Obama Doesn’t Think We’re Very Interesting

Obama’s deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter told MSNBC that Obama’s “recovery” created more jobs than Reagan’s recovery. Without even looking at the numbers Cutter’s comments don’t pass the sniff test. In the first three years of the Reagan recover the economy gained just under 10 million jobs. These jobs replaced the jobs lost in the recession plus around 7 million. The Obama recover hasn’t come close to replacing 5 million jobs and has only replaced 46% of the jobs lost in the recession. So no, Obama didn’t beat out Reagan in economic recovery.

Perhaps it’s lies like Cutter’s that are turning the nation toward Mitt Romney. Or perhaps it’s actually the truth behind the numbers, the Obama recovery has been dreadful. During the last three years the economy has grown by 6.5% which is less than half of the average of the first three years of a recovery. No wonder a pair of University of Colorado professors, using some mathematical formula, believe Romney is going to win in a landslide. These guys have been right about every election since 1980. But of course past success doesn’t mean predictive success this year. Still, there seems to be a shift towards Romney as the polls are tightening. The economy is a big reason, lies from Obama’s campaign managers certainly don’t help his case.

The other day the President held a fundraiser with a bunch of former NBA stars such as Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing. The conservative media is all a buzz because he accused Romney of “playing dirty” and it’s time to “put them away.” The comments aren’t much to get excited about, it was just a lame basketball analogy that likely had the players rolling their eyes. If there is one thing that is clear about pols, it’s that they love using sports analogies and there’s something more clear about pols it’s that their sports analogies are always dreadful. We’ll chalk this up in the dreadful column and not get excited about it.

What was interesting is how Obama began his speech. He’s in a room with a bunch of former NBA stars and the President declared it’s very rare “that I’m the 5th or 6th most interesting person in the room.” I’ll grant that former athletes are usually very interesting. Their war stories are usually interesting, their embellishments are often priceless. But for Obama to say that it’s rare that he’s only the 5th or 6th most interesting person in the room, that shows in public a narcissism that should shock everyone. Worse, the interesting people are just former athletes. They’re interesting to be sure but with all the important people Obama meets in a particular day, he believes he’s more interesting than all but he athletes.

This bit of narcissism directly relates to the cold, aloof tone of his speeches over the past four years and the tone of his campaign. At the end of the day Obama doesn’t think we’re all that interesting. In fact, he thinks he’s more interesting than just about all of us who aren’t NBA players. This comes across in his speeches. The effect of his soaring rhetoric has worn off, now all we see is an arrogant man who talks down to the American people and doesn’t much care for us.

After four years the public has gotten to know this President and it’s a safe bet that if we knew what we know now about him in 2008 he wouldn’t have been elected. We have a President who doesn’t much like our way of life and isn’t much interested in any of us. He wants to tell us what to do but he doesn’t really want to speak with us. We just aren’t very interesting. But we all should be very interested in what he has to say, he’s very important and interesting don’t you know. This attitude comes off in his speeches, it comes off in the lies spun by his campaign staff. The tide of this election is turning and the more Obama speaks in public the less likely he is to win re-election. That’s a rotten place for a President to be in.