Given, that is obvious to anybody that has read her column, which thankful I don't do since we have the wonderful Your Abbreviated Pundit Round-up here each day. But somehow I caught her column today. To quote just a part of it:
No Drama Obama is reticent about displays of emotion. The Spock in him needs to exert mental and emotional control. That is why he stubbornly insists on staying aloof and setting his own deliberate pace for responding -- whether it’s in a debate or after a debacle.
So in Maureen "bizzaro" world exerting "mental and emotional control" are not a virtue. In her very next sentence she seems to lose touch with the reality I reside in:
But it’s not O.K. to be cool about national security when Americans are scared.
In fact Maureen, that is exactly what I and I bet the majority of Americans want. I want, no DEMAND my President, our President be "cool about national security." Or put another way, "cool, calm, and collected."
Lets talk a little about Maureen and this meme we've got that Obama is like "Spock," emotionless, cause it is really pissing me off.
Unless you are a cast member on a reality TV show I don't know if there is a single profession in the entire United States where exerting "mental and emotional control" and staying "cool" are not valued traits. Wait, there is a second profession I suppose. Featured op-ed writer for the "Paper of Record."
I want this type of mental mindset even more now, after eight years of a President that seemed to "lead" by his gut and/or emotions. Obama is President Obama, which means he is the head of our government. When there are emergencies, say like the drowning of a city or an attack on our nation, "cool, calm, and collected" is exactly what I want my government to be. I want our President to step back, put emotions to the side and analyze things from a logical point-of-view. I don't need another four or eight years of Bush hysteria or fake displays of emotions for the television cameras.
But Maureen isn't done, she has to present herself as a perfect case study for Sigmund Freud:
He’s so sure of himself and his actions that he fails to see that he misses the moment to be president -- to be the strong father who protects the home from invaders, who reassures and instructs the public at traumatic moments.
My first thought when I read, and then re-read that sentence was, "Who's your daddy!" followed closely by you're pathetic Maureen.
Instead of me attempting to write something and having to then self-edit myself to remove the "F" word a few dozen times, I'll just let "tristero" at Hulabaloo sum up that sentence.
I simply can't believe that anyone would need the president of the United States to be their Daddy. [....] I simply can't believe that the New York Times would publish an op-ed columnist who would write that she needs the president of the United States to be her Daddy. I simply can't believe that our public discourse is so debased that someone as unstable as MoDo has regular access to a wide public -- not to rise above her psychological problems and inform us, or provide us with sensible opinions, but merely to trot out her deeply weird neuroses because she apparently thinks everyone shares them.
I thought Maureen was supposed to be a "strong" women. Reading her op-ed today I envision living with her (cold shiver up my spine), cooking dinner one night, and hearing her scream at the top of her lungs. I run to bathroom to find her standing on the toilet, in full panic mode, pointing towards a small spider that I as her "daddy" have to dispatch for her. I assume afterwords I'd have to hold her for a long time and reassure her everything will be OK.
Pathetic.
But back to Obama exerting "mental and emotional control." Could Maureen project her own emotional needs in a little bit more of a public manner? Now I only have a BA in psychology and never practiced, so I am no expert, but I am seeing this 24/7 with other "talking heads" as well.
That because they are mad, upset, or sad about something Obama should display the same emotions otherwise he isn't genuine. Well not so much. He has a job to do, a very hard and very important job and being emotional about every bit of bad, or even good news, would not be very productive.
Generally speaking I am a very emotional guy, but early in my business life I learned to control that, cause being emotional at work doesn't work so well in my experience.
That Obama is a master at this, that he can detach himself from said emotions (which I am very sure he still has but doesn't show in public) and analyze a situation from a logical point-of-view is one of the reasons I voted for him. I bet it is one of the reason a lot of us voted for him (that "Change" message didn't hurt either).
That so many of our major pundits are not talking about this as a major asset says a heck of a lot more about them then Obama. Just saying.