Well said. And the country is worse for having elected him.
Thinking back in history, which other 'leaders' had the same style and substance? Can you think of them?
I think this may very well be why we shouldn't elect charismatic 'empty shirts' to leadership positions, and why sometimes they do get elected.
Very much on point, the core of the problem is the fact the American people elected an ad campaign; star making machinery, Madison Avenue convinced most of America that, yes ladies and gentlemen, it's true....cigarettes cure cancer.
I saw him as an image, a card board cut out who wouldn't dare speak without a teleprompter, with an amazing speechifying ability and nice suits. Even his hype was hyped. I wrote, comparing him to past presidents before the election, that where Kennedy [to whom he had compared himself earlier] claimed "I am an idealist with no illusions", Obama had shown he was an illusion with no ideas.
It is the result of several years of erosion of actual principles, the nation, and soon ours I am afraid has stropped looking at character, stopped examining the issues and suffers with 144 character over-simplifications of such simple topics as the difference between deficit "reduction" and debt reduction. Decisions are made based on what a made up talking head says, even if it is Saturday Night Live! It has to be true, it's on TV.
I believe it stared with Kennedy, most observers thought Nixon won the first televised debate, I recall how pissed off was my father, the loyal UAW tool and die worker..."that union busting bastard" was, I think a tame example. But then the pundits realized that Kennedy had "won" on appearance, Nixon had the "five o'clock shadow"
Carter again, all image and no substance, wow, he walked to the White House after being inaugurate....oh and wore sweaters...
The Reagan, a beautiful mix of showman, pitchman, and experience politician. So few Americans realize he cause a student revolt in collage as student council president, went on to help improve an actors and film workers union all the while a card carrying member of the Democratic Party.
However, not one of them, even Nixon, ever brought the level of arrogance to the office as has Obama. Believing his own hype, he saw himself as invulnerable and strutted into the White House, put his feat up and declared every Republican on the planet to be his "enemies". Where Clinton had to work with a core of obstinate Republicans, Obama created them, and didn't learn when the electorate sent him a message in 2010 and 2012 to cool it and start working with the people THEY chose for you to work with. Instead he unleashed Harry Reid and the "nuclear option"
having read the biographies of Eisenhower, several on Kennedy [he was a terrible president], Carter, and Reagan, I am struck by the relationships those men had with their adversaries, Tip O'Neil and Ronnie were fast friends, Reagan respected him greatly. Eisenhower, the man who pulled together the egos of generals from a list of nations, did the same with Democrats, he even visited some of them at home.
What I have seen of this guy is any 'meetings' seem to be more like lectures, he treats Republican congressmen like second class citizens, which says a lot about what he thinks of Americans who don't vote for him.
What he missed with his so heralded education was that even Caesar got knifed in the back
