Barack Obama’s crumbling public image is more Louis Farrakhan, less MLK.
Barack Obama is often hailed as one of the greatest orators in modern politics. While he had undeniable gifts in that department, as someone who attended a number of his speeches in person, I never quite understood all the praise. Setting aside his career-making “red states, blue states” speech at the 2004 Democratic convention — a plea for political moderation he spent his time in office repudiating — the only memorable things Obama said were either campaign pablum such as “hope and change,” or remarks that were unintentionally revealing.
In the latter category, my personal favorite remark was this comment about congressional Republicans from 2013: “We’re going to try to do everything we can to create a permission structure for them to be able to do what’s going to be best for the country,” he said.
“Permission structure” is a phrase that’s been used by marketing executives for many years, and was apparently in common usage at the Obama White House. The idea is “based on an understanding that radically changing a deeply held belief and/or entrenched behavior will often challenge a person’s self-identity and perhaps even leave them feeling humiliated about being wrong. … Permission Structures serve as scaffolding for someone to embrace change that they might otherwise reject.”
While there’s more overlap between politics and marketing than anyone would like to admit, the naked use of jargon that comes from the world of consumer manipulation betrays a remarkably egotistical approach to politics. There was no need to address honorable disagreement to Obama’s policies, which were politically extreme and consistently opposed by voters. The White House just needed to create, with the help of a slavish media, narratives that could help people admit they were wrong and come around to his way of thinking.
Ironically enough, I thought of the “permission structure” remark reading David Samuels’ interview in Tablet with Obama biographer David Garrow, which is shaping up to be perhaps the most discussed piece of journalism of the year. That’s because the entire article is a really effective “permission structure” for a lot of Obama voters and moderates to finally admit he’s an entirely overrated, largely failed president who was far more radical than he ever let on. He’s also obsessed with celebrity and not very loyal to the people who helped him along the way.
In other words, he’s pretty much the guy his critics on the right said he was all along.
MLK vs. Obama
To be clear, that’s my gloss on it, and while I don’t think it’s an unfair summation, I wouldn’t want to claim to speak on behalf of Samuels or Garrow. But I think it’s undeniable the article does real damage to Obama’s reputation because the many criticisms in the piece are rooted in factual revelations about Obama’s past and the considered opinion of Garrow, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1987 for his biography of Martin Luther King Jr. (In addition to decades of work as a civil rights historian, Garrow is a major historian of abortion.) Garrow was considered an important enough scholar that Obama sat for eight hours of interviews with him while he was still president. And it’s clear his opinion of Obama is somewhere between dismissive and contemptuous.
Worse, Garrow’s opinion is all the more devastating to Obama because, throughout the sprawling 16,000-word interview, Garrow keeps reverting back to his extensive knowledge of MLK and making explicit comparisons between the two men to reinforce his unflattering judgments about Obama. At first blush, being compared to MLK would be an impossible standard for almost anyone to be held up to. However, as a historian Garrow is notable for deftly exposing MLK’s considerable character flaws — the degree of MLK’s womanizing and alcoholism are decidedly worse than the public wants to know — while still burnishing his historic accomplishments. It’s clear throughout the interview that Garrow is not so reverential toward MLK he can’t think objectively about him, yet he still considers him a great man.
And in fairness, Obama invited this comparison upon himself. He rode into the White House encouraging supporters to frame his election as the fulfillment of MLK’s legacy, and further invited comparisons by appropriating...
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Limbaugh used to say what a great speaker Obama was and I could never understand that. Whenever I heard him speak, he sounded like some demented college professor talking down to the students since he was sooo smart and the were sooo dumb. I once heard Obama tell how we should check the air in our car tires since that affected mileage. I'm sure he checked his tires daily, right? Likely never checked them or even knew how to in the first place. There was always some lowly service station attendant for something like that.
ReplyDeleteObama is a bitch and he’s been a bitch since birth
ReplyDeleteEverything that has ever come put of his mouth - whether as a college student (that no one can recall him being in class), or a so-called “community organizer” (aka rabble-rouser), or while in office - is pure ‘symbolism over substance’ (h/t Rush). The guy talks a lot but says NOTHING..his only gift is to incite. And his personal history is so sketchy few know the truth, and it points straight to a groomed Manchurian. The guy is a world class do-nothing [productive and good] bum, and “married” to a person who was the one excitedly cheering of “her” [only now proud moment] when he “won” (was installed) the Illinois Senate seat…all the while he’s standing there looking like a deer in the headlights. Don’t take you focus off “the Mrs”, she/he is dangerous…and The Lightbringer/Magical Mr O/Barry Soetoro is just the groomed - yet dangerous - mouthpiece.
ReplyDeleteActually, some do recall him being enrolled in college.
DeleteNamely, Occidental College in California.
More precisely, he was noted as a failing student. Indeed, he was expelled for lack of academic acheivement by the 2nd semester. As a foreign student, that meant deportation. He was enrolled as Barry Sotero.
The Daily Breeze, a local newspaper, had run a series of very revealing articles on him.
I have tried with no luck to identify who was it that paid to seal his college transcripts and got him into Ivy League Universities.
The college president and dean at Occidental were initially helpful. But they clammed up after the Kenyan became a presidential candidate. As if someone had paid them a visit.
DeleteGreat orator my ass. They tried to pass that crap off early on, then the clown would go off script, and everyone saw that he was anything BUT a 'great orator'. After a few years even the fawning media quit saying it, as there had been too many instaces of him proving otherwise. He was the worst president we ever had, ubtil the vegetable was installed.
ReplyDeleteThe oral performance has a different meaning in this case.
DeleteGotta admit Obama set world records for the use of the word ‘I’ in his speeches.
ReplyDeleteBTW, as kids we would his type “a big mouth”, demanding everyone listen to him…until someone told him to shut up or cleaned his clock and set him straight. This guy is still being protected…and likely did or had done-in his “personal chef”. Who called 911? We’ll never know.
ReplyDeleteThat turd has been the worst thing to have happened to the U.S. since the war between the states.
ReplyDeletelets see. everything about him was covered up by the elites and the media. he was created to do exactly what he did.
ReplyDeleteHe's not a great speaker, but we have to give him credit for being able to read. Has everyone forgotten that he used a telepropmter to make a speech to 12 year olds. Watch any recording of his speeches and you can tell exactly how many teleprompters he's using because he stares straight at them. I'm surprised he never read 'left', 'center', or 'right' out loud whilst speaking.
ReplyDeleteAnytime Bathhouse Barry had to speak off the cuff, w/o a teleprompter, he stumbled & bumbled his way thru the speech.
ReplyDeleteBarry is a fraud, a con artist, a liar & mass murderer that is now enjoying being a traitor, living in seaside mansions.
He sounds like a used car salesman who can never forget that he's lying.
ReplyDeleteIt was not for nothing that Obama was referred to as the Teleprompter in Chief.
ReplyDeleteObama the great speech giver...what a load of crap. Would like to have the speech he made as a senator where he stated he was born in Kenya & that he is not an America. If anyone kept that off of Youtube find a way to send it back out to the world.
ReplyDelete