Obama in Paris: why he said that “mass shootings” happen only in America
Here’s a transcript and video of Obama’s Paris news conference, which was widely perceived as disturbingly unfocused and halting.
He said one thing in particular that received a lot of puzzled criticism:
“With respect to Planned Parenthood, obviously, my heart goes out to the families of those impacted,” Obama said in response to a reporter’s question. “I mean, I say this every time we’ve got one of these mass shootings; this just doesn’t happen in other countries.”
Remember, Obama said this at a press conference while in Paris. Paris, the city that has so very recently endured a series of mass shootings that killed over a hundred people, as well as the Charlie Hebdo shootings and the supermarket shootings that occurred in January of this year. Surely it oughtn’t to be much of a stretch for him to call them to mind, and some people have considered this evidence that he’s losing it in the cognitive sense.
I don’t think so.
Even when Obama denounced the Paris attacks right after they occurred, it sounded as though they had barely registered with him. So it’s not surprising that he might have already forgotten them, along with a few small incidents such as those listed here, as well as these and these, among others. Europe has had a large number of mass killings, of course, even in addition to Islamic terrorism. Not all are mass shootings, of course. But a high number of them are exactly that (including the Paris attacks both in October and last January). As for the others, the people are just as dead even if other means are used.
So, what’s going on here? The first thing you have to understand is that it’s not a slip of the tongue. Obama has said this sort of thing before—although not while in Paris one month after a heinous mass shooting. Note that in the quote he states “I say this every time we’ve got one of these mass shootings.” For example, after the Charleston shootings, he said:
But let’s be clear: At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.
After that, he added that it doesn’t happen with as great frequency (although this article, which corrects for population, seems to prove him wrong even on that point). But originally he said these attacks simply don’t happen in other advanced countries.
That’s one of his mantras, because it combines several themes he holds dear: the superiority of Europe over the big bad United States, and the need for more gun control in the US (note that in Paris he specifically used the word “shootings” rather than the more generic “killings”). Therefore it is necessary for him to capitalize on every non-Islamic-terrorist act of mass shooting by hitting those themes, and if what he says represents a falsehood, or if on occasion (as in Paris) it lands him in a position that leads thinking people to conclude that what he’s just said is absurd, that doesn’t matter. The people he’s really addressing—liberals and the left—will for the most part swallow what he has to say with approval and assent, because they agree with his purpose: dissing the US, and restricting gun rights.
As I’ve stated for many years, Obama is a leftist with an agenda. He is relentlessly on message, and does not miss an opportunity to deliver that message. In addition, he has no shame about lying or misrepresenting the truth; you might say he is audacious in his ability to lie with conviction and with a straight face. One of the reasons he is able to do it is that he speaks to a higher truth and a higher cause—in this case, the cause of disarming the people and consolidating his own power and that of the left. It’s really very simple; I’ve explained it before in this post about the willingness to believe that 2 + 2 = 5.
But there’s another thing going on with Obama. Because the Paris attacks were terrorist attacks, in his mind they don’t really count. Terrorist attacks are some sort of extra category, because his goal is not to whip up outrage about them, his goal is to damp it down while whipping up outrage against ordinary US citizens with guns. That’s what he’s set his sights on (as it were), so that’s what he’s going to address.
Obama best jedi trick is if it doesn’t fit into his agenda he creates another category or gives it another name or something … work place violence ring a bell?
So when the numbers are tallied …. there are no numbers that go against his agenda!
His latest … “a specialized expeditionary targeting force.” You can bet the farm Obama will NEVER refer to these as “boots on the ground.” So there are no boots on the ground!
opps wrong post … sorry.
ok … right post.
Hillary goes to confession.
Bless me father for I have sinned?
What are your sins my dear?
I lied 999 times but I don’t think I lied.
Let’s just call that 1,000 lies!
The mannish boy is everything neo describes, but I think there is a bit more involved. Although I do not portray a psychiatrist on the silver screen, I see a deeply disturbed little boy under the veneer of the suave, psuedo-erudite master of the universe.
“I see a deeply disturbed little boy under the veneer of the suave, psuedo-erudite master of the universe.”
Well, I see generations of STUPID voters, including many who have measurably high IQs.
He said, but he also said we needed to let in all those kids from Central America because they were fleeing violence……
He said, but he also said we needed to let in all those kids from Central America because they were fleeing violence……or at least that what his side of the aisle was saying
I don’t remember who it was who wrote this about President Obama, fighting terrorism, and gun control, but: one of these things he is Constitutionally required to do; one of them he is Constitutionally forbidden to do.
“. . . his goal is not to whip up outrage about [terrorists], his goal is to damp it down while whipping up outrage against ordinary US citizens with guns.” [Neo]
Spot-on!
3.5 million NRA members, and another 4 million members of JPFO, GAO, and other organizations who believe the NRA is too willing to compromise; and the dc cabal believes we will accept infringement of our natural right? This will not end well and the ladies will have to hold up their skirts when crossing the street to avoid bloodstains.
“Here’s a transcript and video of Obama’s Paris news conference, which was widely perceived as disturbingly unfocused and halting.”
At this point, I find him to be SO disturbing that as soon as he appears onscreen, let alone opens his mouth, I click off!
(Who can really take him seriously anymore or take anything he says as truth…except maybe Sasha and Malia?! Even the most diehard and devoted Democrats! When even D. Feinstein regular.y disavows his foreign policy, especially in regard to radical Islamic Jihadists, the most politically apathetic and uninformed person must be thinking twice!
Upon news of today’s San Bernardino shootings I immediately pictured O. and all his White House pals sitting around thinking up euphemisms with which they will refer to this despicable ” incident” and how the will spin it into a gun control issue.
“Here’s a transcript and video of Obama’s Paris news conference, which was widely perceived as disturbingly
unfocused and halting.”
At this point, I find him to be SO disturbing that as soon as he appears onscreen, let alone opens his mouth, I click off!
(Who can really take him seriously anymore or take anything he says as truth…except maybe Sasha and Malia?! Even the most diehard and devoted Democrats! When even D. Feinstein regular.y disavows his foreign policy, especially in regard to radical Islamic Jihadists, the most politically apathetic and uninformed person must be thinking twice!
Upon news of today’s San Bernardino shootings I immediately pictured O. and all his White House pals sitting around thinking up euphemisms with which they will refer to this despicable ” incident” and how the will spin it into a gun control issue.
Ira,
Ou nailed it!
Problem is Americans have “notoriously short memories” when it comes to plitics.
Unless close friends or family are murderd somewhere near them, it’s not an important issue. The Left is so fond of throwing around huge nos. of lives lost in Iraq or elsewhere in Middle East as reasons NOT to go near there and “start” a war (despite the continual decla
Oops!
I meant ” you nailed it!”
(I HATE touch-typing on the iPad! YUCK!)
“But there’s another thing going on with Obama. Because the Paris attacks were terrorist attacks, in his mind they don’t really count.”
Indeed they do not in some stats they’ll use to backup the claim. re: Shootings not involving terrorism.
Now for others; like when they want to claim a mass shooting happens in the US everyday… they use lose loser standards that include everything (anytime 4 people or more people are shot… period).
of course; like you said… even focusing just on shootings is a bias too…
Another day, another Obama lie.
Yawn….
(Why even bother to analyze why?)
Another day, another Hillary Clinton.
More yawns….
(Why even bother to analyze why?)
Another day, another (actually, loads more) MSM lie….
Meanwhile, the middle class is fighting to keep its head above water.
And people are scratching their heads trying to figure out why Americans are bummed out by the political situation in the country….
neo, what if his psychological defenses aren’t that strong? Sharyl Atkisson reported that he refuses to listen if anyone tries to brief him on groups he refuses to believe are terror groups, even if they are on official US lists. Somebody at the WH was having CENTCOM analysts cook the intel so that it would appear that ISIS was being destroyed, and US airstrikes are more effective than they are.
What if he simply can’t handle reality and he’s breaking down under the strain?
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/dec/1/charles-hurt-obama-loses-gift-of-speech-in-paris-t/print/
“Is it now time to invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment?
Has our president officially lost his ability to discharge the powers and duties of his office?
Anyone who listened to President Obama speak to reporters in Paris on Tuesday would reasonably conclude it is high time to start drawing up the papers to transmit to Congress for his removal.
…Without the use of the teleprompter, his speech can be described only as “halting.” It was impossible to count the number of times he seized up, able to deaden the silence with only a drawn-out “uh,” “um” or “ahhh.”
The White House dutifully scrubbed all the halts and stutters from the official transcript, and it was impossible to count them in real time. But a sample of his incoherent word salad found him stuttering about every 15 words, which comes to more than 330 “uh-um-ahhs” in a single appearance.
…It took the doddering president 47 minutes and over 5,000 words to answer just six questions. And by “answer,” I simply mean he unspooled a torrent of disjointed words and broken sentences…”
I was going to link to Richard Cohen’s WaPo piece, which says many of the same things as Charles Hurt’s piece in the WT.
What if Obama is on the knife edge of his Captain Queeg moment? It always seemed to me his ego was easily bruised and his mental state was fragile. He certainly never struck me as mentally tough, although he likes to imagine he is, and I never thought he could too take much pressure.
It looks to me that one of the reasons why Paris doesn’t count is that he needs to block large parts of reality out. I recall saying in the past that Obama himself may have been telling CENTCOM to alter the intel. But it strikes me that it was someone on his staff, most likely his national security adviser, ordering the changes.,
I watched Jake Tapper interview LT GEN Flynn, former commander of DIA, and Flynn had some interesting things to say touching on some of the above. Flynn said that he believes Obama is surrounded by people telling the President what he wants to hear instead of what he needs to hear. It occurs to me they’re protecting Obama from reality because that’s something he can only take in small doses.
He’s not a nice guy, but has always been in way over his head. I think he’s overwhelmed and instead of exploding his breakdown is manifesting itself by just shutting down mentally.
If that’s the case then for the good of the country the GOP needs to keep the pressure on until it’s obvious to everyone that Obama can’t handle the job. These times are too dangerous to have this juvenile amateur as president.
Steve57:
I don’t at all subscribe to the theory that he’s breaking down. It takes a lot of reality to break a narcissistic defense down, and Obama’s nowhere near there, IMHO.
He has NEVER listened to people or news other than what he’s wanted to hear. That’s what has protected him right along. His entire presidency, and the people who “advise” him, has been set up this way from the start. It’s not new, and it’s not a symptom of some new development within him. It’s his m.o..
He often seems doddering and somewhat incoherent when off-script and speaking extemporaneously under criticism. It doesn’t matter. His belief system, and his belief in his own brilliance, is fully intact and is in fact the deepest strongest part of him.
How large does the gap have to be between Barack Obama’s unshakable faith in himself and his own brilliance as opposed to reality have to become until he meets the definition of delusional?
He passed my personal threshold a while back. I’m just curious if there’s a commonly accepted standard among the professionals.
Discovered to be the god who bleeds what Barry will never do: ask “Can you forgive me?” For he possesses no such memory.
I was being tongue-in-cheek, neo. The 25th Amendment doesn’t demand a specific diagnosis. The decision to declare a President unfit is political, not medical or psychological.