Posted on 08/14/2010 7:23:10 AM PDT by milwguy
In October 1987, Newsweek ran a cover story on would-be presidential candidate George H. W. Bush with the blaring headline “Fighting the Wimp Factor.”
That Bush was a World War II combat pilot, well over six feet, athletic, and a genuinely nice guy mattered little. Apparently, the fact that he had been Reagan’s subordinate for eight years, sounded nasal at times, and lapsed into occasional stuffy metaphors created an impression — fueled by everyone from the Newsweek editors to Jimmy Carter — that Bush was a wimp. He dispelled that for a time in 1988 (opponent Michael Dukakis, awkwardly perched in an Abrams tank, helped), but down-home good ol’ boy Bill Clinton exploited the preppy charge again in 1992, to some effect. Stereotypes, in other words, die hard.
For Obama, the stereotype is one of a distant, cool, rather narcissistic yuppie.
Yuppism, remember, is not definable entirely by income or class. Rather, it is a late-twentieth-century cultural phenomenon of self-absorbed young professionals, earning good pay, enjoying the cultural attractions of sophisticated urban life and thought, and generally out of touch with, indeed antithetical to, most of the challenges and concerns of a far less well-off and more parochial Middle America
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
By the time Ol Barry is up for re-election, I have a feeling even the MSM will be writing stories like this. Even the elite MSM'ers are already starting to abandon the SS Obama, and the stories they are floating about putting up Hillary as VP in 2012 are an indication of that.
We have a lot more to worry about from obama than whether or not he is a “yuppie”.
“but down-home good ol’ boy Bill Clinton exploited the preppy charge again in 1992, to some effect. Stereotypes, in other words, die hard.”
GHWB was a wimp in 92. He should’ve gone after Clinton tooth and nail. Like the POS now in the WH, Clinton was covered with warts.
Of course, but that's not VDH's point.
Reagan was correct on many issues, yet one reason he was able to pull blue collar votes was because of the impression people had of the MAN.
Similarly, Obama swayed enough voters to win by appealing to their desire for a "new" person in office, someone unlike any previous president--and his skin color indeed swayed enough people, as the MSM-created impression that he's some kind of genius.
One reason he's plummetting in the polls is indeed because he's perceived as cold, uncaring and not nearly as cliched-soulful as those who indeed voted for him because he was black WANTED him to be.
That's why writing about apparently less-important issues is so valuable when dealing with a politician who preys on people's more trivial instincts.
It's their marxism that should really finish them politically, but nobody seems to give a crap.
If this economy does what many expect it to do (TEOTWAWKI or TSHTF), this will be the ultimate Darwin effect.
Their degrees have prepared them for nothing. Moreover, they don’t know anyone that can teach them anything.
It’s hard to get something out of my mind that my little Italian grandfather used to say (in his broken English):
“Some people are so smart, they are stupid.”
I just bet that VDH has a wonderful time writing these essays. He has such a way with words. Thanks for posting — it is lovely to have a laugh at Obama’s expense.
Yuppie schmuppie, this thing called Barack Obama is more aloof than a cat. While the nail-biter final debate and vote was going on about Bummercare, the Bummer himself went out with Michelle and the girls to a show and then a sports event (IIRC). Even most yuppies are more sociable, care more about things they have poured their hearts and souls into.
no mention of the 1st Gulf War ? He was no friggin wimp.
Very well said. VDH excels at using his vast knowledge of history and his acute sense of our present circumstances to weave together a narrative that gets to the heart of why Obama is failing. The ‘yuppism’ that afflicts Obama is a symptom of the disease.
Obama’s narcisstic personality blinds him to what is obvious to an ever increasing majority of the country. His elitism and belief in statism is not only turning off the public to Obama as a person, it is also causing great harm to our national psyche.
To those who believe in the power of the citizen, Obama is a huge threat. To those who elected him on the belief that the state can provide for their needs, (Remember the guy who was going to get money from ‘Obama’s stash, or the woman who thought Obama would pay for her house and car?) Obama’s policies are making their lives worse, not better.
When those who did not vote for you are seeing their worst fears confirmed, and those who did vote for you are seeing their hopes dashed, it is a recipe for the kind of national ‘malaise’ that afflcted the country in the Jimmy Carter years. The only question is whether the country has a Ronald Reagan out there to rescue us after Obama.
Devastating article. Love it.
Marxism means nothing to most Americans. Unfortunately history and curiosity as to what’s-goin’-on have been drummed out of most Americans through the media and pop culture. Give them an IMP and cell phone, and Mafia Wars, and they’re cool.
Pray for signs and wonders. I will take a miracle or whirlwind.
To be exact, Obama is a Marxist Yuppie. Sorta like the people who run Communist China.
I highlighted this paragraph to say he is a metrosexual then VDH said it in the last sentence, BO is a bonofied metrosexual.
I grew up in the '60's, graduated from HS in '71, when we heard about some kids forming the SDS and the weather undergroung setting off bombs, and then hearing about the black panthers we denounced them.
The true "hippie" never was engaged in violence and most of them continued their "back to the land, get my soul free" move out of the cities, bought some land and are raising their families and canning their home grown veges!
Well Said!!
That’s very true. When Reagan was stymied by congress, he would go over their heads to the American people. Obama has tried to do that over and over and over again, but HE turns people OFF when he does it.
Our “elite” suffer from Temporal Provincialism that makes a snake handling shoeless backwoodser seem a worldly sage.
Alan West.
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