Is Obama Too Perfect?

Politico: The President Has Created A Brand Of Perfection, But It Could Backfire

(The Politico)  This story was written by Eamon Javers.

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Let’s be honest: Barack Obama is better than you are.

He’s a better father - taking breaks from running the world to cheer on his daughters at soccer and basketball games.

He’s a better husband - zipping his wife off for dinner in New York and Paris.

He’s got a better diet - nibbling on vegetables from his homegrown garden to keep his love handles in check.

And he’s got a terrific jump shot.

You? Not so much.

Call it the politics of personal perfection. The Barack Obama brand is as much about being a personal example to the nation as it is about being a political figure. But the danger of that frothy mix of glamour and domesticity is that President Obama could become in the public mind something he never sought to be: the Martha Stewart of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

And political veterans say the fine line between what’s inspiring and what’s annoying can be difficult to spot in advance.

Obama veered further toward Martha Stewart Living territory in an interview with a Pakistani newspaper on June 21. He told the interviewer about his college travels in Pakistan and talked about the exotic dishes he learned to cook there.

“Keema ... daal ... you name it, I can cook it,” Obama said.

Also, the president noted, he reads Urdu poetry.

All this is driving certain people - mostly Republicans - nuts.

“This is a guy who was elected as a celebrity and is governing as a celebrity,” said Republican consultant Rick Wilson. “If George Bush had been photographed taking his daughters out for ice cream [as Obama was on Saturday], it would have been: ‘Nero fiddles while Rome burns.’”

Comedian Jon Stewart, exasperated by the Obamas’ high-visibility romance and date night on Broadway, complained that the president was making life tough on men across the country. “How do you compete with that?” Stewart griped. “Take it down a notch, dude.”

Obama’s image as a family man is shining even brighter today, against a backdrop of marital calamity engulfing the Republican Party over the past week.

Being too perfect can be dangerous for politicians. Just ask Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor and GOP presidential candidate is a spectacularly good-looking man, extremely wealthy, well-spoken and accomplished in his professional career. And a segment of the voting public hated him for it.

Says Republican media strategist Mark McKinnon, “President Obama and his team should be careful about trying to be perfect. Voters are suspicious of perfect. They actually prefer someone who is human. And has flaws. Like them.”

Michael Feldman, a former senior adviser to Vice President Al Gore, says White Houses sometimes need to “let a little air out of that bubble” by reminding voters of a president’s foibles. “Shining a little light on a flaw is not a bad thing,” Feldman said.

Don’t look for help with that project among the professional brand-management set - the industry seems to be in collective awe of Obama.

“He’s so g-ddamned smart and such a good representative for the country,” said Alan Siegel, a corporate branding expert and CEO of the marketing firm Siegel & Gale. “I admire him.”

“They’ve just done so many things so well,” said Susan Hodgkinson, principal of The Personal Brand Co. “You have to tip your hat to them and say, ‘Brilliant.’”

Can it ever be too much?

Conservative pundit Tucker Carlson doesn’t think so. “My instinct is that people are like dogs,” he said. “They want a leader they think is better than them.” And Carlson thinks it’s working well for Obama. “People naturally defer to others they think are superior.”

Superior or not, pollsters find that Barack Obama the man is immensely popular.

According to a Pew Research Center report released June 18, 72 percent of Americans have a favorable impression of the president, and only 25 percent have an unfavorable opinion. Those figures are extremely high - in July 2001, George W. Bush netted a mere 61 percent favorability score, but that was enough that the pundit class deemed him extremely popular at the time.

Higher still are the popularity numbers for the first lady. Seventy-six percent of Americans have a favorable impression of Michelle Obama, the poll found, and only 14 percent had an unfavorable opinion. (In July 2001, then-first lady Laura Bush scored higher than her husband, too, with 64 percent favorability, Pew reported.)

But Democrats say the president is just being himself. “Voters react badly to politicians who are sanctimonious or hypocritical but not to those they see as genuinely virtuous,” said Jim Jordan, a longtime Democratic consultant. “The quality of his performance is just first-rate. There’s nothing artificial about it.”

And on the issue of his performance as a husband and father, Jordan says there’s little downside for the new president, even though every recent White House eventually has faced scandal of one kind or another.

“It’s almost inconceivable that he’s going to be linked to some scandal that goes to personal morality,” Jordan said. “It’s an extraordinary thing that we are debating whether the commander in chief is too virtuous.”

To be fair to Obama, he went out of his way to point to his own weaknesses as a father - highlighting his brutal travel schedule, which made it difficult to spend the time he wanted to with his daughters. And Michelle Obama has repeatedly done what she can to bring the president down a peg or two - remember her comment in 2007 about her husband being “snore-y and stinky”?

That may be because the Obamas know personal perfection is not what Americans always want - or get - in a president. We like our chief executives with endearing flaws, imperfections that show their human side - the side that, perhaps, is most like ourselves.

George W. Bush could never quite pronounce “nuclear.” Bill Clinton used to love to jog but often ended up at McDonald’s wolfing down Big Macs. George H.W. Bush didn’t like to eat broccoli - and banned it from the White House.

It’s very hard to imagine Barack Obama barfing on the lap of a foreign head of state, as the elder Bush once did.

The closest thing Obama has to a character flaw to date is his inability to stop smoking. Republican strategist McKinnon thinks that may be just the humanizing flaw the president needs now. “Yes, it’s a terrible example. An awful habit. Sends all the wrong signals,” McKinnon said. “But it brings him down to earth and makes him more interesting and accessible.”

Still, the president can’t quite bring himself to confess. Obama bristled at a news conference on Tuesday when Margaret Talev of McClatchy asked about his smoking.

Obama called himself a “former smoker,” adding, “I constantly struggle with it. Have I fallen off the wagon sometimes? Yes. Am I a daily smoker, a constant smoker? No. ... I would say I’m 95 percent cured.”

Which makes smoking, perhaps, 5 percent of the flaw Obama needs.

[CLoverNYC1]

by earlysaid June 25, 2009 9:36 PM PDT
President Obama is just a good and decent man. He became a Christian and is living his life as a believer in all aspects of his life.
___________________________________

Earlysaid,

The man has only been in office for 6 months, so the jury is still out on whether he is a 'good' POTUS. History will decide that designation.

What this nation needs is a strong leader who takes a stand and sticks to it.

So far, Mr. Obama's fence-straddling, side-switching and pandering to the radical islamists has been extremely disappointing.

For a Christian, it's taken Barack Obama six months to decide on a church to attend - isn't that a Christian requirement? - and true to form, he decided on the interfaith church at Camp David.

What a cop-out!

[earlysaid]

President Obama is just a good and decent man. He became a Christian and is living his life as a believer in all aspects of his life. He worked had to get to where he is and that was a strain on his family and himself. He is still working very hard every day to improve things for America. No he is not perfect. He is just a good man who has none of the baggage that so many hypocritical politicians have. All it takes to be like him is do the right thing when you have a choice to make. It doesn't hurt though that President Obama is highly intelligent and is a very good President.

[BrooklynSteel]

Obama has lied about earmarks, lobbyists, presidential statements, tax cuts, etc.

He has enabled the despots in Iran, with a lackluster display...

This is far from perfection.

Does the author of this folly, even grasp that the Obama-Pelosi Pork peddled as Stimulus has severely hurt the US Economy, and grown unemployment?

In fact, the Obama promise that unemployment would not grow past 8% with his plan, has flopped, as unemployment is growing towards 10% now.

But on Friday, Democrats are going to commit the most absurd folly of all, with a vapid Cap and Trade Bill, which essentially is just the most massive tax increase of all time in the USA.

Perfection, change, Obama, is a disaster.

And it is enabled by the most blind partisan denial we have ever seen.

[envirophoney]

He hates us.

[envirophoney]

He is such a perfect man. I love the way he voted to let babies born live after failed abortions die on a hospital shelf. I bet that little baby felt really good. Wasn't that so perfect and manly and sane/ I think he became perfect because his father ditched him, then his step father ditched him, then his mother ditched him at his grandparents who, because they wanted a boy, named her Stanley. He comes from perfect people and that is why he too is perfect.

[cs4466]

Adolf Hitler was a Saint.
by Volksstimme June 25, 2009 1:41 PM PDT

I'm sure you think so. Many neocons do.

[Volksstimme]

Calling the biggest fraud in American History perfect is just a slap into the face of any decent educated person. If Maobama is perfect than Adolf Hitler was a Saint.

[BaitSlinger]

"Is Obama Too Perfect?" Who cares!!! But just for the record "No he's not perfect".

[Riteaidbob3]

He is a PURRFECT con artist and is perfectly at home lying.

[vielmann]

Wow. A Black man who might be having a good life. Oh how terrible, CBS. Little by little this news service becomes worthless.

[connunism]

Anybody having any trouble identifying all the bitter southern white conservative fatasses on this board? Shall we begin by first exposing "hclinton2012," also known as a Sarah Palin supporter, "feminazi" "Rowdy" "TexasGal" to name a few.

[notblue]

Anybody having trouble identifying white, leftwing socialist trolls who's sole message is nothing more than critisism of fellow conservative Americans simply read connunism posts for an example.

[cs4466]

Hey connumism - i spotted one breaching when it came up for air! Its name was notblue!

[cs4466]

LOLZ the poor poor bitter neocons are hopping mad they can't find anything legitimate to complain about President Obama. Fun, funny, hilarious stuff!! :) Can they get any more bitter? Is it possible? LOL!

[ubrew12]

Republican consultant Rick Wilson. "If George Bush had been photographed taking his daughters out for ice cream [as Obama was on Saturday], it would have been: 'Nero fiddles while Rome burns.' "

At last! A reason Bush was never seen around his kids!

[ralpherus]

He said we need to fix what is wrong with health care...then sets out to destroy what was good about it- and replace with price being all that decides who gets what. What is actually wrong with US health care are just a few items. 1:ILLEGAL ALIENS USING OUR HEALTH CARE 2: Lawyers raising the cost of health care. 3: democrats running medicaid and medicare!! THAT IS ALL! So if we got rid of those- the price comes down, as folks only pay for the care they receive, not for ten thousand illegals who left without paying, and the system is less overworked. HOW and WHY the American people elected all the cheap scum thieving fascist traitor murder pig democrats into office is the biggest mystery of all time! WAY bigger than meaning of life, or what dark energy is, or whether time rides a light beam backwards or not! Except- wait- WE had VOTER FRAUD WORSE THAN IRAN DID!!! WE HAVE BEEN TAKEN OVER BY CRIMINALS PEOPLE!!!

[earlysaid]

ralpherus You are sickening with your lies and ridiculous accusations. We have just had the worst president and vice president who finally left the government that they pillaged and mismanaged. Warmongering belongs to Bush - he wanted an Iraq War so they drummed up the phony reasons for it and did it. How many lives have paid for that arrogance and stupidity. Then began the no-bid contracts to fatten republican fat cats wallets, billions missing and billions misspent to whom or where no one knows. Incompetent contractors cheated the govt left and right with overcharges, shoddy building construction, shoddy services to the troops, and corruption all over the place. So what does Bush do, he makes sure to give these contractors such as Halliburtion and KBR million dollar bonuses. Republicans sure were concerned about the budget then. Lies to drum up that war and lies from then on until they left. If you think lawyers are all Democrats you are really out there in lala ville. As much as Bush and republicans railed against lawyers, they were lawyered up the cazoo. We did not have voter fraud although republicans bleat about it all the time. What we did have was voter suppression and voter intimidation from republicans. Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare for the first six years of Bush's term were completely in Bush and republican hands. They wanted very much to get their hands on Social Security but even republicans wouldn't allow that. However they did harm Medicaid after vicious and strongarm tactics that were shameful. Now there are more benefits for pharmaceutical companies and doctors, and less care for the elderly. Medicaid drugs should be negotiated for the lower drug prices, but Bush and republicans would not have that.

[maakahill]

I think the American people are starting to see through his perfection.

CBS News: Why would you post an opinion piece such as this from Politico? CBS News how about reporting some facts and do some real journalism for a change. It's no wonder you are the lowest rated major newtork. Be the watch dog and quit being Obama's lap dog. Americas are getting sick of the constant admiration of Obama and the media reporting about his perfection. Start asking him tough questions a be the non-bais media that our constitution intended.

[ralpherus]

Get real. He may be delightful in many ways- but as an AMERICAN it is way off the chart. No where near close to being squishably forced into the definition. He really should step down- and raise his children in obscurity, instead of trying to destroy the USA and all it once was with the evil deceit called global warming/climate change (soon to morph into JUST SHUT UP) and the evil antifreedomite health care plan which is simply enacting their power to decide who dies when they tell us to. ALL media who helped put these evil pigs into power wil never be forgotten or forgiven you know.

[johndevinejr]

by impeachbhb June 25, 2009 10:02 AM PDT
The entire world will see Obama as perfect. Read the bible regarding the Anti Christ and you will see what is going on. He is one stage of the fullfillment of that promised by the prophets.
He will eventually rule the world but be destroyed when Jesus returns to claim his throne.


SOMEONE CALL THE PARAMEDICS, impeachbhb NEEDS TO BE BROUGHT BACK TO THE HOSPITAL.

impeachbhb is the embodiment of conservative intellectual thought.

[W_A_H]

Is this some trick question? I'm tired of tricks CBS. I donated, I held local town halls, I voted for Obama!

And now? I would have held my nose and pulled that lever for McCain. Its obvious to all whether anyone wants to acknowledge it or not but the world in the last 90 days has gone off its axis. Obama was looking for reason and the world is not about reason and now he's in over his head. Who is this man I voted for?!!! Not the one who campaigned and certainly not the one I thought I voted for. Has anyone experienced or felt relief from the stimulus? Not anyone I know of.

My word, we have the birthing of Democracy in Iran that needs American leadership. If Obama was going to stay out of it he should have stayed out of it. No, he contaminated his entire strategy by peer pressure and now, NOW we all get to enjoy the splashdown of a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile in the cool trade winds of a Hawaiian sunset. What is going on?????

Oh yeah Barack, don?t forget to gut our defense at this time as well while we?re reaching 14% unemployment and writing bounced checks.

You tell me if he's too perfect? No, he's not perfect but I'm scared half to death. Is this the perfect response you were looking for?

[johndevinejr]

Please talk to someone, you can be helped.

[onesword]

BOOOOOO. Are you still scared?

[W_A_H]

Stuart, Devine & word.

LOL, I employ 2600 folks with full health care in California no less.

What ya got?

[bigmo47]

Iran has been a democracy before, it is just corrupt like many other nations. The reason that it's hard for the U.S. to step in on this election is because of what we did in their very first democratic election in 1953. We orchestrated a coup (CIA) and overthrew a decent leader for a maniacal one all because he would do what we wanted in terms of oil revenues (He ruled for 26 years). It's kind of hard to step in this time and say we really want to help. (No really trust us this time)

[phwtb]

"but I'm scared half to death."

As well you should be. But, for those of us who didn't vote for him, we are not scared half to death. We are in mourning of our countrys imminent death.

Electing a man that turned his back on the very BASIC foundation of this country by refusing to salute the flag of HIS country and that of the country he wanted to "represent", electing a man whose wife point blank admitted to being absolutely ASHAMED of the country he wanted to "represent", and electing a man who blatantly practiced racism- was completely stupid. Sadly, there is no other way to say it.

We tried to warn you.
But like many, you just wouldn't listen.

What a beautiful gift you have given to our children! And to their children and to their childrens-children and to their childrens-childrens-children...

Welcome to reality.

[earlysaid]

I voted for President Obama and I am GLAD I did. The man is not a miracle worker, you moron. Obama has to work with the Congress and Senate with the hateful spiteful republicans who want him to be a failure.

[phwtb]

It is time to elect a new leader, and your vote counts. Here are the facts about the three leading candidates.

Candidate A received a bachelor?s degree in history from Harvard University and entered Columbia Law School, and though he did not complete his degree, he passed the Bar examination. He associates quiet often with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologists when faced with a major decision. He?s had two mistresses, chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day.

Candidate B: Throughout his school life, he performed average in academics, but attended university and graduated from a military academy. Left alone, as a child, has made him relatively independent and rebellious in nature. He has been kicked out of office twice; resigned from office before being kicked out a third time; sleeps until noon with his street-dwelling, homeless vagabond turned mistress; used opium while in college and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.

Candidate C: Is a charming, humoristic, and a very good mimic and is well known to his fellow citizens to be a "perfectly nice person". He does imitations of actors, has "beautiful, enchanting eyes", is extremely fond of children, and loves to drink hot chocolate with them. He is a decorated war hero, a vegetarian, doesn?t smoke but does enjoy an occasional beer and hasn?t had any extramarital affairs.

So, which of these candidates would be your choice?

Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt, Candidate B is Winston Churchill and Candidate C is Adolph Hitler.

Think before labeling someone as "perfect".
Obama is nothing more than the pied piper, luring all the little "children" away?

[erasmus111]

by cujat June 25, 2009 11:42 AM PDT
connunism...those sure are some solid facts! There are many factors that effect lifespan...the US is one of the fattest nations on the planet and I haven't flown around the world with my passport but i'm fairly certain the people of Europe, Japan and Canada live much healthier lifestyles than we do in America. Do you really want to follow the lead of Europe, Japan and Canada?


Was this suppose to make sense?