Obama is cool, calm and collected – but he has an Achilles’ Heel: contempt for young people, as demonstrated by his condescending comment describing NSA leaker Edward Snowden as “a 29-year-old hacker.”
“A 29-Year-Old Hacker”
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Obama has contempt for all anyone who is not a CEO of a large corporation. He is a true sociopath. George Bush, for all his ignorance and arrogance, was at least a member of the human race, even if just barely. Obama comes across as lacking in all humanity, and is the first president who actually scares me. This country is over.
@ jazzage –
I’m old enough to remember Nixon. *THAT* was a scarey president! Not to say there haven’t been others, but his administration was the beginning! (Read Orwell’s “1984”!)
jazzage,
The main difference to me between W and O is this:
Dubya was born to wealth and privilege. He has never gone a day without a meal. He has never spent a moment’s worry about economic hardship. He was a millionaire in sixth grade.
From such a person, I simply do not expect empathy. I do not say it is impossible for a wealthy person to feel empathy. In fact, some rich people do feel empathy and commit parts of their vast fortunes toward helping others. But the personal connection, the “geez, I’ve been there” understanding is simply not present.
I can excuse Dubya.
I have no excuse for Obama. Just shocked disgust and outrage, similar to what I feel about Bill Clinton.
“Barack has empathy, but what good is empathy when it’s just a marketing ploy?”
Noah @ DownWithTyranny
“We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al-Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national security priority.”
I wish I had known before I voted for Obama the first time that he said that as pres. candidate. I’ve been describing him as a psychopath for a couple years. There is no other way to look at what he chooses to do. He is a terrifying lunatic.
I was pissed at Obama’s casual dismissal of Snowden. Why is his age so important to point out? When did 29 become so young anyway? All of Washington is in an uproar over how dangerous Snowden is and then Obama tries to act as if he isn’t worried? But a 54 year old washed-up, probably sickly bin Laden called for billions of dollars over 10 years? Makes sense.
It seems too coincidental to say otherwise. Since the change in hosting I can’t reach rall.com in Firefox unless I run it with Sandboxie. Un-sand-boxed, the indicator in the title tab just flickers or twitches…I’m not savvy enough to know why. The site is night and day faster of course.
The website isn’t stable yet. Seems like there were always a lot more people trying to reach it than were able to. Which is really nice for my ego. The goal is to get enough server space to accommodate everyone who wants to see the site so no one has to wait. Unfortunately, it isn’t free!
About Obama: Also, for a guy who’s not worried about a 29-year-old (now 30) hacker, he sure spends a lot of time trying to catch him. Biden’s working the phones with foreign presidents, ATC is denying permission for planes carrying other presidents to cross their territories at US request…somehow scrambling planes seems like the next logical step. Obama is DESPERATELY trying to catch Snowden. And you’re right, he’s a psycho.
I really didn’t see this coming. Even with some of the right-wing rhetoric on the 2008 campaign trail. Obama is the most fascist president we’ve ever had, but I just thought he’d simply fall short of meaningful reform. Well, I was already disillusioned with Dems after they were so pathetic under W.
All I can figure is that at some point when he was young, Obama decided that he would not be poor, bullied, and helpless anymore. He would endeavor to do that to others. He would become rich, powerful, important, and famous no matter what it took and damn everyone else. He was going to be out for his. He found out that he very much liked being the bully, and now he punishes all he can for what he suffered as a poor, biracial boy.
Oh, and Obama IS a crazy Republican. I will never forget that he gave Congressional Republicans a better deal on tax cuts for the rich than they asked for and wanted nothing in return. Even they were baffled.
While we could’ve had a real wild ride with Rick Perry or Romney at the helm, it has been a frustrating, nauseous-enuf ordeal with “I have a dream of not pissing off rich people” cruis’in through the last few years. What a waste, huh? About the only thing that might raise an eyebrow from John Q. Public would be a guilty verdict for Snowden killing George Zimmerman, eh?
Not to worry, Ted ; in the event that the US government and its vassals abroad manage to get their hands on Mr Snowden, he will no doubt age very quickly indeed, thus obviating the need for soon-to-be-52 Obama’s contempt….
Henri
Snowden?
I see that he has epilepsy. Anyone want to make a wager on his death being tied, somehow, to that epilepsy? For example, the coroner’s report indicates that Snowden drowned in three feet of water. The suspicion is that he had an epileptic fit, just as he was walking past a pool.
Or, Snowden fell in front of an oncoming train. Again, the coroner’s report indicates that Snowden probably had an epileptic fit and fell onto the tracks.
Or, Snowden was found bound hand and foot with eight bullets in the back of his head. The coroner’s report says that the most likely outcome was that his epilepsy caused him to tie himself up, shoot himself six times, reload the gun, make a sandwich, eat the sandwich, and then fire two more shots into his head before taking the gun away from the crime scene.
Bound with bullets in the back of the head. Sounds like a Kazakhstani opposition candidate. Their suicides are quite interesting.
This strip is in error. Obama has contempt for ANY liberal — perhaps anyone displaying ethics and an anti-authoritarian stance, and not just liberals, but I only know of liberal examples.
Obama hates people that aren’t rightwingers. He’s been remarkably thin-skinned when it comes to protesters accusing him of doing the things he’s actually done. He’s snappish, he’s peevish, and he’s downright childish. Indeed, he’s actually vindictive — remember that Frontline special on Wall Street that asked why no one went to jail? The fed. prosecutor that PBS interviewed was as pro-administration as he could be, but he still couldn’t shield the government from Frontline’s questions without displaying some concern. Result: he resigns around a week after the piece airs. And the Obama administration issues a statement condemning the piece.
Think about that. Obama condemns a piece of investigative journalism. He doesn’t say it’s lying. He doesn’t say it’s false. He just whines about it like a little bitch.
Who the hell does that?
Obama has so much shit flung at him from rightwingers that, for the first four years of his national fame (including pre-presidential status), people criticizing him had to throw out qualifiers to make it clear that they weren’t rightwing bigots jumping on the bandwagon — that can, at times, include black people. I have been in large gatherings and watched people imply that a black person criticizing Obama — from the left! — was somehow racist. Now, that shit got corrected tout suite, but it did happen. There’s less of that now — even dailyKos isn’t licking Obama’s taint with its traditional fervor. But again, here’s the point: Obama didn’t do a damn thing about the stream of falsehoods from the right.
But if a “lefty” so much as points out that his cufflinks don’t match his tie? Waterboard that motherfucker.
This is Obama’s problem: he knows he’s a piece of shit. He knows that Republican lies are worthless distractions. He isn’t bothered by them. When he gets called on his shit, though, he feels it. He can’t just dismiss the charge, and he’s not that capable a liar (to be fair, the Beltway doesn’t have many good liars, just prolific ones). So he does the only thing he can: he lashes out.
Unfortunately, as president, he’s pretty good at that.
****
P.S. — Rall said:
“Obama is DESPERATELY trying to catch Snowden. And you’re right, he’s a psycho.”
Yup. Obama looks pathetic here. This is part of his problem. What he would have done if he had a dick was taken the hit, as follows:
• Fire the asshole who leaked these facts to Snowden in the first place.
• Reorganize the Fascist Security State to prevent “another Snowden” from happening. It isn’t hard, folks. Just don’t use contractors and temps! Can you be more motherfucking cheap? You want LOYALISTS in there, people that have been kissing your ass for years.
• Stop torturing people! Torture promotes civic sympathy! Torture is an indulgence. People rape because they can. Do that shit on your own time. (I don’t seriously expect the torturers to stop being evil, but they can stop targeting U.S. prisoners.)
• And offer Snowden complete amnesty. Bury the hatchet. Pardon his ass of anything and everything. Welcome him back with a fucking parade. Start a national dialogue! Express concern! Furrow that brow!
Then change nothing.
The problem with our aristocracy is that they’re sore winners. They don’t know how to hold a lead, especially when better men than they created that lead.
Which is a very good thing for us.