State of the President

Neo-neocon didn’t have the stomach to watch last night’s State of the Union address. I endured the whole thing. Setting aside the particulars of the implicitly contradictory wish list Barry set forth, I think the current President is cracking up.

He has lost his slickness, even with the teleprompter. His demeanor struck me as similar to the Seinfeld character George Costanza when caught in his own web of lies. Barry would make a joking jab, then smile a bit too big, as if he was looking for approval. His speaking style, when not in full campaign mode, is full of odd pauses. Last night, what was odd became awkward.

Neo-neocon also compared the current President to an alcholic trying to convince his family that, this time, for real, he’s going to change. As much as Barry’s friends want to believe him, he seems to know that the trust has vanished.

A commenter on Neo’s thread tries to call her on some hypocrisy:

What’s rather astounding about what you’re saying Neo, is what you don’t acknowledge - the fact that the right is obstructing The One at every turn. And the fact he can’t overcome it is somehow his fault, not the fault of the right.

The hypocrisy here is that Neo, in an over-under-sideways-down sort of way, implies Obama’s fighting the good fight.

To which I chimed in:

the fact that the right is obstructing The One at every turn

Barry made this claim in his speech. Where’s the evidence that this is a fact? Or, do we have to work through the definition of “obstruct”?

Of course the righties oppose Barry’s (and Congress’s) initiatives. That’s what I expect from a deliberative process between camps that have different perspectives and philosophies. Is it somehow implied that to advocate against the majority view is obstructive?

And this claim of obstruction ignores the Congressional majority Barry had to work with for his first year. Again, yes, the righties can contest, but they could not block or prevent the lefties from doing anything.

How is the opposition-party “obstruction” Barry faces any different from any other President? It seems it must be less given the (super)majority in Congress.

Ultimately the claim of obstruction is an attack on the character of the opponents: They’re behaving badly, like petty spoilsports in time of genuine suffering.

It’s ad hominem wrapped in nationalism to advance a socialist agenda. Goebbels would be proud, but Hitler would mock Barry’s shaky delivery last night.

Obama has adopted a defense that, since times are tough, his tough job has become even harder. He is—despite his words claiming otherwise—expecting support and cooperation from his opponents just because we‘re supposed to back the President during crisis.

Labeling his opponents as racist has lost its power. Barry has such a diversity of enemies now that the race card cannot trump them all. So he’s trying an appeal to patriotism. Which is usually the last refuge of the scoundrel.

Patriotism might work, but not in a domestic crisis. The people unite against foreign enemies. An appeal to patriotism cannot long succeed when, as Barry admits, the people see the government as their enemy.

Obama repeats his claim that “it is not about him” so often that those words, too, have lost their meaning. Like the alcholic, his political family is rejecting him. I fear the only way Barry might regain the adulation he once had is to create a foreign enemy, to start a war of his own. To do so would contradict much of his rhetoric. But like Costanza, Obama is not invested in his promises.

When Barry realizes that the people have discerned his web of words is tethered to nothing, he will be found one morning curled up under the Resolute Desk, catatonic, with his thumb in his mouth.