Noonan essentially says that Obama is an empty black suit

Paul K. writes:

Peggy Noonan’s column Friday analyzes the reasons for Obama’s failures as president.

Why did the president make such mistakes? … Because he had so much confidence, he thought whatever he did would work…. It is one thing to think you’re Lebron. It’s another thing to keep missing the basket and losing games and still think you’re Lebron. And that really was the problem: He had the confidence without the full capability.

In other words, to quote blogger Whiskey’s characterization of the black culture which you have often quoted, what we have here is “toxic levels of self-esteem combined with manifest incompetence.”

LA replies:

It does seem that this view about Obama, which previously only “racists” believed, is now becoming something of a consensus.

I’ve often asked, how could Obama be both an empty black suit and a determined leftist with an agenda to weaken America? Here’s the answer. Insofar as his (real though unacknowledged) job is to hurt and weaken America, he is serious about that job, though he keeps it mostly concealed. Insofar as his job is looking after America’s well-being, he is an empty black suit. He shows up at the presidential office (when he’s not campaigning or going to celebrity events), he goes through the motions of being president, but he’s not doing the job of president.

The economy is a prime example. Jeffrey Anderson at the Weekly Standard made an argument the other day that struck me: the reason Obama has done so poorly with the economy, and doesn’t even pretend to offer serious measures to fix the economy, is that he doesn’t care about the economy. (As a side point, this fits the familiar leftist profile in which leftists think that wealth will somehow always be there, produced by “bad guys” like Romney, while the leftists’ job is to is seize and distribute the wealth that the bad guys have somehow created and will somehow always keep creating.)

Also, the picture of Obama as having vast self-esteem without ability is supplemented by Michelle Malkin’s collection of White House publicity shots of Obama (“The Photo-Op Presidency”). She doesn’t mention lack of ability, but the constant dissemination of the image of Obama looking like the strong, furrowed-brow commander-in-chief in conclave with his advisors is the equivalent of the empty black suit idea, in which a person has the clothing, vocabulary, and other trappings that are expected of a person holding a certain job, but is not actually performing the job.

Obama with terrorism advisor John Brennan:
All furrowed brow, no president

Comments

N. writes:

I suggest a caption contest for that image of Obama with John Brennan.

Some candidates:

• “Why are you telling me something I do not want to hear?”

• “What do you mean, ‘terrorist’? I’ve told you before, John, those are freedom fighters.”

• (I have no idea what he’s talking about, but I can’t admit that … )

Others?

Gintas writes:

Captions:

• I need to work on my low pull hooks, it’s killing my handicap.

• NBA season! Yeah, finally! I need to get into a Knicks practice and get it goin’ with the home skillets. 3-2-he shoots-1-bzzzt—swish! In yo face, sucka!

• What is this babbler trying to say?

• Oahu? No, too crowded. Big Island? Maui? Man, I thought these tough decisions would come easy by now.

• He’s my terrorism advisor. I should be paying attention. Don’t bust a vein, John, it ain’t worth it.

• Smoke break!

N. writes:

Let us bear in mind that Peggy Noonan described Obama’s inauguration in terms that approached the orgasmic. She engaged in shameless idol-worship, like some teenager crushing on the latest boy-band. And to the best of my knowledge, Noonan has never, ever, written the slightest mea culpa. She’s just airbrushed that episode out of her vitae, it appears. Now, in an Orwellian fashion, she has always been a critic of Obama.

One of the disgusting things about American journalism is the total inability of any columnist, commentator, pundit, etc. ever to admit the slightest error. Admitting, “I was wrong” is anathema to the modern chattering class. And so, because Noonan and her ilk can’t ever admit when they are wrong, they deserve to be constantly challenged about the accuracy or rightness of their scribblings.

Adults who will never admit error cannot be trusted to be honest.

Not even honest to themselves.

LA replies:

See my January 2009 post on Noonan’s reaction to Obama’s inauguration:

Noonan embraces the principle of race-conscious multiculturalism [What Noonan sees as this glorious moment in America is the function of the fact that nonwhites identify with a nonwhite president but not with a white president. Noonan has signed on to the principle that America must become symbolically a nonwhite country.]

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 03, 2012 11:19 AM | Send