April 18, 2007

Obama on Virginia Tech and Don Imus:

According to Ben Smith, Presidential candidate Barack Obama, who called for Don Imus to be fired over an improvised remark, riffed on the Virginia Tech mass murders as follows:

"There's also another kind of violence that we're going to have to think about. It's not necessarily the physical violence, but the violence that we perpetrate on each other in other ways," he said, and goes on to catalogue other forms of "violence."

There's the "verbal violence" of Imus.

That's one hilariously tin-eared response to a tragedy, lifted straight out of a Jesse Jackson stump speech from 1984. And comparing Virginia Tech to Don Imus is pure self parody.

Of course, if you are running for President, or if you are yapping on the radio for hundreds of hours per year, some of your improvisations are going to fall terribly flat. One could reasonably expect a little forgiveness following an apology, but that is exactly what Sen. Obama did not extend to Imus.

Mickey Kaus writes:

Barack Obama's misguided attempt to connect the Virgina Tech murders with the Imus slur ("quiet violence") and, yes, loss of health care benefits due to layoffs and overseas competition, doesn't come off quite as obscene as you'd expect when you listen to it--because Obama's delivery is too fatigued and subdued, even depressive, to trigger the sense that he's manipulating anybody. Still, it's not exactly evidence of a fresh intelligence, or even basic common sense, at work--much less rising to the occasion. It suggests a mindset that tries to fit every event into a familiar, comforting framework he can spoon-feed his audience without disturbing them. ...

Mickey appears to be picking up on my point that Obama's autobiography has all the hallmarks of being a written by a literarily gifted depressive. Certainly, during Obama's Ross Perot-like rise to near the top of the Presidential candidate heap over the previous couple of years, he didn't show signs of depression. Perhaps, however, he goes through a mild manic-depressive cycle, although not as a blatant as Perot's in 1992. Lots of high achievers do -- you claw your way into power, money, or fame during an up phase and hang on during a down phase.

I don't follow politics enough to have a worthwhile opinion, but I've been picking up hints from the press in the last month that perhaps his depression, if such it is, might be back. Mild manic-depression shouldn't disqualify him for the White House, but it's the kind of thing we ought to know about a candidate -- unlike in 1992 when nobody in the media except Saturday Night Live mentioned that Perot was enormously manic-depressive.


My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Has he quit smoking? Nicotine withdrawal has been known to cause a prolonged depression, that lingers even after the initial intense effects wear off.

Anonymous said...

Michelle Malkin - she's not Korean, btw - writes:

The next time an MSM outlet describes Barack Obama as "articulate," I suggest you send them this audio link. My friend Jessica McBride sent it along, and man, is it painful. It's from his speech yesterday in Milwaukee--tying the Virginia Tech massacre to Iraq, Darfur, Don Imus, and everything but the kitchen sink.

Anonymous said...

Racial demagoguery is now clearly a tactic he intends to employ to the fullest extent possible for the rest of his campaign. Lame.

Ron Guhname said...

I can't speak for others, but I'd choose a verbal bullet over a lead one.

Anonymous said...

Post of the day ron!
The introduction speech sums up the white liberal view of this - its an interesting insight into the increasing empty rhetoric of 'diversity'
After hearing the 'articulate' obmama speech it will be interesting to see if the the media is able to cover up what a buffon he is, or if white guilt will make democrats ignore his obvious shortcomings and elect him anyway. Hell white liberals did it with Dinkins in New York and nearly destroyed the city.

cheerful iconoclast said...

I was also struck by how rambling and incoherent his comments were, in addition to the obscenity of comparing stupid comments by Don Imus to a mass murder.

It also occurred to me that some of it hearkens back to the whole "politics of meaning" thing that Hilary once got mixed up in. The idea being that somehow if our politics are more real, more authentic, more true, then our lives will be better and have meaning, because we're up there on the barricades together.

Unknown said...

Yeah Ron, I'll take the ole' verbal violence over the hollowpoint kind any day of the week...

...unless we're talking the kind of verbal violence that comes from a Crystal Gail Mangum.

Then I might have to think twice.

Anonymous said...

Obama's wife made him give up smoking as a condition for him running for president. To which I say to her, daggummit the years and quality of life that your husband may gain means a lot less to me than whether he is at the top of his game when/if he's in the white house!

Anonymous said...

What evidence is there about Ross Perot and depression?

Anonymous said...

Steve,

Your observations on the effect of manic-depression on politics are really intriguing. I think there is a ton of fodder for your theory, ex: Howard Dean's over-exuberance, the withdrawn hard-drinking Nixon. For all we know, we only saw Teddy Roosevelt's peaks and the media at the time never recorded his valleys.

Keep exploring this

Anonymous said...

I will never vote for OBAMA as long as affirmative action/quotas are enforced in schools and business. If you lived in a large city like Chicago you probably know what I mean. For the rest of you please move in to a large city and find out what diversity means. No wonder people are running for the suburbs and beyond.