President Obama's competitive, boastful nature
and condescending advice rubs even loyal Democrats the wrong way, a new
profile alleges.
The New York Times' Jodi Kantor airs complaints from
"loyal" Obama associates -- not as a buried lede but explicitly in
her introduction:
He has mentioned more
than once in recent weeks that he cooks “a really mean chili.” He has
impressive musical pitch, he told an Iowa audience. He is “a surprisingly good
pool player,” he informed an interviewer — not to mention (though he does) a
doodler of unusual skill.
The article reports Obama's associates
characterize this bluster and political zeal as "cockiness." Further,
Washington Democrats say he is all too eager to offer unsolicited advice -- on
handshakes, writing, and parenting, among other topics.
For those activities at which he feels
inadequate, Obama reportedly dedicates considerable time to practice, no matter
how trivial the pastime:
He has played golf 104
times since becoming president, according to Mark Knoller of CBS News, who
monitors his outings, and he asks superior players for tips that have helped
lower his scores. He decompresses with card games on Air Force One, but
players who do not concentrate risk a reprimand (“You’re not playing, you’re
just gambling,” he once told Arun Chaudhary, his former videographer).
His idea of birthday relaxation is competing
in an Olympic-style athletic tournament with friends, keeping close score. The
2009 version ended with a bowling event. Guess who won, despite his history of
embarrassingly low scores? The president, it turned out, had been practicing in
the White House alley.
Kantor's piece carries a long-running theme
that Obama easily -- perhaps even uncontrollably -- rates and ranks others
around him. A 2008 debate gaffe found him flippantly calling Hillary Clinton
"likable enough." Of Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign, he asserted,
"We're the Miami Heat, and he's Jeremy Lin." Even his own staff are
subject to criticism:
“I think that I’m a
better speechwriter than my speechwriters,” Mr. Obama told Patrick Gaspard, his
political director, at the start of the 2008 campaign, according to The New
Yorker. “I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy
directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m going to think I’m a better
political director than my political director.”
Despite a strong push
to negatively define Mitt Romney, Obama finds himself neck and neck with the
Republican presidential candidate two months before the election -- evenfalling behind in some polls. As the
November ballot draws nearer, he will need to rely heavily on his personal
likability to draw independent voters. The New York Times and
allied Democrats airing these grievances, which may reinforce Republicans'
charges against Obama as vain and out of touch, is a serious problem for the
embattled incumbent.
h/t RUSH Limbaugh
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