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President Obama and Self-deception
All of us are vulnerable to deceit and self-deception. Deception of parents by children actually begins in the womb, when they manipulate the mother chemically into providing greater investment than is in her best interests. It continues at six months of age, developing rapidly to incorporate language, other individuals and self-deception in service of deceit—the better to hide the ongoing deception. Bright people may be more vulnerable to self-deception than dim ones. Certainly more intelligent children (and adult monkeys) practice deception more often.
Presidents are no more immune to self-deception than the rest of us, but it is much more visible to others and has potentially far greater effects. Barack Obama’s self-deception, as is often the case, was the downside of a major virtue—the ability to integrate opposing factions.
He gave me a scare when after winning the 2008 election he first emerged at night with his gorgeous family between a set of Greek columns. My God, I thought, so his victory is the culmination of 2000 years of Democracy. Instead of humility he chooses self-exaltation. This is exactly the reverse of what works best. What will come next?
What came next were two mistakes, one with immediate negative consequences and the other requiring 8 years to ripen. The US was in a deep recession, second only to the Great Depression, and a major reason why Obama won. Since 1932 it was well known that the appropriate response was massive government spending directed at the newly unemployed and, if possible, at repairing infrastructure. The unemployed will spend the money at once, giving a multiplier effect. Likewise, infrastructure was badly in need of repair and this costs less when unemployment is high, and also increases employment, again with a multiplier effect.
Howard Stieglitz and Paul Krugman, two superb economists and Nobel Memorial Laureates met with Obama and urged a 1.5 trillion dollar infusion, which would have been almost exactly right. But they had both supported Hillary Clinton in the primaries and so he went with his own advisor, Larry Summers who had a record of major mistakes when working for Bill, not to mention as President of Harvard, so Obama proposed an 800 billion infusion and then made the classic “Barry” mistake by giving 400 billion of it to small business. This was well known to have no positive effect whatsoever. Businesses do not invest during a recession, they wait for demand to return. They are happy to get the money, which they promptly put away in savings where it has no effect. In short, Obama’s stimulus was ¼ the size it needed to be. It did reverse the slide downwards leading to years of positive growth but the effect was too weak when needed most and chants of “Yes we can” turned, in effect, to chants of “Yes we can but it sure is gong to take a long time” and the Tea Party swept aside many of his powers in 2010.
Barack was known as “Barry” growing up because his Kenyan father Barack was a “rolling stone that gathered no moss” and his son always had to navigate two worlds without the support of his father. He had all the benefits of outbreeding—tall, good looking and very bright—and his ability to navigate the two worlds propelled him upwards—into Harvard Law School, then first “black” Law Review editor, then Illinois legislator—then his memorable “not Red States nor Blue States but United States” speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention. But always with the flaw of compromising where he should not.
The second major mistake he made right away was to appoint Hillary to be Secretary of State, making peace with his defeated opponent, a nice gesture perhaps but unheard of in US history. Why elevate your opponent? Why indeed. She will be in a lead position to replace you 8 years later but will in fact usher in something far worse. “Crooked” Hillary indeed—not because of some foolishness over e-mails but because she was a life-long enabler of a thoroughly dishonest husband, as when she helped him rebut Jennifer Flowers’ irrefutable evidence of infidelity in 1992. Biden, it is widely believed, would have trounced the Republicans in 2016. He is a thoroughly honest and decent man with a lifelong love for his wife and children.
Let us conclude with a minor example—the arrest of Harvard Professor Louis Gates outside his home, six months into Obama’s presidency. He did not have to comment on this trivial event but chose to. Corporatist that he is and biased toward the upper strata, he took Gates’ side. When there was a hue and cry he arranged a little beer party on the White House lawn—Obama with his long legs underneath the table, Vice President Biden opposite him, a cop wondering how in hell he got roped into this absurd situation and “Skip” Gates happy as a clam in the ocean, all aglow as he held forth on God knows what.
If there was in fact a teachable moment, it was this. ALL Americans should know that no police officer has the right to enter your home without a search warrant or an arrest warrant. This goes way back to English common law—the King must knock at a peasant’s door—your home is your castle. The police officer had invited Gates outside. Gates fell for the trick and was promptly arrested. He was the fool, not the cop. And black Americans especially should know the law where police officers are concerned.
Obama draws a line in the sand against Syrian bombings, they cross the line, Obama does nothing. Obama offends Michelle and she promptly puts him through three degrees of hell as he well deserved. And so on.
Finally, I have been dismayed by all the photos I have seen of him since he left office—a big grin while swimming in the ocean, taking a picture of Michelle—at a safe distance—on a super yacht and grinning ear to ear while talking to Prince Harry. He is so happy to be freed from the burdens of the Presidency while enjoying all the perks. May God forgive him. But he did have it all. I used to joke in the 2008 campaign that I liked everything about him except Michelle. People would be all up in my face—what are you talking about? Michelle is beautiful, she is wonderful. Precisely my point, I would say, why does he get to be President AND have Michelle? It isn’t right!
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