I want to talk about something that started to become apparent to me during the debt negotiations. It's something I've never seen in national politics...
It is that nobody loves Obama. This is amazing because every president has people who love him, who feel deep personal affection or connection, who have a stubborn, even beautiful refusal to let what they know are just criticisms affect their feelings of regard. At the height of Bill Clinton's troubles there were always people who'd say, "Look, I love the guy." They'd often be smiling—a wry smile, a shrugging smile. Nobody smiles when they talk about Mr. Obama. There were people who loved George W. Bush when he was at his most unpopular, and they meant it and would say it. But people aren't that way about Mr. Obama. He has supporters and bundlers and contributors, he has voters, he may win. But his support is grim support. And surely this has implications.
That immediately took me back to 1968. I was 14 years old (so yes, you can now figure out how old I am - LOL) and living in a VERY conservative small-town Bible Belt community in East Texas. Hubert Humphrey was a United States Senator running for President. And in my naive bubble world, all I could think of was "Who votes for this guy? No one likes him." As a matter of fact, whenever I heard people talk about him - it was perfectly clear that they hated him. It was a conundrum for me.
Ten years later I'd relocated to Minnesota - of all places - and when Humphrey died I was up close and personal to the outpouring of love that came from the entire country about him. But even more so from his home state. Boy, did I get a case of whiplash on my own childish ignorance about the man!!!!! It was - if nothing else - a lesson in what happens when you make grand assumptions based on your own small world.
Its clear that's what Noonan has done. I can assure her, there are people all over this country who ADORE the man. But one has to wonder why a woman of her age and experience is still living in a bubble. I can forgive myself for doing so at 14. What's her excuse?
(Tongue in cheek) Fear of living in the REAL world?
ReplyDeleteI so agree with you on this blog posting. Thank you for bringing some context to this situation. It really incensed me that she deliberately implied that the President engaged in "He-Man Gangster talk", when we all know that it was the Speaker of the House Boehner that utilized a thug movie to motivate his ranks.
ReplyDeleteTwo weeks ago, she was saying the President needed to stop being in the middle of the Debt Ceiling issue and now she says that he is invisible. She is just pissed that President Obama invoked the words of her St. Reagan and reminded the world that this current group of Right Wing Extremists known as Tea Party Caucus are nothing like Reagan.
She has completely lost my respect forever more. It is perfectly obvious that the GOP is willing to tank not only the U.S. to prove their hatred for the first black President, but the entire world economy too. They just cannot stand that this President was the one that took down Somali pirates and Osama Bin Laden, presumably the reason we went into Afghanistan and then expanded into Iraq. It really burns their pride, Chicken Hawks that they are!
Hey Smartypants, I was 14 in 1968 also, and everyone at my Commie/hippie summer camp in upstate New York was wearing their McCarthy buttons and thought that Hubert Humphrey was just completely repugnant, a member of the Old Guard. That's how I viewed him also. Of course, Richard Nixon was just too despicable for words, so by the time the election came around, Humphrey was looking pretty good in comparison.
ReplyDeleteThose who remember 1968 probably all learned different lessons from it. And as for those too young to remember 1968, sometimes I think they are lucky. And sometimes I think they just don't know anything.
Ms Noonan knows not of what she speaks. like so many today only WASHINGTON tp'S speak truth, and like ms noonan no-ones listening to them. I love My President, he believes in the people of America and I'll follow him to ends of the earth to help take America forward.
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