The Even Keel
Michelle Cottle writes that Barack Obama maybe seems too calm and detached to connect with Americans at a time when we seem to face many crises and most people are feeling a lot of anxiety. Maybe. But on the other hand, isn’t there something reassuring about the idea of a steady hand on the ship of state? To me, John McCain’s tendency to issue overblown statements in response to everything that happens is a little distressing.
Tastes differ, I suppose. Still, my guess is that this is the sort of personal contrast that will form a post hoc explanation for the electoral outcome irrespective of what that outcome is. If Obama loses, his “detachment” will be said to have played a key role, whereas if he wins McCain’s “hothead” image will have been deemed inappriate for troubled times.
30 Responses to “The Even Keel”
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August 18th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Is that “to”, “too”, or “two”? Pick one.
August 18th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Gosh, I like to tease Matthew about his grammatical infelicities as much as the next guy, but it seems CAP attracts a few too many snide snoots.
August 18th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
After seeing the result of having that bunch of hysterical cowards in the Bush Administration inflicted on the country, I absolutely yearn for someone who is calm, thinks through problems, and does not resort to panic at the first sign of trouble. We’ve seen the results of having cowards in charge with no checks or balances thanks to an equally cowardly Congress and judiciary, and it hasn’t been pretty: Torture, illegal spying on Americans, illegal imprisonment, murder of prisoners, unilateral war, and unbelievable corruption ranging from serial shop lifting to multimillion dollar bribery–and that only scratches the surface.
August 18th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
I’m guessing that more than a few CAP readers didn’t make it over to the Atlantic.com very often. To those of us who followed Matt over here from the Atlantic, we learned to love his many typos, kind of like Michael Phelps crooked tooth or Barbara Streisand’s nose.
August 18th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Obama should be more passionate like John Bolton? He could chase down secretaries with staplers and whatnot?
August 18th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
I don’t know about you, but I tend to find reassurance with McCain’s message when it comes to my anxiety over the economy and high energy costs. He gives me hope that I can ditch my current wife for someone who is younger and lots of money…and voila! all my economic worries disappear.
August 18th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
this is the sort of personal contrast that will form a post hoc explanation for the electoral outcome irrespective of what that outcome is. If Obama loses, his “detachment” will be said to have played a key role, whereas if he wins McCain’s “hothead” image will have been deemed inappriate for troubled times.
Wait–but it could be the case that such an analysis is perfectly valid, so long as you have some pre hoc evidence that a candidate’s temperament is a deciding factor in people’s decision of who to vote for, and that Obama is perceived as “detached” and McCain as “a hothead”. I mean, it’s not as though an explanation being post hoc automatically means that the explanation is wrong.
August 18th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Obama is certainly calm, but I can’t fathom how anyone could describe him as “detached”. Every time I’ve seen him in action, he has looked engaged, focused and present. There is nothing remote or detached about him at all.
On the other hand, McCain on the stump frequently looks disinterested and disoriented, as though his mind is elsewhere.
These kinds of comments depress me. Don’t people actually look at people anymore? Or do they they just make everything up as they go along out of whole cloth?
August 18th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
“If Obama loses, his “detachment” will be said to have played a key role, whereas if he wins McCain’s “hothead” image will have been deemed inappropriate for troubled times.”
Hyperventilation is hardly the proper response to anxiety and panic. A true aspirant to the presidency needs to maintain his composure, irrespective of what might be deemed appropriate for troubled times.
August 18th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
I don’t know if this matters, but aren’t most of our best-regarded Presidents (Washington, Lincoln, FDR, even Reagan) in more of the even-keel mode? The one somewhat famously “hotheaded” and yet well-regarded President would be Theodore Roosevelt, and even he is famous for “talk softly, but carry a big stick”. So it seems plausible to me that people would see a certain amount of calmness in demeanor as being more “presidential”.
August 18th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Oh, come on. This is another in a litany of “too” complaints about Obama- he moved around too much, he’s too thin, he’s too foreign-seeming, he’s too elitist, etc. Most of these are just plain nonsensical. I don’t know if what they’re getting at is that he can’t connect with ordinary Americans, or that they can’t connect with him unless they can somehow see themselves in him. Are we voting for Prom King or President?
August 18th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
One of the most striking pathologies defining the current American polity is the bizarre detachment affected by almost the entire policy-making class. They just can’t seem to get excited by the vastly overwhelming evidence of malfeasance within the White House. Young people voting for the first time this year can’t even remember a time when it was not totally normal for the White House to abuse the constitution and the government, with virtually no response from anyone. A lot of people haven’t picked up the urgency. So how does Obama get all excited without seeming hysterical?
August 18th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
The interesting thing is, one of the things that helped clinch Obama’s primary victory was his ability to convey a sense of urgency – the Fierce Urgency of Now (FUoN), if you will. That there is such a thing as being too late, and that that hour is almost upon us. After all, why on earth would we risk our country by handing it over to a former state senator who hasn’t finished one term in the US Senate, if not for the fact that it’s Almost Too Late?
I think Cottle could have wrapped her argument in this perspective – that it’s fine for Obama to demonstrate he keeps his cool in a crisis, but that if he wants to connect to people who feel that their families are on the brink, it’s essential he bring back some of that FUoN. He doesn’t need to become an impulsive hothead like McCain, but he needs something to counteract McCain’s ludicrous “Drill Here, Drill Now” schtick that makes it seem like McCain understands peoples immediate struggles better than Obama does.
August 18th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
If Obama loses, I really hope someone out there in consultant land starts pointing out that 2000-2008, the democratic nominee always starts with a substantial national average and that it starts to fall away exactly when the consultants-that-be dictate the march to the middle is in order.
August 18th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
I really want to see McCain lose his temper and have one of his famous tantrums between now & the election. It would be wonderful if he blows up during one of the debates. That would really help his presidential image.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:03 am
14: Hell would freeze over first.
August 19th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Barrack Obama, courtesy of his (D) appellation, will always be too [fill in blank] for the American public. Doesn’t matter if he’s from Peoria or Hawaii, if he’s calm or rash, intelligent or ignorant, well-like or not, too fit or too fat, a breath of fresh air or a stinky fart of the Washington elite – he’ll alawys be too [filli n blank] in the eyes of the press narrative. The key is to just stop listening to those idiots and hopefully begin to set up informational channels not ruled by nattering nabobs of negativism who wouldn’t know a policy white sheet from a hole in the ground.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
chill. i’m telling ya, this is all going to play out in the debates. you’re going to have this confident virile zulu warior standing next to your shrivelled raisin of a grandpa ranting about the way things oughta be – that’s when the cool will be cool.
August 19th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
You know who else seemed supernaturally cool when running for President during a recession? Reagan. Seem to recall it got him a lot of votes.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Superheroes are hotheads, James Bond notwithstanding. Our love for the Hulk, the guy from Network, and even lunatic Mike Douglas in Falling Down results from our wishing people got as mad as us about things. I don’t agree with this sentiment, but I think it’s prevalent and people would rather see a leader who gets angry as often as they do than one who doesn’t.
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