Although President Obama has a great deal to be modest about,
modesty is not amongst his strong suits. Obama is about as well
acquainted with modesty as Casanova was with monogamy.
It could be said that the only thing that has grown faster in
the past three and a half years than the size of the federal
government and the federal deficit would be President Obama’s ego.
Like the federal government and federal deficit, Obama’s admiration
of his own greatness shows no signs of diminishing.
Prior to last week’s Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony
(where he
referred to Nazi death camps as “Polish death camps” much to
the anger of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and other Polish
officials), Obama along with White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew
met with Jewish leaders from around the country. According to
Haaretz, Obama, who felt defensive about being perceived
as anti-Israel,
claimed he knew more about Judaism than any other President
before him. To which Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard
scoffed, “His vanity boggles the mind.” Kristol went on to note
that both John Adams and James Madison read Hebrew.
I would be willing to bet that George Washington was far more
knowledgeable about Judaism in his day than Obama is now. One only
need look at Washington’s 1790 letter
to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island — the first
synagogue in America:
May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this
land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other
Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine
and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.
I think it’s safe to say that none of Obama’s assurances
concerning Israel hold a candle to the eloquence of the man
Americans first called President.
While I concur with Kristol that Obama’s claims about his
knowledge of Judaism are mind boggling, I would also add that such
assertions should hardly come as a surprise by now.
As Jodi Kantor noted in her book The Obamas, when Obama
interviewed David Plouffe in 2006 for the position of campaign
manager he told Plouffe, “I think I could probably do every job on
the campaign better than the people I’ll hire to do it.” In a
separate conversation with Patrick Gaspard, who was hired as
Obama’s political director, Obama
said he was “a better speechwriter than my speechwriters,” and
“a better political director than my political director.”
With this in mind, I’m sure Obama believes he’s a better
basketball player than LeBron James. Indeed, prior to his keynote
speech to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Obama told a reporter,
“I’m Lebron, baby. I can play on this level. I got game.” Now
Obama may very well have meant that metaphorically but when he
sunk that three pointer during a campaign stop in South
Carolina in August 2007 and another three
pointer while visiting U.S. troops in Kuwait in July 2008, he
probably thought he could suit up with the Bulls and gone one on
one with King James. I mean how many world leaders have their
image on a basketball? However, during the White House Easter
Egg Roll last April in the presence of former NBA players and
former members of the Harlem Globetrotters, Obama
missed five shots before finally sinking a three pointer. Talk
about foul. The only thing Obama has in common with LeBron is that
neither man has won an NBA Title — and that might soon change.
But why stop there? Chances are Obama fancies himself a better
singer
than Al Green, a better dancer
than Savion Glover and, for that matter, a better businessman than
Mitt Romney. At least that’s what he’ll try to convince voters of
between now and November. Of course, it is one thing to convince
the readership of the Daily Kos that Obama’s
entrepreneurial skills are better than Romney’s; it’s quite
another to convince an electorate that has had to put up with 3½
years of hope, change and Solyndra.
Yet somehow I don’t think that will be a deterrent to Obama who,
during a fundraiser last March,
compared his re-election bid to the plights of both Gandhi and
Nelson Mandela. Now I don’t recall where Obama undertook a fast
much less spent a day in prison for his travails. But such details
are of little concern to one who seeks to transform America.
Right or wrong, all Presidents believe they did a good job in
office. But Obama took it to another level when he
told Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes last December, “I would
put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first
two years against any president — with the possible exceptions of
Johnson, F.D.R., and Lincoln — just in terms of what we’ve gotten
done in modern history.” So can we really be surprised that the man
who considers himself, at minimum, the fourth greatest American
President would
interject himself into the White House biographies of nearly
every President since Coolidge?
To say that President Obama thinks the world of himself would be
an understatement. His high opinion of himself might very well
extend to yet to be discovered galaxies at the outer reaches of the
universe. If President Obama were to travel to the moon it would be
more than appropriate to say, “The Ego has landed.”
Well, in a little over five months from now, voters across
America might not hold President Obama in such high esteem. In
which case, he will have to come back down to earth. Something
tells me it will be a long, unpleasant journey.
