Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “Reality Bites”

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October 9, 2012

Reality Bites

Hatched by Korso

I'm not one to read Andrew Sullivan much. After all, he is Andrew Sullivan, the man for whom blogging isn't so much of a job as a way to self-medicate. Might I suggest he take a cue from the Ramones and try a sedative instead? Whatever he's been popping lately clearly doesn't agree with him:

I've never seen a candidate self-destruct for no external reason this late in a campaign before. Gore was better in his first debate -- and he threw a solid lead into the trash that night. Even Bush was better in 2004 than Obama last week. Even Reagan's meandering mess in 1984 was better - and he had approaching Alzheimer's to blame.
I'm trying to see a silver lining. But when a president self-immolates on live TV, and his opponent shines with lies and smiles, and a record number of people watch, it's hard to see how a president and his party recover. I'm not giving up. If the lies and propaganda of the last four years work even after Obama had managed to fight back solidly against them to get a clear and solid lead in critical states, then reality-based government is over in this country again. We're back to Bush-Cheney, but more extreme. We have to find a way to avoid that. Much, much more than Obama's vanity is at stake.

This is just the end of the article, but if it seems as if Sullivan is darting around like Remy trying to escape Chef Skinner's kitchen in Ratatouille, then you've got the right idea. What's funny about all of this is how predictable the outcome of the debate was for all of us who have been watching Obama for the last four years. We all knew that the guy was the proverbial empty suit, inflated by a bunch of mainstream media puffery. What was less obvious, however, was the extent to which the people who invented the Obama legend actually believed what they were peddling.

And boy, did they ever believe it. After shielding the president from any serious questioning, after covering his butt on everything from Fast and Furious to Libya, after making believe that anemic growth and chronic high unemployment were signs of an economic recovery, somewhere along the line the media lost more than their objective hold on Barack Obama -- they lost their objective sense of reality.

That's why the debate hit them the way it did. Like a junkie coming down off a four-year high, they crashed. And when they crashed, they crashed hard. Of course, that's the problem with worshipping a false god: sooner or later, he's got to perform a miracle, and when that doesn't happen there ain't much left but lamentations and the gnashing of teeth.

More problematic, however, is that Barack Obama also seems to have believed his own press. But, like the kid who thought he could gain the knowledge of the ages by sleeping with a history book underneath his pillow, he discovered too late that there really is no substitute for actual preparation. Again, for those of us who knew about the real man -- Obama the high-school stoner, Obama the mediocre college student, Obama the fabulist -- none of this came as any surprise. That it came as a shock to Obama the president...well, should scare the living bejeezus out of everyone.

Hatched by Korso on this day, October 9, 2012, at the time of 12:53 PM

Comments

The following hissed in response by: snochasr

Again, I worry about how much damage Obama can do between the ego-shattering November 6 and his entry into rehab on January 20.

The above hissed in response by: snochasr at October 10, 2012 6:25 AM

The following hissed in response by: Big D

Obama did not do badly, for Obama. He was the same droning, vacuous scold he has always been. He has never been quick-witted. He has never been a detailed-policy guy. He is a guy who speaks emptily of hopes and dreams and change and fairness. And then repeats that speech. Over and over...

Obama was what he normally is - barely adequate. Look at how few press conferences he takes, how few hard questions he is willing to answer. Um...Uh...Um. Not confident, not in command of the facts. He sucks at tough negotiations (remember Pelosi and the mute button?). He is not a doer, he's a dreamer. As Clinton aptly described him he is an "amateur", a dilatant. A poser. Always ahs been.

So part of the extreme response people have is that they have invented in their minds something that has never actually existed. There was nothing "wrong' with Obama, there is something wrong with their image of Obama.

And sudden cognitive dissonence is a harsh mistress.

The above hissed in response by: Big D at October 10, 2012 12:18 PM