Self-Delusion

Folks have increasingly drawn parallels between the Carter and Obama administrations, few of these complementary to either.

Let’s take a look for something instructive in all of this.

We noted yesterday in conversation with the Marin left that as disastrous as Carter’s domestic policy was, his foreign policy took the cake (and provided his undoing). Steven Hayward in The Age of Reagan notes that, “Carter came to be regarded as the American Neville Chamberlain, not so much for his appeasement of foreign adversaries but for his..incapacity to perceive and act according to the geopolitical realities of the moment. ....his public rhetoric on foreign questions and his key appointments - rhetoric and personnel being two main pillars of foreign policy - were so deficient that it is understandable that he inspired such a harsh reaction.”

Most of us recall Carter’s missteps (no, we are not referring to his filing a UFO siting with the Air Force, or his clubbing to death a rabbit). But all of us have just been smacked by those of BO.

What is unique to both of these men is this - the co-suffering from a severe case of self-delusion. This is the single key to understanding parallels between these two failed leaders. It is the key to understanding especially, Obama.

We return for a moment to Silent Cal; if he was known for anything, it was honesty, integrity and incorruptibility. From Bob Sobel’s book, Coolidge - An American Enigma, Coolidge “recognized the dangers of self-deception the office could engender.” Quoting Coolidge now from that book, “It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self-delusion. They are always surrounded by worshipers. They are constantly...assured of their greatness. They live in an artificial atmosphere of adulation and exaltation which sooner of later impairs their judgement. They are in grave danger of becoming careless and arrogant.”

Of course things have played out as Coolidge would have predicted (if he had know the players). The Coolidge rule applies to Chicago pols and Senators just as well as to presidents. This is why we could state with certainty even in the primary that BO’s primary weakness, his Achilles Heel, was a lack of judgement. It was obvious. He had demonstrated that repeatedly and for reasons Coolidge has highlighted. He continues to do so.

So Obama's simply being Obama. We’re not sure how he got elected however. Curious. Can’t find a sole who pulled that trigger. And all those Hope & Change bumper stickers here in Marin County? They seem to have been pilfered.

Robert Craven