Noting that “There’s nothing new about narcissism in politics,” Charles Krauthammer has a few questions about Barack Obama:
Obama is a three-year senator without a single important legislative achievement to his name, a former Illinois state senator who voted “present” nearly 130 times. As president of the Harvard Law Review, as law professor and as legislator, has he ever produced a single notable piece of scholarship? Written a single memorable article? His most memorable work is a biography of his favorite subject: himself.
It is a subject upon which he can dilate effortlessly. In his victory speech upon winning the nomination, Obama declared it a great turning point in history — “generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment” — when, among other wonders, “the rise of the oceans began to slow.” As economist Irwin Stelzer noted in his London Daily Telegraph column, “Moses made the waters recede, but he had help.” Obama apparently works alone.
PJM Home
The New Criterion
The Rape of the Masters: How Political Correctness Sabotages Art
Lives of the Mind: The Use and Abuse of Intelligence from Hegel to Wodehouse
Art’s Prospect: The Challenge of Tradition in an Age of Celebrity
Experiments Against Reality: The Fate of Culture in the Postmodern Age
Tenured Radicals, NEW, EXPANDED EDITION FALL 2008! How Politics has Corrupted our Higher Education
Counterpoints: 25 Years of The New Criterion on Culture and the Arts
The Long March: How the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s Changed America
Against the Idols of the Age
Lengthened Shadows: America and Its Institutions in the Twenty-First Century
The Survival of Culture: Permanent Values in a Virtual Age
Physics and Politics, by Walter Bagehot, edited with an
Introduction by Roger Kimball
Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.
4 Comments
1. Norman:Obama’s bombastic rhetoric and delusional ideas about himself are endlessly amusing to me. The idea of making his own presidential seal before he even became president, along with similar shenanigans, are shades of Charles Foster Kane. This whole campaign is like Redford’s The Candidate meets Citizen Kane.
Jul 19, 2008 - 3:13 pm 2. Ruth:Thank you Mr. Krauthammer. This point has not been hammered home enough. To vote “Present” is to not vote. My Grandmother, taught me that if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything. Obama doesn’t stand for anything. This is the scariest election I have ever witnessed. The only thing good is that it has taken sooooo very long that Obama’s narcissim is finally showing and hopefully the electorate will see him for what he is (an empty suit)before they vote.
Jul 20, 2008 - 12:52 pm 3. Daniella:Barak Obama looks like a man totally wrapped up in himself.I really don’t understand what he stands for. His trip to Germany was probably a gigantic ego turn-on. I wonder why he has gained so much ’support’. Moreover he’s an enigma about a lot of things.
Aug 20, 2008 - 4:42 pm 4. Paul:Your post (along with the 3 previous commenter’s post) are………?? Retroactively, I don’t see how any of them were relevant to this past campaign. I mean, all four post/comments are commenting on the individual candidate. It’s like Barack said, “it’s not about me”. His election was significant for SO many reasons that had little to do with him as an individual. So many… So just let it go, and try to enjoy whatever it is you enjoy doing…preferably something healthy.
Mar 21, 2009 - 7:35 pm