President Obama is many things, but comfortable retail politician he is not. In the run-up to the 2008 election, he was an effective speaker to large crowds and masterful at presenting himself with enough gloss that disenchanted folks from hard left to slightly right-of-center could see themselves reflected in him. But put the president in an unscripted moment with “average” people, such as those who ran into him yesterday at a restaurant in Reidsville, N.C., and you get glimpses of a stiff, stilted scold.
Check out this series of exchanges captured by the pool news reporter:
To one man, Obama said: “Now, you ate all your vegetables before you had dessert,” noting his wife’s focus on healthy eating.
He greeted another couple, one of whom is an outgoing Reidsville City Council member. They told the president how long they’d been married.
“Michelle and I have been married 19 – We’ve got 44 to go to catch up with you.”
Leaving the restaurant, the president worked a rope line.
“You’ve got to work hard,” he said to one pair of community college students.
One woman handed Obama a phone, telling him that her grandmother was on the line. “Hey grandma — boy this is an old style phone … I appreciate you.”
Called me old-fashioned — though I no longer own an “old style phone” — but I’m not greatly interested in running into politicians who might choose to critique my choice of lunch items and the order in which I eat them. A skillful politician, say a Reagan or a Clinton, might smile conspiratorially and make a joke about how good my dessert looks, or flatter me by asking for a menu recommendation. He wouldn’t thank me for following his wife’s dietary pronouncements, then instruct a passing college student to study hard, then make fun of a grandson’s phone to his grandma.
Yes, I know that the ability to mix with the common folks may not be a necessary skill for heading the executive branch of the federal government. Honestly, I care less about a president’s ability to engage in small talk than I do about a president’s desire to steal my money and trample my liberty. But Obama’s people apparently think it matters, and that he’s good at it.
They think a lot of things, few of them true.
Barack Obama is not adept at small talk. He's more the grandiose rhetoric-read-from-a-teleprompter-standing-between-Greek-columns kind of guy.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusethat is your critique? you didn't like his banter? Impeach him!!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf he gets impeached, it will be for:
(i) aiding and abetting the murder of two BATF agents; and for
(ii) violating US law by subordinating US taxpayers as creditors to his campaign contribution bundler as debtor.
A little perspective, please.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWow this post comes across as the bitter sniping of someone who wakes up every day automatically in a snit about the evil Barack Obama. Hope your spleen feels vented for a little while.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusegood thing he's not one of the greedy rich ... you know the ones Obama talks about all the time ... in a non insulting way ...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf you can't distinguish a bemused look at your guy from a bitter snit, you need a little more . . . nuance.
Calma.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYes, this definitely reveals how staggeringly out of touch Obama is. To review each of the abbreviated items from this "pool report":
1. "To one man, Obama said: 'Now, you ate all your vegetables before you had dessert,' noting his wife’s focus on healthy eating."
Wow, did he just compliment that man on healthy eating habits?! Astoundingly out of touch, and really condescending to compliment someone....
2. "He greeted another couple, one of whom is an outgoing Reidsville City Council member. They told the president how long they’d been married.
'Michelle and I have been married 19 – We’ve got 44 to go to catch up with you.'"
Whoa, stop right there -- a compliment to how long that couple had been married, and aspiring to have his marriage last so long? How impertinent! Did I say condescending, too? Yeah, that was condescending!
3. "Leaving the restaurant, the president worked a rope line.
'You’ve got to work hard,' he said to one pair of community college students."
Well, of course he should've told them that maybe they can become day traders and try to get rich quick at all costs. But besides that, how dare Obama suggest that students need to work hard to succeed! Some of them may be taking light courseloads, slacking off, thinking that none of it really matters. Who is HE to tell THEM what to do?! I mean, other presidents NEVER gave advice to students about how to succeed! (One possible exception: All of them.) Am I right or am I right?!
4. "One woman handed Obama a phone, telling him that her grandmother was on the line. 'Hey grandma — boy this is an old style phone … I appreciate you.'
OK, this one breaks the camel's back. No one should ever, ever joke about someone's phone. I don't care if you are the dang-freaking President of the United States -- that just goes beyond all decency. True, we can't see the phone from the pool report, but like the writer of this Corner post I am clairvoyant and there is NO WAY a joke could've been made about that phone. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Really, almost as bad as aspiring to a long marriage....! (Again, how dare he?!)
Boy, Obama-Is-Always-Wrong Syndrome must be awfully fun....
:-)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRe: #3
He could've told them to put away their slippers, grab their marching boots, stand around in a public park somewheres, make themselves totally useless, and then apply for all the food stamps he's been fixin' to give 'em.
So, at least we agree on SOME thing.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMost of the comments to this post are extremely negative, suggesting the OP is petty. Maybe so, but in 2008 it was just this kind of impromptu interaction that gave the political firmament Joe the Plumber -- whose questions revealed more about Mr. Obama's Wealth-Spreading intentions than all the Approved Interlocutors the establishment press could muster.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseObama's awkwardness in moments like this is real. And if his handlers keep putting him in that situation, it is only a matter of time before a similar event transpires. And this time, he's not wearing any Messiah Armor.
You say that "most of the comments" to this post are "extremely negative," but I only see two of them, including yours. Yours and the only other comment shown on this are basically positive toward the original post.
You allow that maybe the negative comments have it right. (Mine was one of the negative responses, by the way.)
But I can't see the other posts. Are they being hidden? Who makes those decisions (especially when it's admitted that the negative posts may be correct, and apparently aren't using offensive language or otherwise objectionable)? Mine certainly didn't use any foul language or anything of the sort, but it's not showing -- and yours is.
Is the idea to hide anything that might show how misguided the original post was? To create an echo chamber? What gives?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI believe Mr. Hood inadvertently stumbled into Left Wing Double Standard #55,000,000.
George HW Bush was unqualified to be president because he didn't have familiarity with the scanner at the supermarket. This showed, allegedly, that he could not relate to the American people, couldn't understand them, and hence, was a poor choice to govern them.
But when a leftist is woefully out of touch with people's sensibilities, and is incapable of communicating one-on-one with any sense of comfort and empathy, it's merely evidence of how utterly genius is his intellect.
Obama is very glad I was not in that diner, and it was not me whose plate he surveyed. Let's just leave it at that, for the sake of any civility we have left.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHow in the world did Obama demonstrate in that diner that he was "woefully out of touch with people's sensibilities"?
There are four encounters described in the little secondhand summary that we have. In them, Obama 1) complimented someone's healthy eating habits, 2) complimented a long marriage , 3) told students to work hard to do well, and 4) said something about a cell phone (that we have not seen) being "old-style," in the course of saying he "appreciated" someone's grandmother.
The only potentially insensitive thing was the phone comment. And on that one, who knows? Maybe it was an obviously "old-style" phone that invited a comment, like one with a rotary dial. (Kidding.) It's really hard to know what the context was and whether it seemed like a normal, funny, or insensitive comment in the moment -- but it's pretty crazy to take these four instances and conclude based on them that Obama's "woefully out of touch." (Compliments to healthy eating and long marriages! Encouraging hard work by young people! The horror!!)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI don't agree with this critique. I have been noticing a lot of video clips of Obama out on the hustings and I think he is frighteningly good at making his hideous, dishonest, class-envy appeal and talking smack to the people. What needs to be critiqued is his naked communism. I've never heard anything like it in national politics during my post WWII lifetime.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI don't agree with this critique. I have been noticing a lot of video clips of Obama out on the hustings and I think he is frighteningly good at making his hideous, dishonest, class-envy appeal and talking smack to the people. What needs to be critiqued is his naked Marxism. I've never heard anything like it in national politics during my post WWII lifetime.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDidn't he realize this was a prime opportunity to "joke" about electrocuting illegal immigrants? There much have been a chance to work in a knee-slapper about killing people.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo, when unscripted, Obama is basically an old-school conservative (work hard, eat right, stay married, and josh with grandma about her grandkid and his dang gadgets)?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThat sums it up. But what about his "body language"? Who knows what he was really saying, right? Just think of this president as a walking Rorschach and this post as psychological specimen.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Boy, Obama-Is-Always-Wrong Syndrome must be awfully fun....
:-)"
Hey Vonnegut:
When the movie is made depicting his assassination, you'll have a front-row seat to the debut, okie dokie?
Bush Derangement Syndrome apparently is a permanent condition, so:
"Look around, you'll see who's laughin' last!"
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse- Rush "Beneath, Between, Behind" -
OOPS.
I quoted the song, "Best I Can". Personally, I think Vonnegut can do much better than to walk right into hypocrisy personified.
I think it's obvious that Mikey B and Kurt here are visibly suffering from Obama Unpopularity Syndrome.
They're under a lot of stress. And the quality of their writing has slipped considerably.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAh, name calling. Completely unfounded accusations of hypocrisy. Quoting Rush lyrics, or something.
To think how proud Madison would be to see you invoking his name right now!
:-)
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