President Put-Down

[Geee]

American Thinker:

Barack Obama has had one passion that has been consistent over the years: himself. His healthy self-regard is well-known by now. From the omnipresent posters of his jutting face to the spectacle of the Democratic National Convention with Styrofoam Greek columns to the disgraceful alteration of the official presidential seal during the 2008 campaign to his constant presence on our airwaves (Really, do we care about his sports commentary? Or his brackets in the NCAA tournaments?), we know that this is a man with a hunger for the spotlight.

But Obama's ego needs more than the worship of others. His ego also needs the boost that comes from insulting and denigrating others and rubbing in their faces how well he has fared compared to them. The latest example is culled from the upcoming hagiography of him from the writer David Maraniss:

Will Burns, who worked for Obama when he was a state senator, recalls walking the precincts of their district in the fall of 1997, rounding up petition signatures for Obama's first reelection campaign. "Obama was even competitive about getting signatures," said Burns, now a Chicago alderman. "We would go to someone's door and he would say afterwards, 'See how smooth that was. See how good I am at this. I got a full sheet! You only got a half sheet.' And I would think, 'Well, you're the [expletive] candidate, of course you got a full sheet!' That was him."

 

Other examples of the Ego in the Oval Office:

 

I think I'm a better speechwriter than my speechwriters.

 

I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors.

 

And this boast from 2004 before his breakout speech at the Democratic National Convention:

I'm Lebron, baby. I can play on this level. I got game.

 

Hillary Clinton was just "likeable enough" -- ah, the back-handed "compliment" that is actually an insult. Obama doesn't deliver his putdowns with the humor of Don Rickles. He truly is the Insulter-in-Chief, who has a mean streak that flourishes when he abuses and demeans other people.

 

But for what purpose does he use putdowns? Why does he seemingly need to trash-talk people on a regular basis?

His belief in how own superiority is clear. We certainly know how disdainful he is of small-town people based on his view of them as bitter clingers to guns and God who fear foreigners. Lest we forget, though, he later smeared all Americans by blaming weak economic growth under his reign on Americans who have grown "soft." Americans have been "a bit lazy," too.