What Happened to Obama’s Passion

New York Times ^ | 6 AUGUST 2011 | DREW WESTEN

[rdb3]

August 6, 2011

What Happened to Obama?

By DREW WESTEN

Drew Westen is a professor of psychology at Emory University and the author of “The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation.”

Atlanta

IT was a blustery day in Washington on Jan. 20, 2009, as it often seems to be on the day of a presidential inauguration. As I stood with my 8-year-old daughter, watching the president deliver his inaugural address, I had a feeling of unease. It wasn’t just that the man who could be so eloquent had seemingly chosen not to be on this auspicious occasion, although that turned out to be a troubling harbinger of things to come. It was that there was a story the American people were waiting to hear — and needed to hear — but he didn’t tell it. And in the ensuing months he continued not to tell it, no matter how outrageous the slings and arrows his opponents threw at him.

The stories our leaders tell us matter, probably almost as much as the stories our parents tell us as children, because they orient us to what is, what could be, and what should be; to the worldviews they hold and to the values they hold sacred. Our brains evolved to “expect” stories with a particular structure, with protagonists and villains, a hill to be climbed or a battle to be fought. Our species existed for more than 100,000 years before the earliest signs of literacy, and another 5,000 years would pass before the majority of humans would know how to read and write.

[rdb3]

Oh, don't get me started!

If you can't appreciate the pure beauty of the violin after hearing this, something's wrong with your ears.

Or you can get raw with these strings. Either way, the violin is sweet yet lethal.

Do it!

[goodnesswins]

Passion???? HA....he’s such a bluffer....and nothing is REAL that he says....

[Huskrrrr]

“The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation.”

Conservatives stick to facts.

[y6162]

More Obamabot buyers regret.

Shocking to learn that all the lizard king wanted was to get the big plane and trappings of power.

[y6162]

More Obamabot buyers regret.

Shocking to learn that all the lizard king wanted was to get the big plane and trappings of power.

[tsowellfan]

Mike Tyson could do a better job in the WH

[al baby]

[SamAdams76]

Michael Jackson could do a better job in the White House - and he’s dead.

[Baynative]

Mike Tyson Casey Anthony could do a better job in the WH

[CommieCutter]

It certainly couldn’t get much worse could it??

[tsowellfan]

Yeah but Tyson’s a republican

[mirkwood]

[CommieCutter]

[bigbob]

he’s saving it for golf

[sickoflibs]

Passion?? It’s called reality.

Making believe you have the all answers is MUCH easier than actually coming up with them(as with Trump too.) In 2008 Obama was pretty darn good at pointing out all the things that were ‘wrong’, and all the easy answers...but now it’s not so easy for him.

Still, he gets too much of a break.

[ken21]

it seems he can’t figure out who obama is because obama doesn’t know who he is.

the diatribe ends with the leftist redistributionist mantra.

[Robert DeLong]

Picture above is Drew Westen.

Silly Weston, Obama isn't driven by passion, only ideology.

[stephenjohnbanker]

What happened? HE IS A STREET URCHIN, ACORN WIELDING MARXIST FLAKE........

THAT is what happened!

[mirkwood]

Boxing championships and accomplishments

Tyson established an impressive list of accomplishments, mostly early in his career:[130]

Titles

Junior Olympic Games Champion Heavyweight 1982
National Golden Gloves Champion Heavyweight 1984
Undisputed Heavyweight champion (held all three major championship belts; WBA, IBF, and WBC) – August 1, 1987 – February 11, 1990
WBC Heavyweight Champion – November 22, 1986 – February 11, 1990, March 16, 1996–September 24, 1996 (Vacated)
WBA Heavyweight Champion – March 7, 1987 – February 11, 1990, September 7, 1996 – November 9, 1996
IBF Heavyweight Champion – August 1, 1987 – February 11, 1990

Records

Youngest Heavyweight champion – 20 years and 4 months
Junior Olympic quickest KO – 8 seconds

Awards

Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year—1986 & 1988
BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality—1989
Ring magazine Prospect of the Year—1985

[stephenjohnbanker]

Obama is without a doubt, the luckiest pol that ever lived....HANDS DOWN!!!!