PhD in Pre-Cloward-Piven

Look at the bright side, he's the only thing left in government that's transparent.

Ishmael

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

ok


I laughed...

 

[RobDownSouth]

Hey, Chief, I saw you taking great delight in "settling a score" over in Byron's memorial thread

He apologized, in his way, for being a bastard to me over Iraq.

That's about all I can take pleasure in.

Hit 'em when they can't hit back. Very classy.

And I seriously doubt anyone ever "apologized" to you over Iraq....that was back when you were routinely questioning the patriotism of anyone who disagreed with Dubya.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

[voice=hushed whisper]

I see a limp dick...

[/voice]

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

http://38.media.tumblr.com/77e624ca57938e6bda40ed5da31308a9/tumblr_n8jb8uBHjf1rxkt25o1_1280.jpg

That's funny! I see it too!

 

[RobDownSouth]

[voice=hushed whisper]

I see a limp dick...

[/voice]

Hey Chief, did you read that they finally successfully took the first ever photo of a hydrogen atom the other day?

Just think, when the price of technology comes down to consumer levels in a few years, you and miles can finally swap dick pics.

#NTTAWWT

 

[unregistered]