Posted on 09/15/2008 2:00:31 AM PDT by markomalley
It is difficult to screw up an appearance at Ground Zero on September 11th. You have to be either completely oblivious or completely indifferent. It is a signal feat of idiocy.
And yet Barack Obama accomplished it.
John McCain and Obama visited Ground Zero together. Obama and McCain entered the site. But while McCain took the time to shake hands with uniformed firefighters and a construction worker with an American flag helmet, Obama ignored them and stood around.
But he wasn’t done yet. Both McCain and Obama brought roses to place on the makeshift 9/11 memorial. Obama casually tossed his rose on the memorial, looking somewhat like Don Barzini tossing a rose on Don Corleone’s grave near the end of Godfather I. McCain and his wife, by contrast, approached the memorial gingerly, then placed the roses with care on the memorial. In case you were wondering, Michelle Obama was back in Chicago tending to the children – she somehow has time to accompany Barack to the DNC, but not to Ground Zero on September 11th.
Small gestures matter in large campaigns. That’s why Obama reversed himself on wearing an American flag pin. That’s why John McCain takes care with how he hugs Sarah Palin. In a campaign, everything is analyzed, re-analyzed, and over-analyzed.
And that’s why Obama’s flower-tossing exhibition matters. It demonstrates a lack of concentration, a lack of respect. Most of all, it displays no reverence. Perhaps Obama feels reverence. But his behavior at Ground Zero didn’t show that. Instead, it showed a man so concerned with himself that he wasn’t willing to take the time to shake hands with the “little people” or bend down to lay a rose on a monument.
That self-concern is at the center of Obama’s polling free fall. He has ranged far afield, away from policy and toward personal combat. He has done that because he cannot stand being personally affronted.
Sarah Palin attacked Obama’s community organizing. Obama responded by sending out his minions to talk about how Jesus was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate a governor. Meanwhile, he blundered into the “lipstick on a pig” controversy.
Obama attacked McCain on education. McCain responded with an ad accusing Obama of supporting comprehensive sex education for kindergarteners in Illinois. Obama came back with an ad talking about how McCain is old and doesn’t use e-mail.
The common thread is this: when attacked substantively, Obama counters personally. He gets angry, and he gets mean. He has read his own press clippings, and he believes them. He is The One. No one is allowed to attack him.
There are only two problems with such hubris. One is that Americans don’t like it. Arrogance bugs us. Ask John Edwards and Hillary Clinton.
The other problem is that when you believe yourself to be a messianic figure, you have to live up to that image – and you are bound to fail. Presidential politics is a game of attacks and counter-attacks, feints and bluffs, insults and retorts. It cannot be won up in the clouds – it has to be won in the mud. Even if your image demands that you remain the clouds, you will be brought down into the mud.
And so we see the new Barack Obama. The new Obama is no longer the “united we stand,” rhetoric-blowing giant. He is now the street-smart Chicago politician willing to unsheathe the knife on occasion. Only he’s not that street-smart, and it shows. Obama vowed to bring a gun to a knife-fight. Americans are beginning to realize that Obama’s gun is filled with water.
Obama’s behavior at the 9/11 memorial, then, represented two impulses. First, there was the anger of walking down to the memorial with the man who was sinking his highfalutin’ aspiration’. Second, there was the inability to bend down, even for a memorial.
And that betrays a disturbing lack of self-knowledge and self-restraint.
A muslim disrespecting ground zero! I for one, am shocked.
I hate to defend the MessI-uh, but if you are referring to the video on Michelle Malkin’s site - it’s misleading. I was watching it live and what happened was they were in line, with Obama first and the group of 4 or 5 people, including the construction worker and the firefighter were there to shake their hands.
Obama went first, working his way down the line, and then when he reached the end (the construction worker), he stood around awkwardly for a minute or two while waiting for John and Cindy to finish up and then went BACK to the first lady (the AA one) while waiting.
He did not fail to greet the construction worker or the firefighter.
I emailed Michelle about this, but she didn’t change the entry on her blog and this is going to lead to egg on our faces if the current “urban myth” isn’t corrected.
John McCain and Obama visited Ground Zero together. Obama and McCain entered the site. But while McCain took the time to shake hands with uniformed firefighters and a construction worker with an American flag helmet, Obama ignored them and stood around.
I didn’t see that. I saw him shaking hands and talking to them. i did see him toss the rose, but this guy seems to be reading into it.
The Obama’s claim Michelle didn’t attend because she was spending the week at home with her kids.
On 9/10, she was at a fundraiser held just outside of Indy.
She obviously took time away from her kids.
This woman hid out because she has made Jeremiah Wright type remarks about 9/11 and they knew there was a chance that many people at Ground Zero would have a sour taste just looking at her.
Another reason to just say no to Michelle as a First Lady.
We saw, we noticed. We noticed that disdainful attitude the entire day.
One has to wonder just what it was that bubba said to him that had him incapable of showing respect just hours later at the Ground Zero appearance.
This man was unfit to even walk on that sacred ground.
And where was Michelle My Belle Obama at the Ground Zero appearance? I guess she doesn’t like to participate in occasions that honor our “hateful country.”
Of course you saw no fault with Obama’s behaviour.
Obama went first because John McCain put his arm to O’s back and acted the host..........(subliminal message) and sent O towards the line.
I got a kick out of that little message sent by McCain.
ML/NJ
“This guy is incredibly immature and you can bet america’s enemies have sized him up and are salivating at the thought that he might be elected.”
My biggest fear.
This sounds like Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).
Obama acted as I can imagine I might have, unsure what to do, tossing the flowers nervously.
The McCain's had more sense of how to conduct themselves as visible leaders, with public display of ceremony and respect.
Part of it is simple enough ... the McCain's have been on the national stage for a long time. Obama is a frightened child in comparison.
Thank you for this post. I had no idea Hussein would sink so low as to not even attempt to show his gratitude to our remaining heroes and the families that gathered on 9/11.
I mean, look at who and how he was raised- a flower child rebel without a cause mother looking for love anyplace except in a traditional (American) family- a bigamist alley cat absentee African father, an Indonesian stepfather who sent him to his grandparents when he was 10
The guy wasn't raised by a family that did not respect traditional America or that took him to solemn patriotic events. Part of the reason he chose to create himself as better than all that is that he was never raised to feel like part of it
I mean, look at who and how he was raised- a flower child rebel without a cause mother looking for love anyplace except in a traditional (American) family- a bigamist alley cat absentee African father, an Indonesian stepfather who sent him to his grandparents when he was 10
The guy wasn't raised by a family that did traditional America or that took him to solemn patriotic events. Part of the reason he chose to create himself as better than all that is that he was never raised to feel like part of it
I actually think it was worse that he didn't bring Michelle or his children on his visit to see his grandmother when they were on vacation in Hawaii, especially the children!
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