Obama’s nature
In yesterday’s thread about Joe Biden, the name of Barack Obama came up. There was a dispute in the comments about just how in charge Obama is right now, and also about how much in charge Obama was during his own administration. The latter question was one that was discussed and argued about quite often on this blog during Obama’s two terms, and I always took the position: very much in change.
So since the question is – alas – newly relevant, I thought I’d republish one of those old threads. Here it is.
Commenter “FOAF” writes:
Neo, I have always known how intensely you dislike Obama. If anything you despise him even more than I do and that’s saying a *lot*. But you seem to be according some kind of regard for his abilities that some of us do not feel is warranted.
One thing that has always maddened me about Obama apart from the obvious points of his ideology and personality/character is that he had almost no substantive accomplishments in his life prior to his election as POTUS. Yes he was a “community organizer” but what did he actually do as such? Nearly everyone here equally loathes the real community organizer Saul Alinsky. But regardless of that, the things Alinsky did entailed some degree of planning and organization ”“ activities that are notably lacking in Obama’s pre-POTUS resume. And I suspect that even now his attempts at these are pretty desultory.
First of all, I think it is very dangerous to underestimate your opposition. It does no good whatsoever, and is one of the many reasons Obama has succeeded: his opponents have continually underestimated him in terms of what he can accomplish and how far he is willing to go to accomplish it.
I don’t think I overestimate him, either; I think he has many accomplishments, they’re just not the ones people usually look for in a president. I certainly don’t admire most of these things, nor do I think him an intellectual genius or even a giant. I think he’s smart, cunning, and determined, and charming when he wants to be, as well as unprincipled, which can be a pretty powerful combination under the right circumstances.
I don’t mean to say he’s done this alone; not by a longshot. He’s had help, advice, mentors, and supporters, as well as a public primed by the media (both MSM and entertainment), the press, and academia. But he is also an expert at three things in particular: presenting himself as whatever people want him to be, campaigning, and getting and keeping power and pushing for more of it. Those may not be laudable things, but they are important things in the world, and he is excellent at all three. What’s more, his planning and acumen do go back a long way.
No, he doesn’t have many of the conventional accomplishments that historically have qualified a person for the presidency prior to running. He had some credentials in the world, though: Harvard Law, guest lecturer at a prestigious university, community organizer, state legislator, US senator, and had his name on two books as their author. But he has not been a governor, or a US senator for very long, nor has he executive experience of any magnitude. And he certainly wasn’t a general, like Eisenhower or Grant. Obama had other “qualifications,” however.
Obama has long reminded me of the Godfather figure in the eponymous movie, especially in his rise. No, I don’t mean Obama is a murderer or even particularly crooked compared to the general run of politicians. But way back before Obama was elected, when I was first learning about him, I read up on his past and got a cold, cold chill. I’ve written about these things before, of course: remember the Alice Palmer incident, which occurred right at the very start of Obama’s political career? Or Blair Hull and Jack Ryan? (If you don’t recall, please read the links to refresh your memory).
These were not accidents. Although Obama probably did not work alone—he always had help—he was cunning, ruthless, smart, manipulative, charming when he needed to be and nasty when that was required. He amassed power and status, and mowed anyone down who was in a position to stop him.
Except for Bobby Rush. Taking him on was Obama’s one mistake. But he learned from it and never made a similar mistake again, or really any mistake of any consequence (and if you think things like mispronouncing “corpsman” are of consequence to anyone inclined to vote for him, I think you’re wrong).
During the 2008 presidential campaign, many people on the right were paying so much attention to Obama’s leftist confederates and acquaintances—Ayers, Reverend Wright, Frank Marshall Davis—that they had less energy for what Obama himself had actually done—his astounding rise, and who he had crushed along the way, and how.
Take the matter of Emil Jones. If you want to learn a lot about the sort of operator Obama was back in his early political days in Chicago, you’d do well to read this, which also goes into the way that Emil Jones greased the skids for Obama by handing him legislation on a silver platter, and how angry Obama got when anyone suggested he hadn’t accomplished this on his own. And that article I just linked was written by an Obama admirer; I can only imagine what detractors would have written. This information was in the public domain prior to the 2008 election; wonder why so few people have heard of this stuff?
Or how about this, which was also written before the 2008 election and, although something of a puff piece, still contains some clues to Obama’s rise and how he engineered it with Jones’ help and his own cold-blooded ambition. After the Democrats finally won control of the Illinois state legislature after years in the wilderness of Republican domination, Obama went to the newly-minted Majority Leader Emil Jones (whom he had carefully cultivated even before he was elevated to that position) with a proposition:
…[Obama] went to see Jones with a big idea. By that point the two men had known each other for the better part of 20 years, but theirs had not always been an easy relationship. They had first met in the mid-1980s, when Obama, as a community organizer on the far South Side, had seen Jones as an “old ward heeler”…
Jones, a chain-smoking, gravelly voiced, unvarnished throwback to the era of the old Daley machine, was wary of Obama, a freshly minted agitator from Columbia University. Obama and other community activists “were in-your-face types [said Jones to the reporter]. I happened to see them out there one day. And I told them, I said, “˜You don’t gotta be outside. Come on in the office.”
A friendship was born. A decade later, after returning to Chicago with a law degree and the mantle of first black president of the Harvard Law Review, Obama won his own state-senate seat, taking the place of an incumbent [Alice Palmer] who had decided to run for Congress, placed a distant third in the Democratic primary, changed her mind, and – with Jones’s help – tried to run for her old seat after all. Obama’s team, in a move as bold as it was adroit, challenged her nominating petitions and managed to keep her name off the ballot.
Let’s pause for a minute to understand what was happening. Obama had met Jones before he even went to Harvard Law, and at first Jones and Obama were mutually distrustful but then struck up a friendship. But during Obama’s first run for office years later, Obama pulled a really nasty but very effective power move on Jones’ favored candidate, Alice Palmer, and won. This (as I read in more detail in another article that unfortunately I can’t seem to locate right now) really impressed Jones and made him realize that Obama was no soft law school prof but one of the more hardened and ruthless pols around, even though he was just beginning in the trade. The Alice Palmer gambit was what I call Obama’s Godfather move, and Jones understood that he was in the presence of a man with certain gifts: the ability to look like a nice guy and yet who had no reluctance to mow people down, even former friends and mentors, when he needed to do so to get ahead.
To continue:
Obama arrived in Springfield and told Jones, then the minority leader, that he wanted to “work hard.” He promptly became Jones’s point person on a number of tricky issues, including ethics reform. Now, with Jones elevated to the senate presidency, Obama was approaching him with a cold-eyed proposal.
“After I was elected president, in 2003, he came to see me, a couple months later,” Jones recalled, relishing the tale. “And he said to me, he said, ”˜You’re the senate president now, and with that, you have a lot of pow-er.” Jones stretched out the word, as if savoring the pleasure of it, and his voice became very quiet as he continued: “And I told Barack, ‘You think I got a lot of pow-er now?,’ and he said, ‘˜Yeah, you got a lot of pow-er.’ And I said, ‘˜What kind of pow-er do I have?’ He said, ‘You have the pow-er to make a United States sen-a-tor!’ Jones let out a soft, smoky laugh. “I said to Barack, I said, ‘˜That sounds good!’ I said, ‘˜I haven’t even thought of that.’ I said, ”’Do you have someone in mind you think I could make?,’ and he said, ”˜Yeah. Me.’”
Jones let the words hang for a moment, and then went on. “The most interesting conversation. And so I said to him, ”’Let me think about this.’” Obama knew that Jones’s support could single-handedly freeze the discretion of other powerful politicians in the state, and put endorsements of possible rivals on ice. “We met a little later that day, and I said, ”’That sounds good. Let’s go for it.’”
Jones gave legislation to Obama that other people had worked on for years, and that (as this article I linked previously made clear) frustrated and angered a lot of legislators who had done the actual work on the bills and had to watch as Obama got the glory instead of them. Obama, the freshman, knew exactly how to work Jones, who’d been doing this for years, and Jones knew a fellow master manipulator of power when he saw one.
Todd Purdum, author of the Vanity Fair piece, is an admirer of Obama. But he noticed something important about how Obama got to the top, and how his ability to hide his ruthless nature (Purdum calls it Obama’s “toughness”) behind a mild facade helped him get there and get there fast:
The rare talent is to wear ambition lightly, and to allow toughness to be taken for granted. Obama’s life and career suggest he has that talent – or at least that gift. He long ago decided that he had a chance to make something extraordinary of himself. With a calculating consistency that may not always have been apparent to others, or even sometimes to himself, he set out to do just that. His half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, a schoolteacher in Hawaii, says simply, “He’s a very cool customer.”
A man like that can do without the usual “accomplishments” ordinarily deemed necessary to reach the presidency.
[NOTE: By the way, according to Purdum, Emil Jones has the Godfather theme as his cell phone ring. And the introduction to this interview with Emil Jones mentions that Obama calls Jones his “political godfather.” Funny how that comparison keeps popping up.]
[Note II: In a related matter, Here is Obama’s description of the method by which Harvard Law Review editors were chosen at the time he attended.]
Some of this makes me think of Kamala Harris. Without the ability, or maybe motivation, to be charming, of course.
They both rose to prominence through alliance with major state level pols; but, presumably by offering different enducements to their benefactors.
I have a friend that has decided to call the people running Joe Biden and the government The Cabal as in “The Cabal decided to have Joe bomb syria.”
I think that they want to keep Joe rolling until there is a good reason to hang him out to dry. A massive economic disaster or something like that so they can say we didn’t realize Joe had completely lost it, it is not really the Democrat party’s fault that this bad thing happened.
Good review.
One of the possibly underestimated people in Obama’s past is Bill Ayer’s father, Thomas Ayers. CEO of Commonwealth Edison, and a board member to many big corps., he was wealthy and powerful. I believe I read that Thomas had assisted Obama’s admission into Harvard, but I might be wrong.
Another interesting item was Pres. Obama campaigning for Alexi Giannoulias’ election to the US Senate. While never indicted, Alexi had been working at the bank his father founded, not long before it became insolvent while loans to guys like Tony Rezko were being made. I always wondered why a Pres. Obama would risk tarnishing his reputation by associating with a Giannoulias.
There is also Obama’s academic record. How is it possible that perfect secrecy has been maintained, and why? Imagine that his record shows a B or even a B- average. Would anyone care? I don’t think so. So why? How bad must it be? Is it worse than just a low grade point?
Obama has never in his entire adult life held a real job; that is, a job in which one’s PERFORMANCE determines success/failure, as opposed to a political and/or bullshit job (e.g., community organizer) in which one’s personality, demeanor and public speaking skills are all that matter; a job in which there are no “hard” measures of success or failure.
A real good example of this sort of phony bullshit artist is Pete Buttegieg; he has a ready response to any question one may pose.
Yea, let’s be clear; if Obama was not black, he never would have been admitted to Columbia or Harvard. He is a prime example of the downside of affirmative action.
He is an ideologue and everything he believes is based upon his pseudo-religious leftist belief system. His ENTIRE world view is based upon his ideology that proclaims all the world’s problems are because of the USA (and the UK, France, Spain) , racism, imperialism and capitalism.
He, like most hard core leftists is immune to facts. In his worldview EVERYTHING is a result of inequities imposed upon the world by capitalism, imperialism and racism.
He is a Joe Stalin, minus the mass exterminations, He , Obama, will do and say anything to attain power and influence. He is a first rate manipulator and deceiver.
Check out some of the common characteristics of clinical psychopaths; they too are expert manipulators.
Lastly, anyone totally embedded within a political theology, as were Hitler, Lenin Stalin, Pol Pot, Castro, OBAMA, etc. , must have real personal / ego issues that manifest themselves by their zeal to have control over other everybody else.
Not sure why this is; perhaps personal feeling of inadequacy- who knows. But Obama has made no bones about “fundamentally transforming” the American Society in a way that conforms to his worldview.
If he were truly a confidant, THINKING individual that was motivated to actually do real good -as opposed to merely seeking fame, influence and wealth – , he would have been able to (or at least tried to) make substantive positive changes within Chicago’s inner city.
You will recall, he (and Michelle -it’s been a struggle- Obama ) did not do one FUCKING thing to help the vast vast majority of the law abiding denizens of that deadly shithole. Not one FUCKING thing to change / improve the horrible educational system in south Chicago.
He did not give a FUCK. If you think I am wrong, check out the his policies re: the Washington, DC Scholarship Program when he was president.
Sorry for my French, but sometimes I just lose it.
It’s essentially impossible to evaluate Obama’s abilities because he has almost always operated in an environment where virtually the entire media/political establishment was aligned to support him. How would Obama function if he faced 1/4th the scrutiny and pushback that Donald Trump got every day in office?
Probably the best judgment of Obama is that he, like George W. Bush, managed to win two terms in office, then didn’t just see the other party win but actually ushered in a replacement that was a radical repudiation of his tenure.
Mike
Ruthless.
Unscrupulous.
Utterly dishonest.
Brilliantly manipulative.
There are those who know it and love him for it.
And those who prefer not to know.
And those who simply don’t care (though they might down the road).
You didn’t lose it John Tyler. You deliberately wrote that. I guess people now think it is sophisticated to use the most vulgar language in public. It has become endemic and systemic within the celebrity class, for instance.
And no, I am not overly prudish. During my 25 years in the Navy I heard plenty of vulgarity in certain settings. And used some. It seemed obligatory, for instance, among Bosuns. It was shrugged off because they were, well Bosuns. They had to work within the limits of their vocabulary. Even now, I occasionally “lose it” myself, within certain limits. But, I am also conscious of who may be listening.
Different times, different standards. But please, don’t insult the readers with lame excuses.
By the way, just so you know; that wasn’t French.
TommyJay,
My guess regarding the transcripts is that his admission to Columbia shows foreign citizenship and he and his handlers were worried about that hurting his Presidential bid as well as muddying the waters with the whole “birth certificate” thing. His stepdad is Indonesian and Barack lived there for awhile with his mother. Many years ago I read Columbia was a common entry College for kids with foreign passports. Barack also wrote about visiting Pakistan in one of his many memoirs. At the time he traveled in Pakistan U.S. citizens could not typically get visas. The theory is Barack was able to go because he has Indonesian citizenship.
There is an unfortunate tendency to elevate totemic Magical Woodpile Denizens, even on our side of politics. Actually especially on our side of politics because so many Cuckservative ‘Good People’ abound.
They’re just people in dat dere Woodpile. Some good ‘uns and a whole passel you really don’t want living next door to you. When a particular exemplar can manage a sharp crease in his pants legs and sound forth from a teleprompter in words of three, yea even unto the number of four syllables — well what you need to do is metaphorically drop your magical individual in an imaginary vat of bleach and then listen as sceptically as if he had had the gross misfortune to have been born white. Same goes for all other aspects of his nebulous history.
Obama is some kind of moderately high functioning narcissist with a great deal of racial animus for Whitey. Blindingly obvious that his path has been smoothed before him every step of the way and that after winning office he was mostly a rubber stamp for things his handlers put in front of him. Has clearly never done an honest day’s work and wouldn’t know what one was if it bit him on the posterior. I’m not saying that he doesn’t have ideas of his own, or that he’s a total blank slate… just that he’s clearly not anyone’s idea of a driven workaholic. As a very willing front man for an Inner Party faction of very dangerous individuals, he works just fine.
Oh… got a bit sidetracked there… I really should learn to get to the point. His *nature*, you say?
Vile.
Rufus,
That is not bad. The political incorrectness of dual citizenship for a presidential candidate is why they buried the transcripts. I’m relatively sure he was born on US soil, but doesn’t mean he couldn’t have dual citizenship.
I think you make good points, but in many respects he shows incompetence. For example, the Obamacare rollout.
Obama absolutely in charge of his administration. The Chicago Democrat machine was in charge of Obama. Valerie Jarret was there to monitor him and report his activities to the mob, and to relay their instructions to him. The mob was probably not all that interested in policy questions, as long as enough graft income was generated.
The lightbulb light started to dawn on me (malapropism) when in ‘09 President Barack Obama signed off on the Native American Apology Resolution as part of a defense appropriations spending bill.
As an Alaskan Native I was more than dismayed that this highly significant and meaningful event went over like a lead balloon. Did anyone even hear about it? The insult of mostly checking this duty off his to-do list steamed me! The blinders went off. What a deep deep disappointment. Trudeau, for his part, did the same gesture (formal apology to Indigenous people) in a very heartfelt and very public speech. Barack went out and did his shameless unremarkable PR stunt…still burns me up! Ultimately- or at least later…Benghazi. No turning back. He’s now essentially an “influencer”. Loathsome scary, somewhat manufactured persona but actual power behind the throne? Remember his made up college white girlfriend story? Who does 3 memoirs? We’ve deserved so much better-SO much better. *I voted for him once-Hope/Change gimmick really worked. Tragically.
getting and keeping power and pushing for more of it.
Reminds me of the scene in Gladiator, where the Emperor is being killed by his son (Commodus). The son discusses his own good points, including ambition, which the general supporting father didn’t appreciate.
Funny how the snobs say they hate Trump because he’s a narcissist, yet fail to even judge Obama’s narcissism. Which I call worse, because he dishonestly tries to hide it.
Obama has the BEST sounding VOICE in politics I’ve ever heard. Better than Reagan, better than Kennedy. The acoustic quality is superb – and his speech writers plus his own talent made it easy to love his speaking, if you didn’t hate his policies (which I hated).
The Godfather is about getting and keeping power – and Obama knows it and is ruthless about it – while appearing mild and reasonable.
BLM (Burn Loot Murder …) started with Obama’s support of Trayvon Martin’s attack on Zimmerman, trying to beat him to death but getting shot. Making the Black aggressor the victim.
We should be calling them snobs, not elite. So the snobs hate Trump, both snob Dems and snob Republicans. The snobs are in control of the gov’t, which itself is full of wannabe snobs who don’t quite make it, but get close (with gov’t cash!). Snobs also control academia, media especially Hollywood, and journalism – the “poor snobs” whose snobbishness is based on moral superiority of speaking the Truth. Which they mostly don’t do anymore.
Obama is running Biden.
I do sometimes dream of a Rep US President having a Rep Congress and … impeaching Obama (so he can’t run for Senate! or … get appointed to anything, anyway) for some of his crimes. Nahh, sadly, ain’t gonna happen. Not even if Trump gets a newly created Florida seat in the House of Reps and the Reps take control … prolly not that either.
Those against the irrational anti-Trumpers should call them snobs. Many working folk want to be “elite”, like Trump – but not a snob, like Obama.
“But way back before Obama was elected, when I was first learning about him, I read up on his past and got a cold, cold chill. ” – Neo
Indeed.
“There is also Obama’s academic record. How is it possible that perfect secrecy has been maintained, and why? Imagine that his record shows a B or even a B- average. Would anyone care? I don’t think so. So why? How bad must it be? Is it worse than just a low grade point?” – TommyJay
The speculation about the dual-citizenship (or even that he terminated his American rights, as Cruz did his Canadian ones) has generally persuaded me that is why the transcript was deep-sixed during his campaigns; what impresses me more is the tight discipline that has KEPT it completely hidden all this time.