So this is the guy with the first-class presidential temperament?
In endorsing Barack Obama’s bid for the White House in 2008, Christopher Buckley cited the Democrat’s temperament (among other things):
As for Senator Obama: He has exhibited throughout a “first-class temperament,” pace Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.’s famous comment about FDR. . . . But having a first-class temperament and a first-class intellect, President Obama will (I pray, secularly) surely understand that traditional left-politics aren’t going to get us out of this pit we’ve dug for ourselves.
You think a guy with a presidential temperament would have the strength of character to ignore the criticism that all presidents, even FDR, endure. But, this one so heralded by so many, “strayed from his prepared remarks at a Labor Day rally Monday to accused his opponents of talking about him ‘like a dog’“:
“Some powerful interests who had been dominating the agenda in Washington for a very long time and they’re not always happy with me. They talk about me like a dog. That’s not in my prepared remarks, but it’s true,” he told the union crowd.
Once again, he rails against powerful interests, this time while talking to one such interest (you know, that union crowd).
It would behoove him, as Glenn Reynolds* put it, to “act Presidential. Not so much because it’s dignified. But because it’s smart.” We want our leaders to look above the fray, showing they can, to paraphrase an expression from one of the incumbent’s partisan predecessors, can stand the heat in the kitchen.
*He had a great roundup of blogosphere reaction to the president’s most recent whine.
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I can’t think of a time when Bush, subjected to all the “Bushitler” and “BUSH LIED!!!(tm)” nonsense, whined to a crowd of his supporters anything close to, “They talk about me like a dog!” If I’m wrong, let some lefty post a quote, link and date.
One can almost hear the little teardrops of self-concern forming at the inner corners of Obama’s eyes, when one reads the words.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — September 7, 2010 @ 12:19 pm - September 7, 2010
just think how much more the left would have attacked GWB if he whined and whinged as much about critics as 0bama has
Comment by JP — September 7, 2010 @ 12:20 pm - September 7, 2010
Treacher’s comeback (linked from Instapundit) rules: http://dailycaller.com/2010/09/06/whos-a-good-president-obamas-a-good-president-isnt-he-yes-he-is/
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — September 7, 2010 @ 12:23 pm - September 7, 2010
Obama has cruised through life without ever having to take criticism, and indeed, receiving plaudits just for showing up. His father was absent, his mother was a hippie-dip, his professors coddled him, he became editor of the Harvard Law Review and a Lecturer at the U. Chicago without ever having to publish a single article, as a community organizer all he did was spend other people’s money, no one cared about results.
The guy just can’t handle criticism for the same reason hothouse flowers can’t handle normal weather.
Comment by V the K — September 7, 2010 @ 12:23 pm - September 7, 2010
Put another way, maybe if Obama stopped acting like a whiny little bitch…
Comment by V the K — September 7, 2010 @ 12:31 pm - September 7, 2010
President Obama is on the precipice of losing his mind thanks to political & emotional immaturity & his total lack of executive experience. However, the cracks have begun as far back as April 2009 when he was on the tail end of the rejection of ObamaCare during one of his myriad campaign stops to prop up the ObamaCare corpse.
Comment by Sebastian Shaw — September 7, 2010 @ 1:55 pm - September 7, 2010
Time to put an Elizabethan coillar on the Obama administration, so they’ll stop scratching at the economy and finally let it heal.
Comment by Wesley M. — September 7, 2010 @ 2:23 pm - September 7, 2010
If he were a Big Dog, like Clinton, it wouldn’t matter.
Comment by Ashpenaz — September 7, 2010 @ 2:26 pm - September 7, 2010
His supporters act much the same way. I remember one of my friends expressed his concern the other day because everybody was criticizing Obama so much and that it just wasn’t right or respectful of the office of the president.
He’s a politician. It comes with the territory.
Comment by Chris H — September 7, 2010 @ 5:37 pm - September 7, 2010
The only thing transparent about President Obama is his thin skin at the slightest hint of criticism; otherwise, he just cracks like an egg.
Comment by Sebastian Shaw — September 7, 2010 @ 5:44 pm - September 7, 2010
You can’t judge someone’s temperament from media appearances. You have to either know them personally, in a variety of situations, or observe their performance in a job with real accountability. This is one reason why it’s so important for a President to have serious executive experience of some kind.
Comment by david foster — September 7, 2010 @ 5:45 pm - September 7, 2010
whaaaa, whaaaaa – cue up the violins and get a kleenex for poor Barry
Comment by Leslie — September 7, 2010 @ 5:45 pm - September 7, 2010
Mid Term Election Primer -Cheeseball edition.
http://youhavetobethistalltogoonthisride.blogspot.com/2010/09/cheese-balls-mid-term-political-exam.html
Comment by keyboard jockey — September 7, 2010 @ 6:14 pm - September 7, 2010
Chris H, I wonder if those friends who were so concerned about being disrespectful of the office of the president criticized those who attacked George W. Bush in the most vicious of terms.
Comment by B. Daniel Blatt — September 7, 2010 @ 6:50 pm - September 7, 2010
Man this Obama is an amateur and a whinner….along with most liberals.
WHHHAAA
Comment by Gene in Pennsylvania — September 7, 2010 @ 7:58 pm - September 7, 2010
Dan-
Of course they weren’t – and still aren’t. I’m see multiple daily Facebook status updates still attacking GW and Republicans. Oh well. They can live in their little leftist fantasy world while the majority of the country wakes up.
Comment by Chris H — September 7, 2010 @ 8:23 pm - September 7, 2010
This “treated like a dog” is bright code in the black world for being chained, beaten, tied to a tree and one step away from slavery. The dog is told to sit, to be quiet, to stay off the couch, to heel, to lie down, etc.
Obama was playing the race card. He has no clue about the America where dogs get three squares a day, have special beds and get medical care that rivals the quality and cost of human care.
If you lie down with fleas, you get up with fleas. That is what Obama knows and communicates to his down-trodden and pseudo down-trodden pimp crowd.
Beyond that, he only succeeded in making a bigger ass of himself.
Comment by heliotrope — September 7, 2010 @ 10:04 pm - September 7, 2010
& Chris, did you really see someone on Facebook use the occasion of Judge Walker’s opinion to bash Mormons?
Comment by B. Daniel Blatt — September 8, 2010 @ 1:15 am - September 8, 2010
Dan –
Yep…in huge capital letters and full four letter glory
Comment by Chris H — September 8, 2010 @ 3:03 am - September 8, 2010
As someone pointed out in another forum, didn’t Obama describe himself as a “mutt” and a “mongrel?”
Why yes, he did….
http://tammybruce.com/2010/07/obama-says-blacks-are-mongrel-people.html
Comment by V the K — September 8, 2010 @ 5:15 am - September 8, 2010
Yeah, I’ll just bet that wasn’t in his prepared remarks. What dipsh*t.
Comment by scr_north — September 9, 2010 @ 2:56 pm - September 9, 2010