Posted on 08/04/2009 11:19:08 AM PDT by Dallas
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July 31, 2009 Obama's revealing body language (updated and expanded))This picture truly is worth at least a thousand words. I am stunned that the official White House Blog published this picture and that it is in the public domain. The body language is most revealing.
Sergeant Crowley, the sole class act in this trio, helps the handicapped Professor Gates down the stairs, while Barack Obama, heedless of the infirmities of his friend and fellow victim of self-defined racial profiling, strides ahead on his own. So who is compassionate? And who is so self-involved and arrogant that he is oblivious?
In my own dealings with the wealthy and powerful, I have always found that the way to quickly capture the moral essence of a person is to watch how they treat those who are less powerful. Do they understand that the others are also human beings with feelings? Especially when they think nobody is looking.
Hat tip: Rick Richman
Update from Thomas Lifson: I think this photo constitutes another major Obama blunder.
As some AT commentators point out, this picture becomes a metaphor for ObamaCare. The elderly are left in the back, with only the kindness of the Crowleys of the world, the stand up guys, to depend on. The government has other priorities.
One of the major subtexts of the health care debate involves the public's fear of indifferent, powerful bureaucrats ruling their lives. It is one thing to wait in line at the DMV to find out which other line you should wait in, in order to begin the process of waiting for multiple bureaucrats to go through the motions of processing your request. I have spent entire afternoons going through this process.
But when we get to health care, waiting often means enduring pain and dysfunction longer than necessary, sometimes a worsening of the condition, and sometimes death.
That's why I think this image will have genuine resonance. It captures something that older Americans in particular can relate to. The President presses ahead with a program that will tell them to take painkillers instead of getting that artificial hip.
At every stage of the entire Gates affair, Obama has provided a revealing tell. The "acted stupidly" blunder revealed that he automatically blames the police and thinks they really are stupid to begin with. It didn't trigger a single alarm bell in his mind as he figured out what to say.
Then, the non-apology apology revealed an arrogant man who cannot do what honest people do: admit it when they make a mistake.
Now at stage three, the beer photo op looked OK. It didn't turn into a disaster.
But then in a small moment that nobody in the White House had the brains to understand, Obama goes and send a body language message like this.
I think he is going to get deeper and deeper into trouble. He is no longer repeating the familiar scripts dreamed up for the campaign. He was a master performer.
But when he goes improv, as a president must do, he lets his true character show. This helps widen the level of doubt that Obama is the same guy a majority voted for. Those doubts can only grow.
Andrew McCarthy has assembled an overwhelming case that Obama has lied about who he is. I predict that more and more Americans will become open to the argument that they have been had by a sophisticated and ruthless effort to foist a phony on America.
Update from Clarice Feldman A nice comparison of the character of the two most recent presidents. George Bush with Senator Robert Byrd:
Update:
We know the picture is really getting to the left. They avoid any actual facts or logic, instead retreating into insults. Soros-financed Media Matters calls me a "fringe blogger." Andrew Sullivan calls this blog "inane,"providing no analysis or examples, just a one word insult. Quite a bit of email from those complaining about my interpretation. One example, with my response here. Eric Etheridge of the New York Times takes note of this blog entry, and provides no snark, while reprinting the picture and my early commentary. Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/07/obamas_revealing_body_language.html at August 03, 2009 - 10:32:09 PM EDT
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Nonsense. Crowley is reflexively reaching to arrest Gates in that picture.
Bush is thus trying to arrest Byrd.
QED.
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Nonsense. Crowley is reflexively reaching to arrest Gates in that picture.
Bush is thus trying to arrest Byrd.
QED.
LOL.
Ok. Maybe Bush is prying Byrd out of his senate seat?
Ronnie’s lookin’ good in that pic!
Great comparison. :-)
Uh, that’s Bush.
The other thing I’ve noticed is that he is in shirt sleeves and Crowley and Gates are wearing the suit coats.
Oops.
Looks an awful lot like Ronnie though.
Still lookin’ good.
I remember a pic during the first innaguraqtion of Pres. Bush, a cold rainy day with the newly innagurated president holding an umbrella for the vice pres. Cheney as they walked away from the grandstand
Its possible that they asked Gates and Crowley to walk out together. Not sticking up for Obummer but they orchestrate every picture he’s involved in.
In my day we called it, ‘fruity’.
<Crowley is reflexively reaching to arrest Gates in that picture.
LOL! Still laughing at that one!
I don't like some of Bush's policies concerning immigration and prescription bills but he was a kind and decent man. The new TOFUS ...... not so much.
The top picture reminds me of what a friend of mine told me happened on a movie set when Jack Nicholson was at his peak of fame. They did a take, Jack was Jack, and thereafter someone on set told him they wanted to do another take because something went wrong with lighting. Nicholson said “I don’t DO that any more,” and walked off set.
Obama’s posture repeats what his voice so often does. “I’m the President now.”
In contrast, George Bush, who grew up loved and wanted, and was used to the trappings of power and the superficiality of them under G-d, is perfectly fine with lending a helping hand.
You won’t be seeing Obama clearing brush any time soon, either.
That’s a great illustration of the differences between the two. One clears brush (manly stuff) and the other hangs curtains (not so manly).
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