What Happened to Obama’s Passion

New York Times ^ | 6 AUGUST 2011 | DREW WESTEN

[rdb3]

August 6, 2011

What Happened to Obama?

By DREW WESTEN

Drew Westen is a professor of psychology at Emory University and the author of “The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation.”

Atlanta

IT was a blustery day in Washington on Jan. 20, 2009, as it often seems to be on the day of a presidential inauguration. As I stood with my 8-year-old daughter, watching the president deliver his inaugural address, I had a feeling of unease. It wasn’t just that the man who could be so eloquent had seemingly chosen not to be on this auspicious occasion, although that turned out to be a troubling harbinger of things to come. It was that there was a story the American people were waiting to hear — and needed to hear — but he didn’t tell it. And in the ensuing months he continued not to tell it, no matter how outrageous the slings and arrows his opponents threw at him.

The stories our leaders tell us matter, probably almost as much as the stories our parents tell us as children, because they orient us to what is, what could be, and what should be; to the worldviews they hold and to the values they hold sacred. Our brains evolved to “expect” stories with a particular structure, with protagonists and villains, a hill to be climbed or a battle to be fought. Our species existed for more than 100,000 years before the earliest signs of literacy, and another 5,000 years would pass before the majority of humans would know how to read and write.

[little jeremiah]

Placemark to read in full tomorrow.

[CitizenM]

Thank YOU!

[ModelBreaker]

“...when faced with the greatest economic crisis, the greatest levels of economic inequality, and the greatest levels of corporate influence on politics since the Depression, Barack Obama stared into the eyes of history and chose to avert his gaze. Instead of indicting the people whose recklessness wrecked the economy, he put them in charge of it.”

Of course, this is true. He could have indicted Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Jaime Gorelick, Franklin Raines . . . . But he chose to reup their policies and keep the credit bubble inflating.

[gargoyle]

...Bravo, wished I’d thunk that up!!!

[Christian4Bush]

bump for morning reading

[Louis Foxwell]

Weston is an oaf with oafish ideas. All he can do is spin Obama’s Marxism into policies of compromise. He blames Bush, curses wealth, and belittles Obama’s massive excesses as half measures. He is, in a word, mad.

[carcraft]

“It would have made clear that the problem wasn't’t tax-and-spend liberalism or the deficit — a deficit that didn't’t exist until George W. Bush gave nearly $2 trillion in tax breaks largely to the wealthiest Americans and squandered $1 trillion in two wars.”

We have ran a deficit, that has been growing at an ever faster rate since Andrew Jackson was president. Bush accelerated it and Obama has doubled it. I figured the guy was an idiot when I read that statement. I listened to an NPR story about how Obama helped pull the rug out from under a reform movement in Chicago before the election. I read about Obama and Rezko in British papers, before the election. I read about Obama, Axlerod and Emmanual getting Blogjevich reelected while the federal government was investigating him for corruption. I figured some one with no experience other than corrupt Chicago politics would probably govern this way. Watching his posturing on closing Gitmo ( with no plan nor any idea of what it entailed) made me realize his presidency would be hopeless unless he was a fast learner. Obama , to quote “Killer Angels” “couldn't pour p*ss out of a boot if the directions were on the heel”! So where has this “educated clown” been for the past four years?

[Rocky]

Where’s the barf warning? This guy is a sold-out liberal. He’s still blaming conservatives for the financial fiasco.

No mention of Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, or the Clinton push to enable everyone to own their own house.

And the implication that the economy was in a nosedive for the past decade... really? Things came apart in 2007. He says: “Even the usually impervious upper middle class had seen a decade of stagnant or declining investment, with the stock market dropping in value with no end in sight. “ Actually, in early 2003, the Dow Jones was below 8,000. In the fall of 2007, before the financial bubble burst, the Dow was around 14,000.

Liberals lie. They rewrite history to suit themselves, and they don’t think anyone will bother to check. Actually, they don’t think their readers will bother to check.

[Gaffer]

There’s plenty of passion. Hate for traditional American values, hate for work ethic, hate for individualism.

Then, theres golf, WH Holder’s People Parties and galas, Birthday parties, date nite, lavish vacations and that whole “do as I say, not as I do” attitude. You could condense this whole presidency down to a 30 minute MTV Cribs episode and be exact about him.

[bgill]

I had such an intense feeling of something worse than unease so refused to watch the inauguration.

[bgill]

I had such an intense feeling of something worse than unease so refused to watch the inauguration.

[bgill]

Once the WH doors close behind him in 2013, there will be no more applause, no more adoring fans. The lights will dim and hopefully he will fade into the darkness to enjoy the fruits of his failed legacy.

He'll milk it just like BJ and charge $$$ to give speeches. Of course, Moochelle or Ayers will have to write them.

[I_be_tc]

Great analogy!

[Ann Archy]

The Big Plane AND the PARTIES with all the other Blacks in Show Business!!

[stephenjohnbanker]

” Of course, Moochelle or Ayers will have to write them. “

Of course....we know he can’t write them.

[shield]

Passion for ME ME ME I I I MY MY MY...

[goodnesswins]

Touche’

[Minn]

When he wants to be, the president is a brilliant and moving speaker, but his stories virtually always lack one element: the villain who caused the problem, who is always left out

Yea. He should say things like "millionaires and billionaires" and maybe even go after "fat cats" flying corporate jets.

You have to wonder if guys like this have the slightest inkling just how stupid their writing is, and how it says so much more about their own feeble intellect than about their subject.

[sickoflibs]

RE :” ..he backed away from his advisers who proposed a big stimulus, and then diluted it with tax cuts (correction liberal, they were tax 'credits' not 'cuts') that had already been shown to be inert. The result, as predicted in advance, was a half-stimulus that half-stimulated the economy........Maybe 5% stimulated, not half. And a bigger percent of union boondoggles would have been even less effective.”

Have you noticed that liberal’s narrative is that Obama lost to Republicans on everything big he signed into law? He lost on the stimulus (all those tax cuts), he lost on Obama-care (no public plan, mostly Republican ideas), he lost on tax increases (last December) and he lost on the debt deal by cutting spending. And with the last two it was because Republican terrorists held the middle class/economy hostage. You can bet if the economy was good they wouldnt be claming Obama lost on all this stuff, it all be their wins like with Clinton.

On our side Boehner says he got 95% of what he wanted in the debt limit deal, then the market crashes and then S+P announces a credit downgrade a few days later. Great work RINO Boehner.

[GOPJ]

Here's the REAL story :

Dems gave away the wealth of the Nation to their pet victim groups in order to buy their votes. That's why housing collapsed. That's why we're broke.