Obama Clings Again! Blames "Scared" Voters.

Uh-oh. President Obama seems to have learned nothing from the disaster of the "cling-to-guns-and-God" talk that almost derailed his campaign in 2008. He's back at it—blaming voters for failing to "think clearly" because they're "scared" about the economy:

WEST NEWTON, Mass. - President Barack Obama said Americans' "fear and frustration" is to blame for an intense midterm election cycle that threatens to derail the Democratic agenda.

"Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we're hardwired not to always think clearly when we're scared," Obama said Saturday evening in remarks at a small Democratic fundraiser Saturday evening. "And the country's scared."

Obama told the several dozen donors that he was offering them his "view from the Oval Office." He faulted the economic downturn for Americans' inability to "think clearly" and said the burden is on Democrats "to break through the fear and the frustration people are feeling."

JustOneMinute suggests, mockingly, that this is an improvement over Obama's 2008 "cling" speech because

now Obama's critics are scared rather than racist or stupid. There's hope for us!

But of course the basic argument is exactly the same. It's vulgar economic determinism: When people are afraid for their economic livelihood they do foolish things, like clinging to their guns and God or, in this case, voting in opposition to Obama's presidency. When they feel more secure, they'll come around.

Even if there's something to this world view—and I can't shake it completely myself—it's a deeply troubling sign if it dominates your thinking three weeks before a big election. Especially this election. Insulting voters is rarely a good way to win them over. But usually the "blame the customer" approach...

And this guy was a part-time lecturer at the U of C? Used to be a great school, but now... Presidents are not supposed to be making statements as stupid as this one. People don't always think clearly when they are sleepy. When they are scared, threatened, they're at the top of their form. We're 'hardwired' for survival. When threatened with 19th century Marxist collectivism by the biggest government in human history, damn right we'll respond in ways that this semi-educated boob would not understand. Could never understand.

OK, admittedly my basic physiology course is 30 years in the past, but:
When you get a scare, the immediate response is dilation of the blood vessels of your heart, lungs, elevation of your blood pressure to get the blood to your skeletal muscles
so they’ll help you to fight or flee, and a slowdowm of your parasympathetic system (vegetative functions like digestion.)
Peripheral vasoconstriction is the opposite of what occurs in your brain vasculature, no?
I don’t know what happens when you’re continually under assault by your pop-top endogenous chemicals like adrenaline. I don’t think the average citizen’s judgment is all that impaired. I think he’s looking for excuses for his flagging popularity.
Does anyone else think that Soros is throwing him under the bus to bring Hillary back in 2012 or 2016? (Glenn Beck articulated that this afternoon on TV.)

Spoken from the mouth of a TRUE LOSER, who knows it is time to sweat. Obama says these things when it is HE who is getting very nervous. This is a good thing! He did the same thing when Hillary was on his heels. It’s called panic.

Now, if we take the senate or come close enough to flip Leiberman and one other we could cause O. a great headache.
He wants a republican majority to run against but don’t think it included us winning the senate, EVER. It’s a possibility now.

There is frustration, and some fear, and a lot of barely-contained anger, for good reason.
Commentators, and many others, continue to judge Obama’s intentions and his acts in terms of the more-or-less familiar ideological template represented by what we’ve come to view as “traditional” Democrats. Big mistake!!

He is a Socialist Autocrat, intensely focused on fundamentally transforming the U.S.A., as he told us, and he has two more years to rule, not govern, but rule, in untrammelled pursuit of his agenda. We err when we think he is concerned about being re-elected in 2012. His utterly unconstitutional approach has not yet been challenged in our courts, and if he is not brought up short very soon, I will be truly fearful for the continued existence of our Republic.

As a secular humanist, Obama presumably believes in evolution, but this indicates he doesn't understand the concept of "survival of the fittest." The human species and other species developed mechanisms of increasing the members' likelihood of survival in a crisis, and not thinking clearly is not going to improve one's chances of getting through danger alive.

Of course we don't know if Obama ever took any science courses since none of his transcripts have been released.

His position at the U of C was obviously given to him because of political pressure, not because he had something valuable to offer the students.

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