The juvenile president

American Thinker ^ | January 25, 2011 | Ed Lasky

[jazusamo]

The notion that the White House team has been bereft of ideas on the jobs front is the focus of  a new, forthcoming Sunday's New York Times Magazine article by reporter Peter Baker.  Baker takes a journey down the White House Rabbit Hole and writes a fascinating behind-the-scenes look into Obama and his hapless economic team.

In an advance copy obtained by the Tatler, Baker writes that three days before Christmas, Obama sits down with his economic team to pen ideas for his State of the Union speech.  Baker writes, "[H]e was looking for bold ways to bring down unemployment. The ideas presented to him, though, seemed familiar and uninspired. ‘You know, guys,' he said, according to someone in the room, ‘I've told you before, I want you to come to me with ideas that EXCITE me.' Nothing he was hearing excited him. Obama's frustration could set the tone for the remainder of his term."

Baker also outlines how poorly the economic "team" operated.  Talking to all Obama's economic advisers, he writes  "was like picking through the wreckage of a messy divorce."

So now we're getting a peek into the best new idea that came from his economic team and EXCITES the President: today's announcement of  a "Council on Jobs and Competitiveness."

This just reminds me how easily Barack Obama is bored. He was bored as a US Senator when he complained about  Senators flapping their gums, sighing wearily "Yak, yak, yak." He passed a note during a committee hearing led by Joe Biden that said" Shoot me now".  There are more examples describing how bored he was as a Senator here:

From Game Change:

He is bored by the drafting of legislation: he does not do that. He is the antitheses of a policy wonk-like Clinton was.

He is bored by suburbs.  He said that "I'm not interested in the suburbs . The suburbs bore me" and was dismissive of worker bees who commute on trains to their jobs.

He was bored as a community organizer and went to Harvard with the idea of being able to gain political power to be able to have a big impact.

What does excite him?

Obama said he wanted to "fundamentally transform America". That is exciting-for him. The one bit of praise Obama had for Ronald Reagan regarded the transformational policies Reagan was able to put in place.

He is excited by adoring crowds (see any number of events, from the Denver stadium, to Europe).

He is excited playing basketball games with superstars. His own "dream team"

He is excited giving sports commentary on national TV

He is excited by cool-looking boondoggles like the wasteful green energy projects he touts, or high speed rail, electric cars, solar projects, and windmills. He is like a young boy with shiny new toys he wants to show off.

Why do taxpayers have to fund his need for excitement? He is like a kid with a credit card who gets thrilled with the mere spending of money-especially other people's money. We have a bored teenager and shopaholic as President.

[jazusamo]

Ed Lasky says it well.

[Dem Guard]

So basically he is a functional idiot with ADD.

[jazusamo]

Please bump the Freepathon and donate or become a monthly donor!

[jazusamo]

Yep, in control of a credit card with no limit, so far.

[DrC]

“We have a bored teenager and shopaholic as President.”

Well, he seems to like to play Santa Claus (or Robin Hood) as well: look at how much “redistribution” was included in what was advertised as “stimulus.”

[FourPeas]

Close. He’s a pathological narcissist. Seriously. The masses elected a 40-something who is emotionally 6 years old.

[jnsun]

Ed Lasky says it well.

Wellll, any body who did not see this from the start, when he was making campaign speeches about "change," like the whole State of Oregon, didn't see it, are not exactly our most insightful, responsible voters are they.

Harvard University - Barack Obama, Elena Kagan, Teddy Kennedy, Senator Al Franken, Jennifer Granholm, Cass Sunstein, Zbigniew Brezinski, the Mad Bomber, etc. etc?

Johnny Suntrade

[Dem Guard]

He has the attention span of a (former?) coke head with swiss cheese for brains.

[Anima Mundi]

People who think they are bored with outside things are generally really bored with their very dull inner life. They are too lazy to do the mental work of linking concepts to create new ideas and instead simply wait to be filled up by other people. He is not a thinker. Thinkers don’t get bored. People who are easily bored are generally boring people, even to themselves.

[Starboard]

‘I've told you before, I want you to come to me with ideas that EXCITE me.'

In just one short quote, two references to 'I' and two to 'me'. It's all about him.

[jazusamo]

Well said. He’s no thinker, he’s a user and feeds off others then throws them aside.

[Starboard]

“He is not a thinker. Thinkers don’t get bored.”

Absolutely true. He is simply a narcissist, and an immature one at that. Good post.

[jazusamo]

Yep, it always has and always will be about him.

[Seaplaner]

Ed Lasky pens a nice piece.

Mister Lasky, you may want to explore farther why important economic strategy doesn't excite our easily bored (and alleged) president. Please consider the following regarding Destructive Narcissism (excerpted and adapted from Wiki, bolding and colored text supplied)...

Destructive Narcissism

- An unrealistic sense of superiority ("Grandiose")

- Pursues power at all costs, lacks normal inhibitions in its pursuit

- Concerns limited to expressing socially appropriate response when convenient; devalues and exploits others without remorse

- Lacks values; easily bored; often changes course

- Traumatic childhood undercutting true sense of self-esteem and/or learning that he/she doesn't need to be considerate of others

[FourPeas]

Skim the traits of a narcissist. It fits him to a 'T'.

[jazusamo]

Bump!

[FreedBird]

People must be very desperate if they listen or follow the Obama.

[popdonnelly]

The Times is really going to print this?

[jazusamo]

It seems they are, it’s a shocker! :-)

[x]

Reason, the libertarian magazine has an interview with Richard Epstein, one of Obama's colleagues at UChicago. It explains something about Obama that you won't see addressed elsewhere -- why Obama had such a meagre record at Chicago but didn't lose the esteem of his colleagues:

The difference between them [Bush and Obama], which is why Obama is the more dangerous man ultimately, is he has very little by way of a skill set to understand the complex problems he wants to address, but he has this unbounded confidence in himself. ...

... He was an adjunct, and we always hoped he’d participate in the general intellectual discourse, but he was always so busy with collateral adventures that he essentially kept to himself. The problem when you keep to yourself is you don’t get to hear strong ideas articulated by people who disagree with you. So he passed through Chicago without absorbing much of the internal culture. ...

... He was always a tremendously engaging and charming individual, but he’s not the kind of guy who likes to be pushed. He has a way of listening to you to make it appear as though you’re the only person in the world who matters. And then when it’s all done, now what does he believe? He’s amazingly good at playing intellectual poker. But that’s a disadvantage, because if you don’t put your ideas out there to be shot down, you’re never going to figure out what kind of revision you want. His mind is set in concrete. If he thought a stimulus would work in 2009, he thinks it today.

To sum up, Obama was a charmer, which attracted others on the faculty, but he held himself aloof, preoccupied with his own interests, as though he lived in his own little world.

This allowed him to maintain his great self-confidence intact, but he didn't really test himself against real world obstacles, didn't grow, didn't adapt his thinking to difficult realities.

So yes, there is something Peter Pan-ish or narcissistic about the man, at least according to one of his former colleagues.