The Personality Of
Barack Hussein Obama
Grandeur:
Barack
Hussein Obama is an exotic personality. We tend to think of
successful people as having large scale personalities and that is
often the case. That is, they are much like us but their drives are
stronger, their endurance greater, their will power unwavering. In
the words of Scrooge McDuck, they think a little faster and jump a
little quicker.
Barack
Obama's personality is a radical departure from that template. If
there is but one word to define our forty fourth president, that word
would be grandiose. A man who cultivates his own deification is a
dangerous man.
Let us just skip the self-comparisons to Mandela and
Gandhi and self-rating his administration no worse than fourth ('with
the possible exception of Lincoln, FDR, LBJ) on foreign policy and
legislative achievements. And let us just ignore the underachieving
lawyer who held the lofty position of community organizer writing an
autobiography (the material discrepancies are addressed elsewhere)
and let us forget that Candidate Obama readily played the role of the
embodiment of “Hope” and adopted the word as an uncopyrighted
logo.
John
Kennedy and Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton all liked to be the center
of attention. They loved the spotlight but at no time did they
promote worship of themselves. No halos or fainting damsels for these
men. Had their handlers tried to elevate them to objects of worship, the
aforementioned would have rejected it. Efforts to encourage
religious devotion would probably embarrass them as it would most
normal personalities, even personalities who seek attention.
The
deliberate promotion of self-deification separates Barack Obama from
every other president as well as most public figures. The president's
personality is similar to that of a religious cult leader such as Jim
Jones or David Koresh. If that assessment seems too harsh, ask
yourself this: Dating back to the age of Constantine, what Western
Civilization public figure would request that references to Christ be
shrouded prior to his arrival? Can you name even one?
That
is exactly what Barack Obama did in April 2009 at Georgetown
University in Washington, DC. “IHS” the ancient symbol for Jesus
was covered, prior to the new president's arrival. Sadly, the faux
Catholics at Georgetown complied with the White House's request.
At
the time many of us saw this as the president's first gaffe. In
retrospect, the obliteration was no blunder, it was much more
sinister than that. It was part of Barack Obama's ongoing effort to
cultivate his worship. There was only room for one deity on stage and
we know who that happened to be. His followers shall have no gods
before him.
Incidentally,
the news media only reported this story after it was volleyed around
the blogosphere and radio host Michael Savage reported on it.
Reluctantly, a few members of the Fourth Estate stuck their toes in
the water and offered some lame excuses for their preferred deity.
Barack
Obama profoundly believes that his very essence is more significant
than his actions. Sadly, he sold this belief to his followers. June
3, 2008 following an Obama victory in the Democratic primaries: “
this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our
planet began to heal.” Barack said it. They believe it. That
settles it.
Barack
Obama, as well as his followers, believes that his presence in the
White House will somehow improve America's standing in the world.
Obama believes he projects irresistible charm and of course the
Arabs, the Russians, the Iranians and the Chinese would all revel in
his unending brilliance.
Barack
Obama believes that actions similar to those taken by his predecessor
might yield vastly different results. George W. Bush spent money
recklessly. (“Two wars on a credit card” repeated ad nauseum).
Obama sincerely believes that he is metaphysically different from
Bush and other mortals as well. Obama's profligacy would--he believes-- yield
prosperity and balance budgets. Most of America bought this
perspective as well.
Clinically
speaking, I don't think this guy has all of his oars in the water.
Malignant
Narcissism
Let
me state that I am reluctant to pin clinical diagnoses on other
people. Having worked in the mental health field, I can tell you that
clinical diagnoses can be judgmental, imprecise and at times
downright fictitious. I have seen psychiatric evaluations performed
on the same patient by different evaluators in a short time frame
yield vastly different conclusions. I have seen clinicians who fixate
on a single diagnosis and assign that diagnosis to just about
everyone they meet (This is especially true of clinicians who have
undergone drug or alcohol treatment and thereafter see most of
humanity as addicts and alcoholics in various states of denial). I
have seen patients rubber-stamped with anxiety or depression to
expedite the process and allow the writer to sooner punch the clock.
Clinical
terms are often trendy. OCD, ADD, or bipolar disorder is featured in
the news and the ailment de jour arrives in clusters. For better or
worse, the hottest, trendiest diagnosis is narcissism. It was
featured on “Dr. Phil” and “Coast to Coast” radio, a show
that usually deals with UFO's and Sasquatch sightings. I personally
know a clinician who pins the “N” word on every patient who is
anti-social. It's the fashion, man. Get with it.
So I
am hesitant to apply clinical terms to others and I am especially
hesitant to label anyone a narcissist. With those disclaimers out of
the way, let me state unequivocally that Barack Hussein Obama is a
textbook narcissist. This is not my diagnosis. I am citing Samuel
Vaknin on this matter.
Vaknin is not a mental health professional but
he is a self-professed narcissist. He is one of the most prolific
writers on the subject and he was way ahead of the curve in
identifying this disorder. As one who spends forty hours a week with
mental health professionals, I trust Vaknin's analysis more than I
trust the opinions of degreed people.
Vaknin
identifies seven characteristics of narcissists that can be found in
Barack Obama:
Magical
thinking. We have already touched on this. Barack Obama seems to
believe that his presence determines outcomes more than his actions.
Unfortunately, this delusion is reinforced by his ardent followers. Barack
Obama's worldview is one of perceptions, not of substance. In his
mind, the message is all. If the Affordable Care Act seems
unworkable, get the right people—pop stars and athletes—to sell
its merits. Bring a bunch of doctors to the Rose Garden and hand out
lab coats. Problem solved.
Imperturbability.
I part company with Vaknin on this one. Yes, the president is
described as cool, aloof and detached but he is quick to show
disgust. He might not pound the table but he did scratch his chin
with his middle finger as Hillary Clinton talked. He quietly but
visibly seethed when Paul Ryan challenged him on the premise of
national health care and later when Benjamin Netanyahu told him that
Israel had no intention of returning to their 1967 borders.
Pronoun
density. According to Vaknin the average person uses I, me, myself
15-20% of the time. Barack Obama uses those pronouns 70% of the
time. This might need some clarification but Vaknin is not alone in
recognizing this habit. According to The National Journal December
22, 2012, “ President Barack Obama used the funeral for Hawaii
senator Daniel Inouye to talk about himself. In the short 1,600 word
speech, Obama used the word "my" 21 times, "me"
12 times, and "I" 30 times.”
Barack
Obama sees people as unimportant props in his own movie. In Vaknin's
words, the narcissist sees people as “cardboard cutouts” or
“non-people.” Obama has no sense of empathy. This is ironic
because when asked which politician cares more about people like
them, would-be voters overwhelmingly chose Obama over his opponent.
Barack
Obama displays a false modesty that masks haughtiness.
Barack
Obama likes to play the eternal adolescent.
Additionally,
narcissists believe they are omniscient and infallible. You are
either one hundred per cent with them or you are against them. The
slightest disagreement will result in conflict. Perhaps most
importantly, when they go down, they take everyone with them.
Chronic
Dishonesty.
Barack Hussein Obama is a tightly-woven gestalt. It is
hard to say where one facet ends and another begins. He is a
chronically dishonest human being. With that said, if one lies boldly
and frequently, knowing that he will probably be called on it later,
one has to wonder if that person can distinguish fact from fantasy.
When a political figure who seeks the White House writes
an autobiography with at least thirty-seven “material
discrepancies”, he has to expect to get caught. Nope. Getting
caught never even slowed down Barack Obama. No embarrassment. No
shame. Move on. Re-message.
Barack Obama repeatedly stated that people could keep
their preferred doctor under the Affordable Care Act. How many times
did he repeat this falsehood? That question was posed at various
message boards including “Yahoo Answers.” There is no consensus
but someone said “about twenty.” A YouTube montage has the
president saying this seventeen times. "Tampa Bay Times" recently listed 37 retellings of this modern myth but they include White House web postings and statements by other White House administrators. The president also made false claims that
ACA would result in lower premiums and lower overall costs.
It would be no exaggeration to say that it would take
hundreds, if not thousands, of pages to chronicle Barack Obama's
falsehoods. Factor in broken campaign promises or the sliding scale
of honesty we allow politicians (“The failed policies of George
Bush” Specifically which policies?) the misquoting or misstating of
his rivals' positions, pulling numbers out of thin air and the
accumulation of deceitful practices is overwhelming. With an obsequious press
unwilling to call their beloved leader on his chronic deception, we
have become a Land of Babble. Nothing is believable and everything is
believable. It's all the same.
A few quick highlights of Obama's ongoing efforts to
deceive.
Operation Fast and Furious. Complementing the
president's positive falsehoods are his administrations efforts to
obstruct, distract and impede. The Obama Department of Justice
successfully stonewalled a Congressional investigation. Give an
assist to the president for extending Executive Privilege to his
Attorney General for matters that clearly did not involve Executive
Privilege.
Benghazi. Falling back on the repeated success of a
deliberate, outlandish lie, the entire administration advanced the
idea that the attack on the Benghazi, Libya consulate on September
11, 2012 was the result of a demonstration against a not-much-viewed
YouTube video that insulted Islam. A spontaneous protest that got out of hand is more politically palatable than an Al Qaeda
terrorist attack.
The IRS Scandals. Lost and broken hard drives, private
emails, foggy memories, the Fifth Amendment, a promised FBI probe that never got off the ground and a president who goes
on television to announce “there is not a smidgen of corruption”
at the IRS as his Justice Department conducts a non-investigation.
Voter ID. The Obama Administration fought states'
effort to require a photo ID prior to voting. Every position is
arguable except perhaps this one. There is but one reason to fight
the integrity of the electoral system and that is to allow and
institutionalize widespread cheating.
Yes, politicians and fishermen are notorious for their
outrageous claims. Is Barack Obama less honest than other
politicians? Yes, absolutely. What is different about Barack Obama is
that the fawning press has downplayed, excused, covered and even
facilitated their cult leader's falsehoods. It is all about the
worship.
I could pile on but you get the point. A web search of
“Obama's top lies” will get you hundreds of sites. No, they do
not all repeat themselves. Obamalies.net provides a greatest hits, of
sorts.
Three personal
favorites. One, Obama stating that the new administration had no idea
how bad the country's financial situation was until they took office.
This was a fairy tale to appeal to idiots who believe that George Bush
kept a set of secret books under his bed and a key to a giant vault.
The country's finances are a matter of public record and a sitting
Senator can get just about any financial information he wants with a
wave of his hand.
Two, the false biography. I never put a lot of stock in
that Kenya birth certificate thing (but the administration and the
loyalists in the press actually kept the subject alive.) When a
middle-aged man takes a much younger wife, he usually does not bring
her home to meet his original family. Even if such practices were
common, I doubt if most late stage pregnant women would want to fly
to Kenya during the 1960's. I believe Barack Obama was born in
Hawaii.
It would be revealed that a young Barack Obama
would solicit the services of the literary agency, Acton & Dystel
in 1991. The agency would circulate brief biographies of their
clientele, usually about four sentences long. “Barack Obama, the
first African-American President of Harvard Law Review, was born in
Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii...” Ooops!
Jay Acton and Jayne Dystel have refused to answer
questions about Barack Obama, as has former staff biography editor,
Miriam Goderich. Of course, the Cult of Obama members employed in the
Fourth Estate did not try all that hard to unravel this mystery.
Could it have been a simple miscommunication?
The United Kingdom's “Daily Mail” reports that Acton
and Dystell maintained the “born in Kenya” assertion about the
junior Senator from Illinois on their website as recently as 2007. If
there was an original miscommunication, it would probably have been
corrected over sixteen years of updates. As with the “material
discrepancies” in “Dreams From My Father,” the Barack Obama
persona was subject to revision to better suit audience preference.
The loyalists screamed “Foul!” at the slanderous
Birthers. Obama sycophant David Gregory ambushed both Michele Bachmann
and John Boehner with Birther questions, even though neither of them
had ever broached the subject. Of course there would be allegations
of racism leveled against anyone who questioned the official version
of the nativity.
Yes, the born in Kenya rumor was one big lie. Ironically
or not, the lie seems to have originated from the lips of Barack
Obama. Barack Obama is the real father of the Birther Movement.
Perhaps there are more sensational lies but one
oft-repeated Obama lie carries the day for its pure unadulterated
sleaze. Drum roll, please. The number one lie spread by Barack Obama
is the oft-repeated fable that his mother died at the hands of greedy
insurance barons.
Barack Obama used that much-repeated falsehood to sell
his Affordable Care Act. That mendacious testimony dragged all of us
into the sewer. Stanley Dunham's life and death would be just one
more occasion for political theater. Call me old fashioned but in my
day a man did not pimp his mother's memory to promote his own career.
Constant
Adulation.
This aspect might seem benign but it could also reveal
something disturbing. Barack Obama has never performed the duties of
a president as they were normally performed. He skips meetings and
security briefings. He does not regularly meet with his Cabinet and
he hates to meet with Congress for any reason. Such things involve
confrontation, disagreement and work. Barack Obama hates all of those
things.
Barack Obama loves to speak to adoring fans. He loves
fundraisers and teleprompter speeches and the love of an idolizing
crowd. It seemed odd to many observers that he kept on campaigning
after getting re-elected in 2012. With each subsequent budget
fight, Barack Obama left Washington to take his message to the
faithful. There he would vilify the Republicans and generally
misstate their objectives. The loyal press cheered him on with each
prompt of the tele.
There is speculation that Barack Obama will not leave
office in 2017 as he is required to do. Some people think he will
create an emergency, perhaps a war or even a civil war to extend his
term. That used to seem far fetched. Now, it is plausible. I am not
sure he can give up his addiction to praise and celebration.
Petulance
We have already discussed abuses of power and we had to
shorten the list for brevity's sake. There is a lot of suspicious
activity that is just par for the course with these people.
Were Republicans targeted in Chrysler and General Motors
dealership closures? Were non-union employees also targeted? Did FEMA
deny disaster-area status to a wildfire-scorched Texas because they
were under Republican leadership? Did the Obama Administration target
Standard and Poor's for downgrading the US government's credit
rating? Was Trump University targeted by a Democratic state
government because of repeated criticisms of the White House leveled
by Donald Trump? Was the government's response to Hurricane Sandy
slower in Staten Island due to their citizenry having the audacity to
elect a Republican to serve in Congress?
Dozens such questions have gone unanswered. What is
certain is that the Obama Administration has done its utmost to
intimidate all but staunch loyalists. We also know from the
president's ongoing budget battles that he has no qualms about using
innocent people as political pawns.
The spending conflicts of 2013 were ugly events with
even uglier results. Obama would win the war decisively. He bypassed
Congress altogether and took his message directly to his hand-licking
media.
The puppies would deliver the day for their master. This
would be no budget crisis or impasse or stalemate involving two sides
who could not reach an agreement. Oh no. This would be presented as
an irrational act by the anti-government bomb throwers and extremists
in the Republican Party. Once more, the press coverage could not be
more lopsided.
There was just one little obstacle. The sequester was not painful. It involved but a drop in a trough of red ink. No
one seemed to notice. But the cult leader was not to be defied.
Compromise is for mortals.
To win the challenge to his supremacy, Barack Obama
deliberately inflicted hardship on innocent people. An embarrassing
email to a low level USDA employee named Charles Brown advised Mr.
Brown that he should, “make sure you are not contradicting what we
said the impact would be.” In other words, if we say it's an
earthquake, tremble till you drop.
Brown would not be the only government employee to
receive such a directive. The administration warned of “maximum
pain” and other departments fell into line. Florida congressman
John Mica accused the administration of orchestrating airport delays
across the entire country. More than 2,000 illegal immigrants, many
with criminal records, were released to the street due to phony budget
shortfalls. The administration even used kids with cancer as
political pawns. When it was revealed that an NIH-funded program was
being discontinued due to the sequester, the GOP offered to fund the
experimental program. The president promised to veto any such measure. Let
them eat chemo.
The Obamacist media remained faithful to their leader
and he pushed onward. When it seemed there was not enough pain,
President Obama pressed our park rangers into action. The
National Park Service barricaded places that needed no service or
immediate government funding to stay afloat. War memorials were closed to the public. The privately-funded World War II Memorial was blocked
off and when veterans, some in wheelchairs, invaded the memorial, the
president responded by placing armed guards around the perimeter.
That's right, additional spending to make phantom spending cuts seem
painful. The National Mall in Washington, DC would be shut down but
briefly re-opened to host an immigration rally.
The National Park Service tried to prevent tourists from
viewing Mount Rushmore from an access road. They used their muscle to
close roughly one hundred privately-managed parks at a financial
setback to their non-government employees, as well as depriving the
federal government of revenue. American Forces Network suspended
broadcasting, army chaplains were furloughed and warned not to
perform services gratis and the USDA website went black.
To recap, the Diva-in-Chief won the day and our titanic
National Debt grew even larger. Humanity has witnessed worse
atrocities than sequester bullying but has humanity ever witnessed
petty vindictiveness played out on such a broad stage? Not that I know of.
Control
Politics is largely about control but it is also about
humility. The Obama Administration has never met an industry they did
not want to dominate. Health care, health insurance, auto
manufacturing, student loans, education, personal finance, banking,
energy...you name it, they want to grab it, twist it and shape it to
their liking.
The impulse to control is rooted in conceit. Anything
you can do, I can do better. I am simply wiser than you in all
respects, therefore I should be the captain of the ship. Every ship.
Managerially speaking, Barack Obama is a hands-off
micro-manager. He wants absolute power but he does not want to be
bothered by details. Micro-managers are not optimum performers but
they have strengths. They are hands on, detail oriented control
freaks. They can be difficult to work for and work with but they are
familiar with the minutia of their domain.
The hands-off micro-manager craves power but he does not
like minutia. His finger is never on the patient's pulse, he does not
care to see the patient but he insists on supervising his treatment
anyway. Outside the world of kings and clergy, the hands-off
micro-manager is a rare bird. Their obvious flaws are recognized
early on and their talents are diverted to a non-managerial track.
It is not coincidence that Barack Obama never had an
executive position prior to his inauguration. He is ill-suited for
leadership but he is blind to his deficiencies. So too, are his
followers.
Greed
People who rail against greed are invariably greedy.
Barack Obama is no exception. His late Aunt Zeituni Onyango lived in
South Boston, Massachusetts despite being denied political asylum
based on ethnic violence in her native Kenya. Barack Obama likes to
brag about his wealth and his commercial success as a writer. There
is no evidence that he helped his destitute aunt but the US taxpayer
picked up the slack. Aunt Zeituni was placed in public housing where
she would live out her years free from the burdens of employment.
Regardless of who picked up the tab, someone helped
Zeituni Onyango. The same could not always be said about the
president's half brother, George. George Obama lived in a hut in
Kenya. By almost any definition he was poor. A hundred dollars a
month would have gone a long way in Kenya and would have
significantly elevated his living conditions. For whatever reason,
Barack Obama refused to help out his less fortunate brother.
When George Obama's son needed medical attention he
called filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza in New York to help him out. Barack
Obama could not be bothered. Yes, the president is greedy but that is
not his worst attribute. His is not a lust for wealth, it is the
pursuit of superior wealth. He wants to rub his luxuries and extravagance in
the face of the less fortunate.
Lavish vacations. Two-jet vacations. The family dog
airlifted on Marine One. Hobnobbing with the beautiful people in
mansions. Two hundred rounds of golf on exclusive courses. Living the
good life for all to see and envy.
Despite
his excessive “fair share” verbiage, Barack Obama took elaborate
measures to assure that he only pays about a twenty per cent rate on
his income taxes. Yes, the president's secretary pays taxes at a
higher rate than the chief executive. Barack Hussein Obama is among
other things, a miser.
