HE JUST DOESN'T LIKE US – AT 9:18 A.M. ET:  Have you ever seen anything like it?  A president who doesn't like his country, or his people?  Can anyone, any longer, doubt that this is the case with Barack Hussein Obama Jr.?  Why does he get away with it?  Because many in the mainstream media feel the same way he does about America.

Michael Gerson, in the Washington Post, analyzes our above-us president, in today's must-read: 

"Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now," he recently told a group of Democratic donors in Massachusetts, "and facts and science and argument [do] not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we're hard-wired not to always think clearly when we're scared. And the country is scared."

Let's unpack these remarks.

Obama clearly believes that his brand of politics represents "facts and science and argument." His opponents, in disturbing contrast, are using the more fearful, primitive portion of their brains. Obama views himself as the neocortical leader -- the defender, not just of the stimulus package and health-care reform but also of cognitive reasoning. His critics rely on their lizard brains -- the location of reptilian ritual and aggression. Some, presumably Democrats, rise above their evolutionary hard-wiring in times of social stress; others, sadly, do not.

Though there is plenty of competition, these are some of the most arrogant words ever uttered by an American president.

We warned and warned during the 2008 campaign that this is the way the guy is, but our warnings were ignored.  The media sold Obama to the American people as a brilliant, "post-racial" president, which he is not.

Interpreting Obama does not require psychoanalysis or the reading of mystic Chicago runes. He is an intellectual snob.

And...

This is not just a political problem; it is a governing challenge. There is fear out there in America -- not because of the lizard brain but because of objective economic conditions. And a reactionary populism can be disturbing when it targets minorities, immigrants and intellectuals. But intellectual disdain among elites feeds this destructive populism rather than directing or defusing it. Obama is helping to cause what he criticizes.

I'm glad Gerson wrote that.  Self-proclaimed intellectuals often cause their own political destruction.

One response to social stress doesn't help at all: telling people their fears result from primitive irrationality. Obama may think that many of his fellow citizens can't reason. But they can still vote.

Yes we can!  And we will!

We had another president who thought he was just a bit above us.  His name was Jimmah Carter, and he also thought he was a direct conduit from God.  He was escorted from the executive mansion after one term.  We don't know how God explained it to him.

Two more years of Barack Obama, we hope.

October 19, 2010