Whiner-in-Chief…
Is Pres. Obama thin-skinned? Very much so I think. Part of it is that he continually sets up straw men to knock over rather than dealing with issues in a straightforward manner. I suspect part of it is that he is unused to criticism and opposition. He has been rather a golden child all his life - exclusive school in Hawaii, assistance in getting into and paying for his Ivy League education, though he had those records sealed for some reason. His records in the Illinois Senate aren’t available, either.
He singles out Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, and goes after critics such as Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Bill Kristol by name, making it clear he takes criticism personally in a way I can’t recall either Bush ever doing, regardless of how much it may have irritated them privately. Examined from afar, his response strikes me as rather childish, but the response of many liberals to everything seems immature to me. Is that a function of their fending off reality with magical thinking, or a result of it?
I also don’t remember any other presidents complaining so much about how hard being president is. Even the intemperate Clinton, a narcissist of the first water, didn’t really do that, just claimed he had to go back to work for the American people rather than talk about Lewinsky and perjury. What alarms me is that Obama seems genuinely surprised by the difficulty and demands of the job, which is a consequence of his having no executive experience, and indeed, little experience at anything other than rabble-rousing and self-advancement.
His comments about Harvard professor Louis Gates’ arrest proved he knew more about that issue than any of the health reform bills, and that his instinct was to shriek “racism”, which, according to the police report, was Gates’ reaction, and I might add, one perfectly in keeping with his history. Dr. Boyce Watkins certainly feels no sympathy for Obama’s buddy, and Bill Cosby was shocked by the President’s comments. And Obama is now claiming to be surprised about the controversy about his righteous remarks, meaning he either still hasn’t read the police report, or thinks the arresting officer, who actually teaches a course on racial profiling, lied through his teeth.
Chris Stirewalt is leaning my way, calling the president a commenter in chief, with something to say on nearly every subject, no matter how trivial, yet almost a disinterested spectator on some of the tough stuff.
I doubt his numbers in this Opinion Dynamics poll for FOX, taken before his press appearance, will put him in a better mood. It is my expectation he is extremely unhappy with the report of minority staff on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee entitled “Is ACORN Intentionally Structured As a Criminal Enterprise?” Matthew Vadum will have a column on this later today, and I’ll add it as an update, but he offers a small preview here.
Remember that long-time ACORN supporter Rep. John Conyers shut down his own inquiry after still unnamed “powers that be” decided he should. Conyers’ wife, a Detroit City Council member, recently pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery, so perhaps he was just too terribly distracted to conduct an investigation.
UPDATE: Vadum’s column is here.
