However, none of them can compare to the delusions, narcissism, and lack of leadership from the current political class, starting with President Obama and going down through freshmen members of Congress. I could probably do a whole week of posts on these delusions, narcissism, and lack of leadership skills of the whole Washington political class. However, in the interest of time, I will focus on these adjectives in light of the current President.
- Let's start with delusions. Was the President really serious when he told the nation that most rich Americans pay a lower percentage of their earnings in income taxes than poorer Americans, using Warren Buffet as a prop? A two minute examination of official IRS tax returns would prove that this position is a delusion or a lie, one or the other (double click on the graph to get a bigger image):
- Was the President really serious and/or delusional when he publicly told an audience that the Chevy Volt was a great car and that when he got out of office he would purchase one for his personal use? This is a car that has had a potential fire hazard problem, has vastly undersold relative to its forecast, and whose production was completely stopped just a few days after Obama stated these words?
- Was the President really serious and/or delusional when he publicly stated that the Head Start program returns $15 for every dollar spent on it even though his own HHS Department had recently concluded, from their analysis, that kids who attend Head Start programs are basically at the same point in their development and brain power by the end of the first grade as those kids who did not attend a Head Start program? If we are to believe the HHS analysis, Head Start is nothing more than a Federally funded day care program with no inherent benefit over any other, non-government program. Why did the President think other wise?
- Was the President serious and/or delusional when he claimed that his big economic stimulus program was a success? The Congressional Budget Office estimated the final cost of the stimulus program to be $830 billion. The White House claims that this expenditure saved or created about 2.7 million jobs. Thus, by dividing the total cost by the generous estimate of 2.7 million jobs, you end up with a cost per job of over $300,000 per job.
How can this be called anything else but delusional when it costs so much to create or save a job? How can this be called successful relative to the average annual income of an average American household which is around $60,000, 20% of the $300,000 cost per job created?
- The latest delusion comes from the past week when the President offered these words relative to the Supreme Court's review of Obama Care:
"I'm confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress"
Two really obvious delusions with this single statement:
1) If Obama Care is struck down by the Supreme Court, it will not be unprecedented. I am sure that the Supreme Court has struck down or overturned dozens, if not hundreds, of unconstitutional laws throughout our history. All of these laws were passed by democratically elected sets of politicians. The Supreme Court has an established and historical job to do, regardless of who is in office.
The President is a lawyer, he used to teach Constitutional law, is he so deluded to think that his actions and his laws are somehow special, relative to the history of our country? The Supreme Court has struck down segregation laws and anti-women laws and a whole host of other, unconstitutional laws that were passed by democratically elected people. The pending ruling on Obama Care is nowhere close to being unprecedented or extraordinary unless you are someone in a delusional state.
2) If you look at the voting math on Obama Care, you have to be delusional to think that "a strong majority" voted to pass Obama care. The vote in the House Of Representatives was 224 to pass and 206 to not pass. Thus, if just ten House members changed their vote, the legislation would not have passed. 10 members in a House of 430 members comes out to 2.3%, certainly not a strong majority to non-delusional people.
If you look at the Senate voting on the legislation, it passed with no votes to spare. And to get even that close, the President had to cut all kinds of obnoxious and biased deals with certain Senators who were blackmailing the administration for their vote in return for additional perks in the law. If there actually was a strong majority in favor, special, backroom deals would not have to be cut.
In addition, the legislation passed by the barely legal, but certainly unethical, process of reconciliation because the Senate did not have enough votes to pass the legislation straight up. When you have to go through the fine print of the Constitution to find a way to railroad through legislation, you are delusional if you think you had a strong majority.
Is he being delusional or deceitful or both? Tough to tell but easy to conclude that either situation is not a Presidential trait the country needs or should endure.
Let's move along to narcissism. Consider some definitions of what narcissism is defined to be:
1.self-admiration: excessive self-admiration and self-centeredness
2.personality disorder: in psychiatry, a personality disorder characterized by the patient's overestimation of his or her own appearance and abilities and an excessive need for admiration.
- Remember that this President set the all time record for international travel in his first year in office. He visited Europe, the Middle East, and other parts of the world many times. He gave speeches, met with heads of state, and generally enjoyed his time in the global spotlight while the country was suffering horrible economic pains back home. When your need for recognition and admiration around the world comes in ahead of the needs of your constituents back home, narcissism immediately comes to mind.
- This President has probably set the record for most photo ops with athletic teams of any other President in history. He does not just meet with the traditional pro sports teams of the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB. He meets with soccer teams, Olympic teams, college teams (including the Texas Christian University's championship rifle team!), etc. When you need to constantly remind yourself and the world of your athletic prowess and athletic "coolness," narcissism immediately comes to mind.
- Staying with athletics, the President annually seems to think that many in America care about who he thinks is going to win the NCAA Men's and Women's NCAA basketball championships. He spends time on his picks and then insults the whole country by spending more time being interviewed in detail on ESPN about his picks. With all of the major problems facing this country, why does he think his silly basketball picks are important to America? Narcissism comes to mind.
- I have always loved the old saying: "True leaders give credit and accept blame." Consider three somewhat related quotes from three different Presidents and then determine which ones demonstrate leadership.
President Bush speaking about the capture of Saddam Hussein (I have added the boldness, italics, and larger font on personal pronouns): "The success of yesterday's mission is a tribute to our men and women now serving in Iraq. The operation was based on the superb work of intelligence analysts who found the dictator's footprints in a vast country. The operation was carried out with skill and precision by a brave fighting force. Our servicemen and women and our coalition allies have faced many dangers in the hunt for members of the fallen regime, and in their effort to bring hope and freedom to the Iraqi people. Their work continues, and so do the risks. Today, on behalf of the nation, I thank the members of our Armed Forces and I congratulate them."
Now consider the words of Jimmy Carter after a military mission to rescue the Iranian hostages back during his term ended up as a failure: "It was my decision to attempt the rescue operation. It was my decision to cancel it when problems developed in the placement of our rescue team for a future rescue operation. The responsibility is fully my own."
Now consider President Obama's words after Bin Laden was killed: "And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of my war against al Qaeda, even as I continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network. Then, last August, after years of painstaking work by my intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden. It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground. I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan . And finally, last week, I determined that I had enough intelligence to take action, and I authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice. Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan."
It is pretty obvious who is the narcissist in this group. When the important news comes out that Hussein has been captured, Bush "gives the credit" to all of the brave armed forces members who made it happen. He takes none of the credit.
When the Iranian hostage mission goes wrong, Carter steps up and "takes the blame." He does not blame anybody, anything, of any condition, he takes the blame and responsibility for the botched rescue. (Personally, I am not a big fan of Carter but I thought from an integrity and leadership perspective, this was his finest moment.)
But when we get to President Obama, it is pretty obvious he does not have the Presidential timber of Bush and Carter, giving credit and taking blame. He takes all of the credit. Reading his words, it almost seems like he personally went in with all guns blazing to personally kill Bin Laden. It was his war on al Qaeda, his intelligence community, his direction, his decision, etc.
If this delicate operation had gone horribly wrong, I doubt he would have had the integrity and guts that Carter showed. Like any narcissist, he would have blamed someone or something else for the failure.
- But this is not the only time we have seen this trait in Obama. Consider his speech at the signing of the Dodd-Frank Financial Industry Reform legislation: "Now, even before the crisis hit, I went to Wall Street and I called for common-sense reforms to protect consumers and our economy as a whole. And soon after taking office, I proposed a set of reforms to empower consumers and investors, to bring the shadowy deals that caused this crisis into the light of day, and to put a stop to taxpayer bailouts once and for all."
It is only after making sure everyone knew how much he had done does he actually credit Dodd and Frank for their efforts. A narcissist always has to be front and center and the focus of attention.
- Speaking of front and center. Consider the following picture from the so-called "beer summit" early in Obama's term:
This picture is taken after the beer summit and the three parties are heading out to face the press corps. Rather than help his elderly friend down the steps, the President is hustling to be first at the press conference while the law enforcement officer he had accused of harassing his friend is actually staying behind to help the elderly gentleman.
Being delusional and narcissistic is certainly not two traits of leadership you want in your President and President Obama seems to have plenty of both of these negative traits. He takes credit, not blame whenever there is a problem.
The economy stinks because of Bush, ATMs, the Japanese tsunami, Republicans, Tea Party members, the weather, it is never his problem or fault. The World Tribune reported earlier this week that Obama administration representatives had reportedly and formally told the Israeli government that Israel is responsible for high U.S. gas prices, not Obama or his energy policies.
In the spring of 2011, the Obama administration submitted a long term budget plan for the country that was so bad that it was unanimously defeated in the Senate. Rather than lead and tell the country the truth about the need to drastically reduce government spending to keep the country fiscally solvent, he took the coward's way out and submitted a business as usual budget that even his own Senate party members rejected. Certainly not displaying any kind of leadership at all.
A few weeks ago he submitted a 2013 Federal government budget that was rejected unanimously by the House of Representatives. It was so bad that EVERY Democrat voted against it. This was another leadership opportunity to level with Americans and lead them out of this fiscal death spiral we are in. As with the spring budget from last year, he refused to lead since it might cost him some votes. Pathetic lack of leadership, time and time again.
A famous line from the movie "Animal House" is uttered by Dean Wormer to one of the frat boys: "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son." The translation of that line to describe this administration would look like the following: "Delusional, narcissistic, and unable to lead is no way to go through life." Unfortunately, that is the plight of this country under this administration, nothing more than a Animal House analogy.
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The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.
The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
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http://www.cato.org/
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http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/
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