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Obama's mask of affability is starting to slip
The Marietta Daily Journal ^ | July 31, 2011 | Professor Melvyn L. Fein

Posted on 07/31/2011 7:57:05 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Do you remember "the speech"? You know, the one Barack Obama gave before the Democratic convention that nominated John Kerry for president. The one that brought him to national attention and first implanted the idea that he would make a good chief executive.

That was the speech where he told the nation it was time for racial reconciliation. It was where he echoed Rodney King's plea that "we all just get along,"- only more eloquently. Here was an intelligent African-American. Here was someone we could trust.

This compared favorably with the impressions left by other prominent blacks. Political figures such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton might aspire to the presidency, but few whites considered them for this honor. They were simply too angry. As such, they reminded them of street thugs.

But Obama was different. He was not angry. Far from it, he was affable. With a smile on his face, and a lilt to his voice, he was someone who could be believed. Obviously part of the American family, he brought intelligence and perceptiveness to the national scene.

But now the mask has begun to slip. The anger underneath his facade of cordiality has started to show. As the pressures on him have grown, it has been more difficult to keep his true feelings under wraps. The budget crisis has put him on the spot and prompted him to lash out - irrespective of his personal or political interests.

One of the more revealing instances of this was his televised declaration that he was "summoning" the congressional leaders to the White House. Many commentators were surprised by the naked arrogance of this demand. It was too reminiscent of the imperiousness of an absolute monarch.

Many of these same observers were also offended by Obama's stipulation that these leaders bring a viable solution to the debt predicament with them. This too struck them as excessively authoritarian for the president of a democracy. After all, members of congress belonged to a co-equal branch of the government.

What few onlookers seemed to realize (at least consciously) was how angry these pronouncements were. They might have noted the hard stare in Obama's eyes, and the edge in his voice, but his reputation for geniality made it difficult to conceive of him as incensed. The man was simply too nice.

Nevertheless, when understood in context, his partially shrouded fury makes perfect sense. We must remember that Obama was abandoned by his birth father, semi-abandoned by his mother, raised by contentious grandparents, exposed to virulent Indonesian racism before the age of 10 and then subjected to the ignominy of being racially marginalized in Hawaii.

How could anyone escape being irate at such an upbringing? Rage would be the normal human reaction to this sort of abuse, and, whatever else he is, Obama is a normal human being. Thus, he had to be livid at the treatment he endured. Nonetheless, he was a child who must have feared retaliation - and further abandonment - if he allowed his actual feelings to show.

And so he covered them up. He assumed the pose of affability that has become his trademark. Rather than fight back openly, he smiled and allowed the insults to roll off his back.

On the surface, he was too gracious a person to reciprocate in kind. This response had the effect of disarming his tormentors. How could they continue to persecute him when he was so polite and likeable?

So successful was this strategy, and so effectively was it implemented, that it projected Obama to the apex of the political pyramid. Not just the people immediately around him, but those who knew him only from what they saw on television were convinced he was what he seemed. This was a man who could be a friend. It was a person who meant it when he promised to be everyone's "keeper."

Except, that as his policies have revealed, our president is more concerned with his own welfare than anyone else's. This is not a man who loves others. It is a man who is angry at others, including his nation. As alarmingly, it is a man who acts on these impulses.

The rest of us had, therefore, best beware!


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: attachmentdisorder; attachments; congress; debtceiling; obama
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It's called passive-aggressive, if I remember correctly.
1 posted on 07/31/2011 7:57:08 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I never thought he was a nice man.

That face staring out from the cover of “Dreams from My Father” isn’t a nice face. The eyes are cold and dead and full of hatred.


2 posted on 07/31/2011 8:01:49 PM PDT by thecodont
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The man was simply too nice

One had to be totally shallow to believe this scheming mendacious leftwing ratbastard was ever "nice."

He said in his book how he practiced a benign false-front presentation so as to reassure whites that he wasn't "angry." Like Hitler, he practiced in front of a mirror to polish his delivery.

This "professor" obviously gulped it down without a second thought. Sucker. Shoulda' read his book.

3 posted on 07/31/2011 8:04:50 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It’s not like the guy was always all that charming even in ‘08.


4 posted on 07/31/2011 8:07:58 PM PDT by RichInOC (Palin 2012: The Perfect Storm.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Reminds me of:


5 posted on 07/31/2011 8:18:49 PM PDT by null and void (Day 920. When your only tools are a Hammer & Sickle, everything looks like a Capitalist...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Obama is a hate filled monster who will always do whatever will harm the USA.

The morons who voted for this lunatic were fed a Regime Media false image.


6 posted on 07/31/2011 8:21:22 PM PDT by FormerACLUmember (When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
It was too reminiscent of the imperiousness of an absolute monarch.

Or dictator. Be vigilant.

7 posted on 07/31/2011 8:23:28 PM PDT by He Rides A White Horse (((((unite)))))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
But Obama was different. He was not angry. Far from it, he was affable. With a smile on his face, and a lilt to his voice, he was someone who could be believed.

0bambi talks about this in his numerous autobiographies....

Smile at the whiteys....be pleasant....so they won't be afraid.

8 posted on 07/31/2011 8:24:51 PM PDT by spokeshave (Obamas approval ratings are so low, Kenyans are accusing him of being born in the USA.)
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To: thecodont
This is not a man who loves others. It is a man who is angry at others, including his nation.

This man is obviously angry at his nation. He hates the colonial British, the Jews etc.

I never for a moment thought he was a nice person. When I saw the lipstick on a pig comments directed toward Sara Palin, I saw underlying nastiness that I did not expect.

9 posted on 07/31/2011 8:27:37 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; Revolting cat!

10 posted on 07/31/2011 8:28:38 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (The liberal press applauded when the NY Times hacked Newt Gingrich's phone calls.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
.

.

.

.

11 posted on 07/31/2011 8:29:08 PM PDT by Cobra64 (Common sense isn't common anymore.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

12 posted on 07/31/2011 8:30:53 PM PDT by garjog
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To: RichInOC

I have always thought he was cold, arrogant and hostile.

I’m not sure what could possibly have enabled anyone, anywhere at any time, to have described him as “affable” in the first place.


13 posted on 07/31/2011 8:31:42 PM PDT by livius
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I became aware of his evil, dark soul right away/couldn’t understand why so many couldn’t see him for what he was.


14 posted on 07/31/2011 8:37:35 PM PDT by DefeatCorruption
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

My high school wax 80 per cent black. Don’t get me started.


15 posted on 07/31/2011 8:37:59 PM PDT by cork
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To: The_Media_never_lie
When I saw the lipstick on a pig comments directed toward Sara Palin, I saw underlying nastiness that I did not expect.

An observation for the day: The Democrat party is full of nasty people. Obama. Reid. Schumer. Durbin. Pelosi. Grayson. Wasserman-Schultz. Fortney Stark. Jim Moran. The list goes on. And on.

They're petty. They're mean. They lie incessantly. And viciously. Every one of them. They're...nasty people.

I can't imagine having a personal relationship with any of them.

16 posted on 07/31/2011 8:40:25 PM PDT by okie01 (THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA: Ignorance On Parade)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I will never forget how FReepers reacted when us “birthers” wanted some historical documents about the man and his wife. We were scolded and ridiculed.


17 posted on 07/31/2011 8:45:36 PM PDT by B4Ranch (Allowing Islam into America is akin to injecting yourself with AIDS to prove how tolerant you are..)
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To: cork

Cork, I’m in the same chorus.


18 posted on 07/31/2011 8:46:50 PM PDT by bboop (Stealth Tutor)
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To: okie01

You don’t/ can’t have apersonal relationship with them. nor do they wish to have a personal relationship with you[collectively] They do not have nor want any friends. They only have individuals they use one way of the other. When their usefulness is over they are tossed aside.


19 posted on 07/31/2011 8:46:58 PM PDT by sport
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

When was he ever affable?


20 posted on 07/31/2011 8:47:36 PM PDT by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Happiness)
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