Dysfunctional President Obama

Last Sunday I was working while listening to the Fox News channel on the television in the next room. Before I realized what I was hearing, in detail, it became clear that they were running some biographical program on the rookie Senator from Illinois.

Apparently 'that one' had done a book on tape of one or more of his self-important autobiographies. What I heard was his peculiar cadence reciting some of the details of his early childhood.

Specifically, the episode I heard was one in which the junior Illinois Senator's father had a choice between pursuing a PhD in political science at NYU, all expenses paid, or at Harvard, sans financial aid.

The NYU option would have allowed him to take his family with him to NYC. He chose Harvard, and abandoned his family.

It seems that the elder Obama failed to complete his degree. However, rather than return to the family he abandoned, he fled to Africa, there having more children by one or more other women.

As I related this to a friend over dinner on Sunday, it occurred to me how rough a ride we are all in for if this character wins the election in November.

How can someone have his background, lack of life accomplishments, and not be seriously, psychologically screwed up?

Kennedy was an inveterate womanizer and liar, hiding his Addison's disease from the voting public. He was shot up on 'feel good' drugs when he met Krushev for the first time, directly leading to the Cuban missile crisis.

Nixon had deep feelings of inferiority which colored his entire political life. His paranoia, as President, resulted in the Watergate coverup, rather than an honest, immediate explanation of his discovery of activities about which he had absolutely no prior knowledge. The resulting crisis of confidence came near to having disastrous Constitutional consequences for our country.

Bill Clinton, too, had, and has, deep feelings of inferiority, plus the legacy of an alcoholic and broken home. His gladhanding, easy way with people, and the truth, resulted in Whitewater, serious malfeasance while in government, and a constant abdication of governing by principle, in favor of simply reacting to the latest opinion polls.

Now we have an unaccomplished, racially-preferenced, novice Senator in serious reach of the Presidency.

Does anyone not think this guy is going to be significantly dysfunctional when the real pressures of the free world's most powerful and influential single political position bear down upon him?

He has zero accomplishments as an adult on which to rely or from which to draw lessons. He hasn't run anything. He hasn't built anything. His adult life is a series of soft, non-accountable, amorphous 'jobs,' culminating in the do-nothing role of Illinois state senator.

Not yet two years into his freshman term in the US Senate, he launched an improbable campaign for his party's Presidential nomination.

As Geraldine Ferraro correctly observed, if Obama weren't black, he wouldn't even be taken seriously, and certainly would never have been in the race for that nomination.

Now, this inexperienced politician and lawyer, with a checkered, dodgy past, shadowy collegiate years, and distinctly broken-home-style childhood, is frighteningly close to assuming more responsibility than is reasonable to expect can be productively and safely borne by a person with his life history.

If he does win in November, expect to hear tales of extreme dysfunctionality from his inner- and middle-circle over the next 4-10 years. Stories on a par with those of Nixon and Clinton. Or even LBJ.

Personally, I think the stress and burden of the office of President will result in the junior Illinois Senator cracking, psychologically, like a fragile egg. Somewhere deep in his murky psyche, the results of his ill-formed persona will resonate outward in unproductive and flawed behavior as President.

In things Presidential, character matters. A lot. Obama's handlers and his own statements notwithstanding. And Obama's is deeply suspect. His lies, dissembling and re-writing his own history on the fly during his campaign should be reason enough to elect McCain.

If for no other reason than we are potentially placing an unstable, oddly-formed person and personality in a position of supreme power by electing the Democratic candidate in this race.

We will rue the day we, as voters, made this mistaken choice.