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Home » And now we have: President Clinton, doing Obama’s pressers

And now we have: President Clinton, doing Obama’s pressers

The New Neo Posted on by

It’s the talk of the blogophere: Obama’s bizarre (there’s no other word for it) decision to leave a press conference in Bill Clinton’s more capable hands.

Here are some very truncated video excepts:

What are we to make of this? I think that Allahpundit’s points are well taken: the whole sorry episode indicates that Obama has lost confidence, and that he’s also implying that the discussion (and Clinton himself) isn’t important enough to change his holiday schedule to accommodate it. And, as Bookworm points out, Obama’s remark about Michelle (the excuse for his leaving being that he had to meet her at a Christmas party) and Clinton’s quip in response reinforce already-existent perceptions that both men are henpecked.

In the very first post I ever wrote about Obama on this blog, back in May of 2007, I made the following observation after Obama had offered tiredness as an excuse for a minor error he had made:

…[I]t may indicate…a certain lack of toughness on Obama’s part…I’ve often thought that, if the campaign is a grueling marathon, it’s probably a (pardon the phrase) cakewalk compared to the actual Presidency.

Just as the Presidency is not for the shy or those tortured by ambivalence, just as it requires a certain amount of narcissism (perhaps more than is healthy in ordinary life), it also requires true grit and enormous””almost superhuman””endurance. And if the President doesn’t feel up to it all the time, he/she is supposed to shut up about it and not let others see.

Obama is in the “grueling marathon” part of the deal. And not only does he not seem up to it—as even the left is beginning to notice—but his political instincts appear to have deserted him while the psychological tone-deafness he sometimes shows is revealed once again.

Obama seems oblivious to the emotional message of his action in leaving the press conference (note, for example, the astonishment of MSNBC’s Cenk Uygar at the end of the clip above). In addition to the previously-mentioned messages, it conveys an inappropriately arrogant disregard for the public that he attempts to clothe in casualness, and is an indication that he simply doesn’t know what appropriate behavior is, or doesn’t care.

In other words, he’s giving the finger to the lot of us.

This is quite separate from any political or policy differences one might have with him. It’s hard to imagine that any but a tiny number of viewers—whether on the right or the left or in-between—could find his conduct anything but clearly inappropriate or at best puzzlingly juvenile.

This is hardly the meltdown some have predicted. But it’s very, very unsettling.

Comments

And now we have: President Clinton, doing Obama’s pressers — 50 Comments

  4. Most common excuse in the world: “I can’t do ___ because it would piss off my (spouse/parent/whatever).”

    I wonder if he really meant to paint Michelle in such a negative light, or if she was just collateral damage.

  5. helvetica – no painting was necessary. She showed that she’s a negative light a long time ago, in my humble opinion. And, we are the collateral damage are we not?

  6. What gets to be a “meltdown” then?

    He left a former President “in charge”. He did the literally unthinkable. That is, no one ever imagined any President who would turn a Presidential Press Conference over to another person in the White House. When that other person is notoriously a former President, and when the excuse used is a Christmas Party at this time of something approaching a national crisis…

    You get my point. When do we get to say meltdown?

    Must he behave like Hitler in one of those Hitler explosions on youtube? Must he rant and rave?

    Aren’t there tow kinds of meltdown, tow faces of losing it? One looks the part – like rage and foaming at the mouth in anger. The other is so aloof as to evidence a kind of emotional breakdown, a not being able to ‘deal’; a not being capable of standing and answering without going bonkers.

    [i]Who[/i] does what he did yesterday?

  7. It does make one wonder about that split lip, though, doesn’t it? Basketball game? Uh, sure. Whatever you say, Barry.

  8. This is the Obama meltdown beginning.

    Generally speaking once his self image is broken there were only two likely outcomes – one is railing against everyone and blaming them, the other is disengage so you can say you never really gave it a go (a very few will go into a self introspection phase and come out stronger, but Obama never showed any likelihood of doing that IMO).

    I think we have been seeing Obama disengage for some time, this just being the most prominent showing of it. He has been trying to do it for a while without actually appearing to do so, can’t figure out how.

    Obama believed most of what he said pre-election and at least a little ways into his presidency.

  9. I think he may have been relieved that he could turn things over to Clinton. He may have thought something like, ‘Clinton will make it better for me. If I even invite him it will show how smart and good I am. People won’t ask questions I can’t answer. If they do, he will answer them. He is good for that.’

    He is terrified. He is paralyzed in fear. He has to hide out or he really will blow his stack in public.

  10. Every day it gets harder to avoid taunting those who were deluded into voting for Barry. Not the Progs, who are lost souls, but the mass of mid-to-lefties who we might persuade into adulthood.

  11. foxmarks, just tell them it’s all part of playing 3-D chess and being so much smarter than anyone he has ever met, as Valerie Jarrett said.

  13. Pingback:The Presidential Handoff Thing « Absolute Moral Authority

  14. “Every day it gets harder to avoid taunting those who were deluded into voting for Barry.”

    Just the other day a person who voted for Obama told me that no one had any idea what was in store.

    Really?

    Us homophobe, islamophobe, God knows what -phobe, racists (remember calling me that?) knew.

    All you had to do was listen. She had nothing else to say.

  15. I just hope the military or the Secret Service is keeping a very close eye on the “football”.

  16. Somewhere out in the pacific there is a small tribe with a bamboo runway, and a leader, who knows how Obama feels now that the planes have not landed…

  17. Seriously, all you had to do was look at his friends and associates of long-standing to understand his political inclinations, and all you had to do was look at his work history to understand his lack of gravitas and accomplishment. It really wasn’t very difficult if you had your eyes open.

  19. All the more reason to enact a law forbidding those born under a Leo Sun to hold public office. Both are egotistical jerks, liking the fawning over by press and Libs but not able to stand the heat.

  20. The White House statement about Liu Xiaobo was mainly anodyne where it wasn’t raising distractions about the nature of the prize recipients, but it contained a tiny barb for the Chinese at the end. Just enough to make everyone unhappy, and so about par for the course.

  21. Just the other day a person who voted for Obama told me that no one had any idea what was in store.

    This one drives me wild, for several reasons.

    First, we were shouting Barry’s flaws from the rooftops. Events have borne out those clarion calls to reason, which they chose to ignore and/or deride. The 52%ers committed voter malpractice; they need to own up to it, and learn for next time. (Hope springs eternal.)

    Second, and closely related, is that the “no one had any idea” bleat lumps us in with them, in the alarmingly and increasingly crowded lower primate category. The implication is that we’re as stupid as they are.

    It further suggests that they’ve learned nothing whatever from this experience, because in their view there was nothing to be learnt: no one could foresee this colossal f-up aborning, and that therefore there’s no way to avoid the next one, which their obdurate obtuseness virtually guarantees.

    Psychologists judge the intelligence of animals by how many repetitions it takes them to learn something. By this criterion, Homo liberalis must be banging in around the IQ level of a rutabaga.

  22. Here’s what I’ve said about this, if anybody cares.

    ———-

    This week, President Obama performed so poorly & petulantly in his Dec. 7th press conference, he actually had former president Bill Clinton take over for him at a press briefing, Dec. 10th; – excusing himself to go to a Christmas party.

    This is a public, though implicit, acknowledgement by both Obama and Clinton that Obama is in way over his head.

    Both Republicans and Democrats will be taking this as a cue about being able to get the best of Obama. The real problem, however, is this: America’s enemies around the world will also see this episode as showing a man incompetent and incapable of the presidency, and as a cue for their own actions against us.

    When the next terrorist attack comes, making (say) Fort Hood look like a day at Kennywood Park, will the president step to the podium, give a “shout out” to somebody we’ve never heard of, then cite supper waiting for him, and turn the show over to Bill Clinton?

    God help us all.

    ———-

    http://www.wesurroundthempa.org/?p=2368

  23. I just realized who Obama reminds me of: Captain Stillman (played by John Larroquette) in Stripes.

  25. In truth, I kind of feel sorry for Obama. He strikes me as intelligent enough to grasp the enormity of the crime that catapulted him to such high office (thanks, Soros!), and to realize that he’s wholly unsuited – constitutionally (perhaps Constitutionally) and certainly experientially – for it. And yet he has to continue for another two years, two years in which his incompetence will become increasingly obvious. I hope to God I never find myself in such a situation.

    Imagine someone unqualified suddenly, with a snap of the fingers, transformed without any other changes into say, a surgeon, or an airline pilot, in the middle of his duties. That’s Barry, I suspect. What a nightmare that must be. I truly feel sorry for him – and for us.

  27. The emptiest suit in the room – and there was ample evidence of this before the election. He had no real executive experience (he admitted as much in the interview where he cited running a presidential campaign as sufficient executive experience), and no real-world tests under pressure. What the heck is a “community organizer” ? I’ve never met one who could describe his work in 2 sentences or less and also describe the standard by which to measure his success or failure. So far as I can tell, and I’ve known a few, it simply means never having to buy an alarm clock.

    Remember that on many of the tough issues in the Illinois legislature, he would vote “present.”

    And yesterday he decided to not be present. Embarrassing and frightening at the same time. You could tell that Clinton was actually a bit surprised; there’s no way he would have turned the presidential podium over to another politician and then exit stage left.

    It’s easy to blame the voting public but I really think the media and the entertainment industry bear the lion’s share of the blame. They treated him with kid gloves and shed any pretense of objectivity.

  28. ELC wrote “god help us all”

    “God Help Us All” would be a good title for a history of the Obama administration.

  30. Denise:
    Exactly. I blame the media most of all. They trumpeted his cult of personality from day one. They showed not the slightest curiosity about his background and qualifications, and belittled, mocked, and denigrated anybody who did question them.

    Meanwhile, they worked overtime going through dumpsters in Alaska to dig up any dirt they could find on Sarah Palin. Utterly disgraceful.

    The so-called “mainstream media” have a lot to answer for. If things really go to hell, future historians will write of the major role the media played in America’s downfall.

  31. The MSM has wrecked its credibility with over half the country. It can’t admit fault, and therefore it can;t regain trust. Evan (We’re all socialists now”) Thomas might have been right, at one time, in saying that MSM support was worth 15%. No more.

  33. It’s all very simple. To recapitulate the story so far:

    Analysis…Knave or Fool? Answer…Foolish Knave.

    Best description of the man…Empty Suit from the Faculty Lounge.

    Best analogy for his followers…The Emperor’s New Clothes.

  34. “He strikes me as intelligent enough to grasp the enormity of the crime that catapulted him to such high office (thanks, Soros!), and to realize that he’s wholly unsuited”

    I don’t know if he realizes he is “wholly unsuited” though it just might be beginning to dawn on him. It is not just that BO is narcissistic, but that everyone around him has been feeding it his entire life, telling him how smart he is and how he is destined for great things. An insightful comment from another blog that has stuck with me is that BO has always been “groomed and promoted”.

  35. Wm Lawrence Says:
    Amazing! An empty suit with no clothes. Is there nothing the 0 can’t do…?

    Interesting combination of metaphors; an empty suit with no clothes would equal precisely 0… 🙁

  36. You know – if I were ∅bama, I think I’d start having Bill Clinton speak at all remaining press conferences.

    Lord knows Gibbs is relieved and so is the press!

    And heck ! The left and moderates in this country would probably applaud it and say as an excuse that Obama is too busy to be bothered with any more press conferences anyway!

  38. I agree; he just gave us all The Finger.

    I think he feels bulletproof: no one with anything close to the number and toxicity of his negatives has come anywhere near the White House, but there he sits, smug and inviolate. With the Fourth Estate as his janissaries.

    And his wife ordering him around? nice image for the alleged leader of the Free World.

  39. I’d say these are exactly the type of events that keep Obama hovering around 47%. So off the charts unorthodox in sheer incompetence that his supporters can’t afford admitting they’ve been fooled to such magnitude. If he were half as incompetent we’d see him around 32% already.

  40. Homo liberalis must be banging in around the IQ level of a rutabaga.

    Occam, what did rutabagas ever do to you that you insult them so?

    Seriously, if anyone had any doubts as to what we were saying about 0, they could read the archives of this blog (and others), starting, say, in about March 2008. We knew, we tried to warn others, but were drowned out.

    “Sometimes, I told you so just doesn’t quite say it”. — Will Smith, “I, Robot”

  41. I once accepted a job for which I was not very qualified and to which I was not at all emotionally suited. Fortunately for me, I realized it in the first week. I resigned.

    I think it’s obvious to most people that Obama has come to that same conclusion but doesn’t know what to do about it.

  43. Don’t think Obama cares, at all, he’s managed to lock his name and legacy into the history books; as well, cushy retirement benefits from being POTUS, including free rent for life for his business office, the ideal opportunity to get back to his first love, as a humble “community organizer”, but this time with the stature and notoriety to become bigger than life, again. He will follow in Jimmy Carter’s footsteps, as he builds his library on the lecture and book circuit, but as an even bigger nuisance. If Bubba doesn’t go after the job of Secretary General of the U.N., bet B.H.O. does; he’s the ultimate trojan horse.

  44. Self love can be complete, that is, it loves its own inadequacies and will turn into them at times. Obama is telling us he loves himself and would rather be with himself than with us. “I really don’t need all of you, anyways.”

    Robert Frost described the situation in “My November Guest,” which I think was Frost’s own depression, a depression about which he was objective and observant enough to realize he courted like a lover. The difference between Frost and Obama is that Frost knew he was dissociating and kept the observer’s platform. Obama cannot do that.

  45. Over at talkleft, they’ve said repeatedly in the comments that Obama is an “empty suit”. For the most part the progressives seem disgusted. The only ones who seem to be defending him at all these days are racial activists -who blame every defeat of his or thing he does on white men or Republicans or both – those who depend on him or on the DC beltway for a job, and members of the “cult of personality” who still think he’s playing multi-dimensional chess. That’s pretty much no one at Talkleft, though KOS still has a big case of Obama butt kissing, but then I think Satan himself could be a Democrat and some at KOS would find a reason to vote for him.

  46. Forget the nuances or specific details of what was actually said by anyone.

    Just observe the fact that a sitting president defers to a former president, and then simply leaves the news conference.

    The political ineptness on display is mind boggling….

  47. I woke up about halfway through the press conference – I’ve been I’ve been laid up on the living room sofa recovering from surgery – and I really thought I’d gone back in time. There was Bill Clinton, big as life and twice as natural, standing at the podium in front of the White House press room seal just as in the Days of Yore. I was seriously disoriented.

    And then I started to smile. Whether or not you liked what he was saying, he was just so darn comfortable up there.: amiable, conciliatory, and level-headed. He cast no blame, and called no names. Clinton’s performance threw into stark relief how truly BAD Obama is at this job.

  49. I’m hardly a fan of Bill Clinton, but I don’t see him as henpecked. Hillary is the type to try that, but Bill goes about having fun with other ladies as he wishes, as far as I can tell.

    And that Hillary response to the African student question that was “mis translated” as “what does your husband think” hardly showed her as self confident.

    Obama does seem to be henpecked, however. Michelle appears to me to be a very angry woman.

  50. Over at talkleft, they’ve said repeatedly in the comments that Obama is an “empty suit”.

    No kidding? Even leftist hipsters have figured that out? Then there’s hope I can teach my golden retriever calculus.

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