Brain Lemon

During his appearance with Jay Leno last week, President Obama made an off-hand remark about his bowling skills being commensurate with those of a Special Olympian.  Many have, quite understandably, reacted in offense to this statement.  Of course the culture of political correctness is largely responsible for this offense, and if a friend or colleague had made this remark around me I would have hardly noticed.  Not that I am insensitive, but I am just not easily offended.

However, I have found much of the reaction to this comment quite interesting.  Most people have expressed anger, but the true Obama apologists have gone to great lengths to explain away, or at least minimize the damage.  In doing so, a lot of assumptions about Obama's basic character have been revealed.  I find these assumptions fascinating, especially in comparison to the way Bush and conservatives are treated in the media and culture.

Instead of being treated as insensitive and callous, Obama's gaffe is treated as a harmless, accidental slip of the tongue made by someone who is, at his core, a decent and compassionate man.  This assumption is made, I think, much more due to his appearance and his politics than due to any actual qualities.  I have never seen any evidence of this supposed kindness.  On the rare occasions where we have seen Obama's natural behavior, he has exhibited nothing but arrogance and elitism.  For example, see the way he talks about the supremacy of science not bound by ethics, the ignorance of those who support free markets, and the disdain for those who "cling to God and guns."

Other perceptions about Obama might also be wrong, but we wouldn't know as he has been examined by the media so little.  We assume he is smart and knowledgeable about policy, yet has he ever been asked any really hard questions?  When he has tried to, he has often appeared clueless, as in his recent comments about the stock market and "profit to earning ratios."  We assume he is a great speaker, and he may well be, but he requires a Teleprompter for almost all his speeches, even things as simple as introducing a nominee.  Speaking of which, his nominations and other actions have severely hurt Obama's image as being bipartisan, ethical, and responsible.

In comparison, even though in person President Bush is widely known to be a congenial, friendly, and decent person, the public perception of him was that of an ignorant, warmongering fool who either lied to the public, or at the very least was an ignorant boob who led us into Iraq.  Despite his well thought out, balanced position on stem-cell research, he was portrayed as "anti-science."  Despite his humility about his faith, he was called a religious zealot.  The other examples of this are manifold, but in general his positions were assumed to be, at the very least, ignorant, partisan, and in some cases downright evil.  He was never given the benefit of the doubt.  If he had made anything like the comments Obama made, he would have people calling for his head.

The truth is that media portrayals of, and thus public perceptions of, public figures has far more to do with political positions than actual character.  Liberals are almost always assumed to be compassionate and caring; conservatives are assumed to be heartless ideologues.  Obama is assumed to be a good and decent person not because he actually is (he in fact may not be at all) but because he has good public relations skills, a favorable media, and liberal politics.  What his true nature is, we can only guess at, but I highly suspect it is quite different from the common perception.  We should endeavor to make ourselves more serious and perspicacious examiners of character, instead of celebrity-obsessed maniacs who just want to follow the "cool" people.  In history's final judgment, we shall see how our descendants view our leaders, removed from the media culture.