Posted on 10/07/2012 3:01:25 PM PDT by Kaslin
David Remnick's piece in The New Yorker, attempting to "understand" Obama's debate defeat, begins thusly:
When Barack Obama was a student at Harvard Law School, he was never known as a particularly good debater. In class, if he thought that a fellow student had said something foolish, he showed no forensic bloodlust. He did not go out of his way to defeat someone in argument; instead he tried, always with a certain decorous courtesy, to try to persuade, to reframe his interlocutor’s view, to signal his understanding while disagreeing. Obama became president of the law review—the first African-American to do so—but he won as a voice of conciliation. He avoided the Ames Moot Court Competition, where near contemporaries like Cass Sunstein, Deval Patrick, and Kathleen Sullivan made their names.
It is amusing to see Obama supporters try to spin these facts (all true except the part about Obama winning the Review presidency as a "voice of conciliation" -- he won boosted by conservatives, who saw him as the lesser of two evils, given the two finalists for the post) to justify the President's poor debate performance.
But as someone who knew Obama in law school, and now has observed his presidency, his avoidance of debate does seem to conform to a pattern. It has nothing to do with a gentlemanly or conciliatory reluctance to be aggressive. Rather, it has everything to do with a reluctance to be aggressive when his opponent ispresent -- where he can experience some push back from the person he's demonizing, and where his lack of preparation or knowledge can reveal him as foolish. (Hence, perhaps, the "decorous courtesy" in face to face encounters, where discourtesy might prompt a more vigorous blowback.)
Think about it. There's never seen such a trash-talking campaigner -- one who accuses his opponent of lying, who allows his campaign to call Romney a murderer and a felon, one who calls Americans with whom he disagrees "fat cats," or accuses doctors of performing unnecessary surgeries. He has no problem going after Romney the day after the debate, when he's no longer there face-to-face, and when Obama's trusty teleprompter is back. In fact, President Obama is one of the least gentlemanly and most uncivil men to occupy the Oval Office -- certainly publicly (Richard Nixon's private utterances put him in the running, too).
Notice that the only time Obama apparently shrinks from throwing a punch is when his opponent can punch back. That's not a guy who's just too "conciliatory" to get down and dirty -- that's a guy who's afraid to get down and dirty when it means he might have to suffer the consequences.
In my book, that's what's known as a "bully" -- full of big talk in the locker room (or on Letterman) . . . but considerably less cocky when he actually has to address his opponent face to face, unprotected by the friendly aid of the MSM.
Everytime we see Obama, it makes us want to vote for Romney more. The media has too much of Obama all the time. It is time to elect another President!
Has anyone ever divided a country more?
In other words, he’s a chicken $hit, which we already know.
Absolutely not
I feel the same way
Really good analysis. Bully=Coward
He’s also arrogant to boot
I would like to see the word “Coward” with the Obama logo in the ‘o’ .....
YOu ask a good question
has anyone ever divided the country more
No POTUS ever has
the issue of slavery and states rights certainly did but that was going to happen no matter who was President
No 0dumbo is the sleaziest most divisve POTUS we have ever had
Consider this, will you?
Obama met with Cardinal Timothy Dolan and a few other RC bishops in the summer of 2011. He promised them that there would not be a mandate to cover abortion and other procedures which would be against a religious person’s conscience as part of the Affordable care Act (Obamacare). Also, that he would allow conscience clauses in the implementation of the law.
Then when the mandate came down, he called Dolan on the phone a day or so before it was announced to tell Dolan that the mandate was firm and could not be changed. Immediately thereafter, he and the DNC bullies began the so-called “War on Women” nonsense. My impression is that this “war” is a thinly disguised war against religious persons of all pursuasions.
Obama is indeed a bully of the first order.
( sarcasm )Barack Hussein Obama, a bully? NO!
Why, that is such an astonishing assertion, I hardly know where to begin. ( / sarcasm )
But then again, he WAS a “community organizer”, and the job is pretty much using “persuasion” on the folks in the ‘hood, to either get out the vote “the right way” or to shut down dissent wherever it is found. And of course, to collect funds for the continued operation of the “community organization”, a sort of informal taxation on those unfortunate enough to find themselves trapped within this rat cage called the urban ghetto.
Then there was the confrontation (or rather the NON-confrontation) with Benjamin Netanyahu, concerning the growing problem with the saber-rattling by Iran. The solution offered by Obama? Israel should withdraw to the borders as they existed before the 1967 Six-Day war. Then, of course, Iran would be less “threatening”.
As if that strategy ever worked with Israel’s neighbors.
okie,dokie. I trust you, really,really I do.
Carol Platt Liebau
But as someone who knew Obama in law school, and now has observed his presidency, his avoidance of debate does seem to conform to a pattern. It has nothing to do with a gentlemanly or conciliatory reluctance to be aggressive. Rather, it has everything to do with a reluctance to be aggressive when his opponent is present -- where he can experience some push back from the person he's demonizing, and where his lack of preparation or knowledge can reveal him as foolish.
A ‘bully’ with panties!
He’s nothing BUT a PUNK BULLY!!! And he has STUPID MOronS supporting his actions...MORONS!! Like the MEDIA.
bkmk
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