8 Replies to “"Aimless Obama walks alone"”

1. geoffb says:

   October 11, 2011 at 9:10 am

   Going back to the earlier Ulsterman site on August 31st 2011 finds this:
   [My paragraphing to break the wall-O’-text look.]

   Insider: I’m at my desk here right? We’re sitting here having this conversation. How about we take a look at what the president would look like in the same situation? Walk into that room – that office of his on the 2nd floor. He spends less and less time downstairs – that’s Daley’s world now. The president doesn’t like the Oval Office much – he’s made that point repeatedly to more than a few at the White House. He prefers to be upstairs, no suit. No shoes. No joke —

   Ulsterman: (Interrupts) —Shoes?

   Insider: Yeah – shoes. President Obama, when he is in his de facto office upstairs – the one that is closer to Jarrett’s own office, and a short hop over to the residence, he spends his time there often in shorts, or sweats, a t-shirt, and those sandal things…flip-flops. There is a large screen television in there and that’s where hours of his time are spent when he is actually at the White House. Day in and day out.

   The First Lady rules the residence, and the president heads over to his 2nd floor West Wing study. Starting around last spring, he started to take regular briefings in there. And the instructions that went out on those briefings to the president were that they were to be most importantly – brief. Anything more than about 15 minutes is unacceptable to Obama.

   So let’s look through the eyes of someone heading into Barack Obama’s upstairs office at the White House to give him a briefing. Maybe it’s on national security. Maybe the economy. Energy policy. Whatever – doesn’t matter. The scenario being played out these days is pretty much the same regardless of the particulars.

   You knock on the door – it’s always closed. Always. Often you have to knock for some time before being given approval from inside to enter. The big screen will be on – the volume loud. You can easily hear it from outside the door. The sports channels are the ones most commonly playing, though sometimes the channel will be set to music, or Fox News. Sometimes Valerie Jarrett might be there, but most often it is just the president and his personal aide. A large leather chair will be facing the television – it’s well worn. Not part of the White House furnishings but something the president must have brought in from back home.

   That’s where you’ll most often find the President of the United States – the most powerful man in the free f***ing world. He often sits with one leg draped over one of the chair’s arms and the other leg stuck straight onto the floor. Shorts, sweats, a t-shirt, and like I said, no shoes or just those sandal things that so many of the younger people like to wear these days. And that leg that’s draped over an arm of the chair will be bopping up and down, like…like someone with a lot of nervous energy. Like a kid does. And there’s the smell of smoke hanging on the president. The guy never quite smoking – that was all bulls**t. I told you that already. In fact, there’s one of those smokeless ash trays on the desk in there.

   And that desk, it’s a mess. Magazines spread out all over it. Stupid shit too. Real low brow reading material the president is into. People. Rolling Stone. Lots of those tabloid things. The most common thread with this sh*t is it’s about the president. If it’s about him, he’s gonna read it. Good or bad – doesn’t matter. If somebody is talking about him, he’s reading it. He’s watching it. Whatever. The guy’s self-obsession is off the f***ing charts.
   […]
   Sometimes he gets up when you come in, sometimes he remains seated and will just turn the volume on the TV down with the remote and say, “What you got?” That foot is bouncing up and down while you give him the briefing, but he rarely looks over at you – always looking at whatever is on the television. If it’s Jarrett in the room, or the personal assistant, one of them is there to keep the time. Your time. Don’t go over that fifteen minutes.

   And even if the president doesn’t look like he hears a word you’re saying, they are listening to everything. Every godd**n syllable coming out of your mouth, and if something is said they don’t like, they jot down notes. Been told it’s to use for the end of day summary they give the president – their own version of what is important and what can be ignored…and who might need to be pushed down, or pushed out…or whatever.

   So you’re looking at the president, this skinny guy, who’s ignoring you, who’s dressed like some kind of f***ing frat boy wannabe, with somebody else taking notes on what you’re saying, and then you get up and walk out. The president might acknowledge you on some days, give a little nod, maybe even a thank you, but most often he just continues to look at the TV, bounce that foot on the chair,

2. Ernst Schreiber says:

   October 11, 2011 at 10:19 am

   Surely he only seems distracted and disinterested. No doubt because his mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.

   Truly, we are blessed.

3. Mikey NTH says:

   October 11, 2011 at 11:21 am

   God darnit, Mr. Schreiber, you use your tongue prettier than a twenty dollar whore.

4. Mikey NTH says:

   October 11, 2011 at 11:21 am

   Wait – write that one down, I like it.

   Mel Brooks?

   Aww, crap!

5. geoffb says:

   October 11, 2011 at 11:34 am

   In that vein…

   WFP hires their army.

6. sdferr says:

   October 11, 2011 at 11:35 am

   As the famous phrase from Saint-Simon had it, “the government of men is to be replaced by the administration of things.”

   Does deep incoherence lead to isolation?

7. sdferr says:

   October 11, 2011 at 11:41 am

   It seems that Obama wanted to include stops at Hiroshima and Nagasaki as part of his 2009 World Apology Tour, so that he could apologize for Harry Truman dropping the Big One to end World War II.

   Which is hilarious in retrospect, given that Obama is now Harry Truman his own damned Missourian self.

8. Obama: Like Lenin After The Stroke? « The Camp Of The Saints says:

   October 11, 2011 at 12:20 pm

   […] * These reports are nothing new, by the way, as Jeff Goldstein chronicles here. Share this:TwitterEmailFacebookMoreStumbleUponRedditDiggLike this:LikeBe the first to like this […]

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