Monday, August 5, 2013

David Brooks, "The A-Rod Problem": Will Obama Also Be Suspended Through the 2014 Season?

Hey, David, preoccupation with self is called narcissism, the plague of the 21st Century.

Writing about the suspension of Alex Rodriguez from baseball through the 2014 season, David Brooks, in his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "The A-Rod Problem" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/06/opinion/brooks-the-a-rod-problem.html?_r=0), describes . . . his own preoccupation with self when he first began writing his column a decade ago. Brooks tells us:

"So, especially in the first few months, I had a self-preoccupied question on my mind: How am I doing? There was no noncrazy-making answer to that question. I was always looking for some ultimate validation, which, of course, can never come. But, after a little while, I settled into a routine and my focus shifted from my own performance to the actual subjects I was writing about. This shift from performance to subject may not have made the columns any better, but it sure did improve my psychic equilibrium.

That period was a lesson in the perils of self-preoccupation."

Of course, no one is accusing Obama of taking performance enhancing drugs. If there was such a thing for leadership in presidents, I wish he would consider it.

Also, regarding performance enhancement, teleprompters have yet to be declared illegal.

But with the economy in shambles and a non-existent foreign policy (unless you want to call "leading from behind" a foreign policy), isn't it a pity that Obama can't be threatened with suspension during the 2014 season?

On the other hand, who would be pitching in his absence? Joe "Shotgun" Biden?

Maybe we're better off keeping Obama on the roster.

1 comment:

  1. This "leading from behind" phrase is actually interesting. The moment Obama started to run for Presidency, I saw in him a charlatan, a manipulator and everything I knew about him was confirming this perception.
    - the guy was praising Reagan for Reaganomics, but idiot "liberals" saw in him "a progressive."
    - with his background, only an extremely manipulative, dishonest person who uses everyone around him could go so far so fast, but idiotic crowd saw in him .. what exactly .. a Messiah (?). He wasn't in the eyes a politician - he was a wonderful human being/deity, full of virtues, who just deserved the highest office because he was so pure, so divine (speaking of lack of contact with reality)
    - nobody bothered to check how many days in life he actually ... worked. He seemed to have used any job the way he uses people: never published anything (which does seem to be a requirement in academic life), never (almost) voted as a state senator, etc.
    Around the first inauguration, his two childhood friends from Indonesia mentioned their dreams: one wanted to be a general, the second wanted to be a banker. The third one - Obama-wanted to be President .... "because both of them would serve HIS needs."
    Now, the world serves his needs, whatever they are.

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