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Barack Obama's self-confidence has a worrying flip-side
The Australian ^ | 5/26/2009 | David Nason

Posted on 05/25/2009 11:46:18 PM PDT by Aria

ADMIRAL Mike Mullen has some unusual credentials for the highest ranking military officer in the US.

The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is the son of a Hollywood spin doctor who was press agent for some big-name movie stars in the 1960s.

Mullen says his father taught him the art of crafting a message, though it didn't seem much help at the US Naval Academy where, in 1968, he graduated 611th out of 836.

As a young lieutenant four years later, Mullen was given command of the gasoline tanker USS Noxubee. He promptly ran it into a buoy, damaging the ship's port propeller, not to mention his career prospects.

To his credit, Mullen knuckled down and made a point of saying the right thing at the right time for the next 35 years.

It paid off in 2007 when Defence Secretary Robert Gates, looking to nominate someone for the post of JCS chairman in the Bush administration, took to asking candidates about their top military concerns.

Mullen cited the strains on US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and won the job. "He didn't start talking about a new aircraft carrier or a submarine," Mr Gates said. "He said 'the army'."

(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: narcissism; npd; obama; obamaregime; selfconfidence; speechwriter
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To: 2ndClassCitizen
That's why these people talking about 0bama's "confidence" are DEAD WRONG.

It's not "confidence", it's narcissism based in a sense of inferiority.

Obama's Narcissistic Personality Disorder

41 posted on 05/26/2009 5:16:28 AM PDT by MrB (Go Galt now, Bowman later)
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To: Aria
As a young lieutenant four years later, Mullen was given command of the gasoline tanker USS Noxubee. He promptly ran it into a buoy, damaging the ship's port propeller, not to mention his career prospects.

As a yes man for Obama, he will do the same for our military.

42 posted on 05/26/2009 5:20:39 AM PDT by chainsaw (If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free! -- P.J..)
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To: montomike
He was a flunkie for Rickover at Naval Reactors

Rickover thought he was an idiot. Took him for political reasons.

43 posted on 05/26/2009 5:21:26 AM PDT by Kenny Bunk (The Election of 2008: Given the choice between stupid and evil, the stupid chose evil.)
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To: Aria

Remember how Obama’s wife said he thought he could change the world by the force of his will? Or words to that effect.


44 posted on 05/26/2009 5:26:23 AM PDT by aruanan
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To: Darkwolf377
For someone who talks about himself constantly, Obama has a shockingly low level of self-awareness. He’s deluded about himself. He has created this character called “Barack Obama,” and now he believes it represents the actual person.

Obama is like a Hollywood sound stage. His public persona consists of false fronts which he needs to maintain at all times. That is why he is constantly on the road with press conferences, meetings, making announcements that he will be making announcements, always on the go...............not stopping long enough for the public to see that there is nothing behind the false fronts.

There is no substance and he is scared. Without his prepared statements and his teleprompter he gets close to the panic mode and it is wearing on him.

Just one real crisis without a script to rely on will send him over the top. He will not survive the four years without major mental deterioration.

45 posted on 05/26/2009 5:49:25 AM PDT by varon (Allegiance to the constitution, always. Allegiance to a political party, never.)
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To: vbmoneyspender

“Plus all you do when you make statements like that is paint a big fat target on yourself.”

Sadly, it is these apparently incompetent underlings who get thrown under the bus whenever Obama screws up. He essentially takes credit for when things go right and has a ready-made finger-pointing excuse whenever things go wrong.


46 posted on 05/26/2009 6:51:19 AM PDT by DrC
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

McArthur was an idiot. he could not handle bad news and several times caused an unnecessary disaster because he believed his plans were better that an intelligent analysis would have stated.

The Phillipines debacle in 1942 where he chose to fight on the beaches against superior Japanese forces instead of executing War Plan Orange and retreating into Bataan/Corregidor with ALL his supplies. Instead his forces got chopped up and ended up in Bataan with virtually none of their supplies.

He refused to believe that the Chinese were massing to attack in Korea, and instead concentrated on mopping up the remnants of the NK army. If he had acted in time, he could have executed a slaughter on the Red Army and lil Kim would be languishing in a Peking or Moacow apartment today instead of misruling his nation.


47 posted on 05/26/2009 6:52:31 AM PDT by nuke rocketeer (File CONGRESS.SYS corrupted: Re-boot Washington D.C (Y/N)?)
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To: mrsmel
(or it’s “above his pay grade”)

There is NOTHING that is above Pres__ent Obama's pay grade now.

48 posted on 05/26/2009 6:54:26 AM PDT by Just another Joe (Warning: FReeping can be addictive and helpful to your mental health)
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To: montomike

“He wasn’t even a nuclear engineer.”

Wow! Thanks for that. For decades I’ve uncritically accepted MSM’s claim that he was, as illustrated by this boot-licking article in Time:

“Jimmy Carter has always been proud of his breadth of achievement: nuclear engineer, farmer, U.S. President, humanitarian and 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner.”
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,552101,00.html


49 posted on 05/26/2009 6:55:32 AM PDT by DrC
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To: DrC

I now see that Jimmy himself fueled the misperception:

“I had training as a nuclear engineer, working in the United States Navy on our country’s early nuclear submarine program.”
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/01/jimmy_carter_in_1976_the_world.html


50 posted on 05/26/2009 7:01:46 AM PDT by DrC
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To: vbmoneyspender
Anyone who has even the slightest empathy would know never to say something like that even if were true because people hate that kind of arrogance

People who want to believe it, don't hate it. In fact, it just adds to BO's legend.

Once, I was lectured by a University Professor on the brilliance of AlGore, and how closeminded (bigoted? Hateful? unstated, but clearly intended) I was to cast any doubt upon it.

If you're a lib, you don't question orthodoxy. Obama is God-like in his abilities, and that's all there is to it. If he proclaims himself as genius, then it must be so.

51 posted on 05/26/2009 7:39:37 AM PDT by wbill
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To: MrB

Do you think there may be a bit of a sociopath in him? That sociopath instinct would lead him to lash out against white society. As it is, the whites (his grandparents) were the only ones who did not desert him when he was growing up. The only blacks and whites he allies himself with are those who also hate whites and white entrepreneurial culture.


52 posted on 05/26/2009 9:58:31 AM PDT by 2ndClassCitizen (Boycott the Kenyan's businesses and the UAW!)
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To: Aria

During the discussion on “self-esteem” in California schools, the critics of the movement pointed out that the people with the highest self-esteem and lowest degree of ability were young, black men.


53 posted on 05/26/2009 10:03:24 AM PDT by Deb (Beat him, strip him and bring him to my tent!)
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To: Aria

Zero's gonna have his own chapter in the next edition...
54 posted on 05/26/2009 10:07:27 AM PDT by COBOL2Java (Obamanation: an imploding administration headed by a clueless schmuck, with McCain as his Kowakian)
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To: Bender2

The messiah!


55 posted on 05/26/2009 10:36:35 AM PDT by blackie (Be Well~Be Armed~Be Safe~Molon Labe!)
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To: Deb

That’s really interesting...where did they get this wonderful opinion of themselves despite their inability to perform?

My daughter works at King County in Seattle and she said since Zero’s election that the blacks are really acting like they’re superior.


56 posted on 05/26/2009 10:56:56 AM PDT by Aria ( "The US republic will endure until Congress discovers it can bribe the public with the people's $.")
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To: varon
He will not survive the four years without major mental deterioration.

Absolutely agree with you.

57 posted on 05/26/2009 8:07:04 PM PDT by happygrl (Hope and Change or Rope and Chains?)
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