Back on Saturday, January 17, 2009 in Baltimore, Maryland, President-elect Barack Obama stopped on his way to Washington for his Tuesday inauguration. As Obama spoke, someone in the crowd of cheering admirers shouted, “We love you, Obama!” Obama answered, “I love you back.”
This past Wednesday, President Obama, promoting his Jobs Plan to a crowd of North Carolinians, said, “I love you back” to an audience member who shouted, “I love you.” With an astute follow-up, he said, “But if you love me you’ve got to help me pass this bill.”
In the first instance, there was only jubilation, enthusiasm, and excitement for the newly elected President. There was no sense of outrage at the audience adulation, or Obama’s comeback. On the latter, the adulation and Obama’s response provoked Associated Content’s conservative Mark Whittington, and others, to declare that Obama Lays Down Creepy Condition with Jobs Bill, and to compare Obama with Jesus Christ. The big difference between then and now is that we are in a 2012 campaign for President.
Whittington says, “Obama may have been in a teasing mood, but it does buttress his image as someone who is very enamored of himself,” as if self-adulation was something new to any politician.
Whittington further asserts without citing sources, “Both of his parents indicated by their actions that they found young Obama a bit of an inconvenience.” He said, “That would warp anyone’s psyche. Unfortunately, that warped psyche belongs to the most powerful man in the world, at least until January 2013.”
It seems to me that any fair-minded person would immediately see these exchanges between Obama and his audience for what they are: give and take between Obama and his audience, nothing more. It’s not a “creepy condition” nor should there be a comparison made between that exchange and the “Bible from the Book of John in which Jesus Christ tells Peter to prove his love for him and “feed my lambs” meaning to spread the Gospel throughout the world.”
But, they unfortunately know that labels influence views of others.
In my writing, I always try to fair-minded. When one does not treat an issue with evenhandedness and honesty, they do not contribute to an authentic assessment of the issue, and as a result, their assessment should be summarily disregarded.