Althouse: "Brit Hume: Obama told a friend of mine before he was elected, 'Wouldn’t it be great for the world if I were president?'"

September 4, 2014

"Brit Hume: Obama told a friend of mine before he was elected, 'Wouldn’t it be great for the world if I were president?'"

If true, it suggest that Obama himself believed The Fantasy of the Face... or at least believed he could sell it.

67 comments:

mccullough said...: The Cult of Personality didn't work out.; 9/4/14, 9:46 AM
Rumpletweezer said...: If the man had a shred of sense, he'd step aside and let someone competent handle our affairs. Biden would also have to step aside...and probably John Boehner. We might have to dig deep to find someone capable in DC.; 9/4/14, 9:47 AM
damikesc said...: It requires impressive narcissism to even run for President.

That he is impressively narcissistic for the subset of Presidential candidates is something to concern most.; 9/4/14, 9:48 AM
Birkel said...: As I recall, there were many more than just candidate Obama who bought into the myth.

It would be impolite to name names.; 9/4/14, 9:49 AM
Robert Cook said...: This is surely what all aspirants to the Presidency believe and tell themselves.; 9/4/14, 9:52 AM
Nonapod said...: In order for a person to be diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) they must meet five or more of the following symptoms:

- Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
- Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
- Believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
- Requires excessive admiration
- Has a very strong sense of entitlement, e.g., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
- Is exploitative of others, e.g., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
- Lacks empathy, e.g., is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
- Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
- Regularly shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes; 9/4/14, 9:52 AM
MadisonMan said...: This is surely what all aspirants to the Presidency believe and tell themselves.

Oh, I agree, but a prudent person would keep those thoughts to himself.

Or herself, at some point in the future.; 9/4/14, 9:57 AM
Original Mike said...: That entire Hume piece is a spot-on analysis of Barack Obama. Current events around the world demonstrate his worldview to be, charitably, naive. But Obama, slow learner that he is, can not adapt. He doesn't have a clue what to do. His repeated response is to defy reality and define the threat down, but that just makes things worse.

"If you end a war by withdrawing from the battlefield, you lose."; 9/4/14, 9:57 AM
Just asking questions (Jaq) said...: Bobby, that is pretty funny. Themselves... And they would think about country first. It is pretty obvious Obama cares more about what the world thinks of him than he does of what the majority of americans think of him.; 9/4/14, 9:58 AM
Brando said...: Doesn't the very act of running for president really mean the same thing? Unless of course you're saying "wouldn't it be great for me if I were president" which is less idealistic though more realistic.

I don't doubt the man's belief that he really is all that and a bag of chips, and doing better at being president than anyone else could have. He's delusional, but sincere.; 9/4/14, 9:58 AM
Marty Keller said...: Robert Cook said: "This is surely what all aspirants to the Presidency believe and tell themselves."

Oh, yes. I can see Abe Lincoln saying to Billy Herndon, "Wouldn't it be great for the world if I were elected?" Oh, yes. QED.; 9/4/14, 10:05 AM
Curious George said...: "Birkel said...
As I recall, there were many more than just candidate Obama who bought into the myth.

It would be impolite to name names."

Not our Althouse. No siree. She was 't taken in. Nope. It was McCain losing her. Yep, that's it. McCain lost her.; 9/4/14, 10:05 AM
George M. Spencer said...: Plus, the narcissistic leader surrounds him- or herself with co-dependents (people who are servile), and they do whatever they want, i.e "Constitution, what was that?"; 9/4/14, 10:10 AM
Jim said...: How hard could it be if Bush did it?

Well Bush had Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Colin Powell. Barry had Samantha Powers, Valerie Jarrett, and Axelrod.

Bush was Governor of a large state.
Barry was governor of a large mouth.

Bush was an oil man.
Barry was a community organizer.

Bush picked Cheney because he could listen to someone older and wiser.
Barry picked Biden because he could ignore someone older, and face it, no one is wiser, in his mind at least.; 9/4/14, 10:16 AM
MayBee said...: The existence of Obama's speech to the "Muslim World" proves Obama bought into the power of his face, whether or not Obama actually said this to Hume's friend.; 9/4/14, 10:24 AM
MayBee said...: Obama thought the Cairo speech deserved credit for the Iran uprising.; 9/4/14, 10:26 AM
Original Mike said...: "Obama thought the Cairo speech deserved credit for the Iran uprising."

The Iranian uprising where we sided with the thugocracy?; 9/4/14, 10:28 AM
traditionalguy said...: Obama has a messianic complex that believes he is saving the world from ( fill in the blank).

That is no excuse for destroying the USA. Only a Marxist can see good in destroying the USA to save the Communist Mythology.

But it does explain why Obama sees real good in Mohammed's Anti-Christ religion and hates seeing Jews occupying Jerusalem.

Anti-Christ uses a double move. After opposing the true Christ, it must remove and replaces Him.; 9/4/14, 10:32 AM
MayBee said...: - The Halo iconography
- The Office of President Elect
- Getting mad at Bush for not making room for Obama to move into the Blair house early
- The excuses for the blah first inaugural address
- The swooning over Michelle
- The Cairo address
- the talk to South American dictators about how sorry Obama was for things that had happened before he was president
- The IPod of Obama speeches to the Queen
- The Nobel Peace Prize
- The Olympic pitch about how the games in Chicago would be so personally convenient for him
- Lawerence Tribe discussing how actual lawschool work wasn't for people like Obama
- Mark Halperin saying Obama was kind of like a God, above it all

- Valerie Jarrett's comments about Obama being bored because he is so smart

It says a lot of good things about our country that we were able to pull ourselves out of that odd cult fog.
How weird that all was. Sure, now some Obama partisans still feel that way about him. But for the most part, we have displayed a strong national character in pulling ourselves back from that brink.; 9/4/14, 10:39 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: Oh yeah, Britt Hume. There's some credibility.; 9/4/14, 10:43 AM
Wince said...: Blend diplomatic "appeasement" with golf, now that's a how-to for Obama.; 9/4/14, 10:43 AM
Original Mike said...: Brit Hume is one of the more thoughtful commentators on TV today.; 9/4/14, 10:50 AM
Michael said...: Brit Hume was White House correspondent for ABC for over twenty years.

Very credible.

ARM: Compare your resume with his. LOL; 9/4/14, 10:52 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: Michael said...
Brit Hume was White House correspondent for ABC for over twenty years.

By this logic all long serving ABC correspondents have a high degree of credibility. Was this your main point?

Let's see Brit Hume's diary entry recording this conversation.; 9/4/14, 11:03 AM
chillblaine said...: "The Iranian uprising where we sided with the thugocracy?"

History will demonstrate that this is the most consequential failure of Obama's presidency.; 9/4/14, 11:13 AM
richard mcenroe said...: "We might have to dig deep to find someone capable in DC."

You'd have to dig clear down to Texas.; 9/4/14, 11:17 AM
Fernandinande said...: How to Deal With Narcissists

Or here.; 9/4/14, 11:18 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: chillblaine said...

History will demonstrate that this is the most consequential failure of Obama's presidency.

Let's get involved in another country's civil war. What could go wrong?; 9/4/14, 11:18 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: He's not the only one who fell for it.; 9/4/14, 11:21 AM
Mid-Life Lawyer said...: I can understand how some got caught up in the hoopla the first time around, but there is no reasonable excuse for anyone voting for him in 2012. The problem in this country is not the narcissist Obama who rose to the presidency on affirmative action policies, both explicit and implicit, the problem is the people who voted for him.; 9/4/14, 11:21 AM
Just asking questions (Jaq) said...: So ARM, can you explain why the "centrist" president is so unpopular? Why don't Senate Candidates want to appear with him?; 9/4/14, 11:28 AM
jacksonjay said...: "Oh yeah, Britt Hume. There's some credibility."

As compared to Tommy Flat World and Fareed the Plagiarist?; 9/4/14, 11:31 AM
FullMoon said...: AReasonableMan said...

Oh yeah, Britt Hume. There's some credibility.

Hmmm, the linked video actually has Obama in 2007 validating Britt Humes' statement.
Pretty sneaky of Hume and Kelly to trick you like that.; 9/4/14, 11:41 AM
mtrobertsattorney said...: Given the seriousness of Obama's psychological disorder, the danger is that he will come to believe that neither the world nor the American people have shown themselves to be worthy of his brilliance. What he will do then is up in the air.

He might serve out his term doing nothing, or, out of sheer bitterness, he may seek out ways to punish both.; 9/4/14, 11:48 AM
Robert Cook said...: "So ARM, can you explain why the 'centrist' president is so unpopular?"

Because he, as did his predecessors, serves the elites and not the people. As a result, the state of things today stinks for most people in the country, as it has stunk for some years now, and bodes ill to continue to stink for the foreseeable future.

People who voted for Obama voted for change. What did they get? More of the same.

Obama doesn't have even the virtue of an appealing personality, which some claim--more baffling things have been true--to have found in Bush.; 9/4/14, 11:58 AM
Robert Cook said...: "Given the seriousness of Obama's psychological disorder...."

Oh, please. Obama is not in the least psychologically disordered...at least, not as measured by the standards applied to his peers in Washington, who are, as a group, grandiose, sociopathic hustlers. In fact, he is the standard model of the American politician today...completely amoral, a habitual, or, rather--as it his is job, (as it is his peers')--a professional liar, a loyal servant of the owners of this country. (And they ain't us.)

One will not find a dozen politicians in Washington who aren't exactly the same.; 9/4/14, 12:18 PM
CWJ said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/4/14, 12:24 PM
CWJ said...: “Wouldn’t it be great for the world if I were president?”

Robert Cook, For me, it's the use of the word "world" that adds the psychological creepiness factor and sets this apart from the normal order of self confidence that any candidate needs to have. Normal people would say "America" if they were running for President. Or say "Missouri" if they were running for governor, and so on.

Obama appears to have always thought about the next job he could have rather than doing the job he currently holds. You can see in that statement the seeds of his inevitable boredom with whatever task he has at hand. Boredom which for him conveniently masks any need for him to honestly confront his incompetence.

That is of course if the use of "world" is an accurate remembrance of what was said.; 9/4/14, 12:24 PM
Original Mike said...: "Hmmm, the linked video actually has Obama in 2007 validating Britt Humes' statement.
Pretty sneaky of Hume and Kelly to trick you like that."

Brit Hume had one of the best take downs of a deceitful politician I've ever seen. Hume was interviewing Jay Rockefeller, then ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Hume's Sunday morning show. Rockefeller claimed that the reason he voted for the Iraq War Resolution was because Bush, in his 2003 SOTU address, had said that the threat from Iraq was imminent. But Senator, Hume replied, Bush specifically stated in the address that the threat was not imminent, and he played a video clip demonstrating exactly that. Scrambling to cover his ass, Rockefeller claimed Bush was speaking in code. We all knew, Rockefeller said, that when Bush said it was not imminent, that what he was really saying was the threat was imminent. Hume's reponse: "But Senator, your vote for the Iraq resolution came in Oct 2002, 3 months before the 2003 SOTU address."

Brit Hume is nobody's fool. NBC should offer him the anchor of Meet The Press.; 9/4/14, 12:31 PM
wendybar said...: Obama loves himself. He loves himself more than he loved his mother, grandmother, grandfather ect.... He loves looking at pictures of himself. He thought he was the ONE you were waiting for. He still thinks he is a messiah, and that we just don't get it. He is a fool.; 9/4/14, 12:39 PM
wendybar said...: Obama loves himself. He loves himself more than he loved his mother, grandmother, grandfather ect.... He loves looking at pictures of himself. He thought he was the ONE you were waiting for. He still thinks he is a messiah, and that we just don't get it. He is a fool.; 9/4/14, 12:39 PM
Anthony said...: I had to reread that old Andrew Sullivan essay. Had to laugh -- how is it working out for us!

Consider this hypothetical. It’s November 2008. A young Pakistani Muslim is watching television and sees that this man—Barack Hussein Obama—is the new face of America. In one simple image, America’s soft power has been ratcheted up not a notch, but a logarithm. A brown-skinned man whose father was an African, who grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, who attended a majority-Muslim school as a boy, is now the alleged enemy. If you wanted the crudest but most effective weapon against the demonization of America that fuels Islamist ideology, Obama’s face gets close. It proves them wrong about what America is in ways no words can.; 9/4/14, 1:13 PM
traditionalguy said...: The Narcissist personality is like many control persons, but what they aim at controlling is your opinion of them. Your opinion must match the image they chose to project, or you will be totally eliminated from their life and replaced with others.

Obama never talks with the GOP or Dem congressional leaders except briefly as part of his favorite "Obama is a hero who puts up with bad people show". Paul Ryan would not add to the good show, so he was ditched.

This real narcissist is evil. He has zero empathy for the closest people that he uses... to him they are weak fools for supporting/loving him while he plots to eliminate them for knowing too much about the real person.

Most psychiatrists will not treat a real narcissist. They are too dangerous. They will charm everyone they meet, but isolate and destroy the realists.; 9/4/14, 1:20 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: After being such a ginormous failure as president, I bet Obama will spend his remaining years in a drunken stupor like his father did. The apple does not fall far from the tree.; 9/4/14, 1:23 PM
Michael said...: ARM
"Oh yeah, Britt Hume. There's some credibility."

By this "logic" anyone with a keypad is an expert.; 9/4/14, 1:29 PM
victoria said...: You're using Britt Hume as a touchpoint for the truth? He is the true narcissist.

Vicki from Pasadena; 9/4/14, 1:39 PM
Drago said...: "We all knew, Rockefeller said, that when Bush said it was not imminent, that what he was really saying was the threat was imminent. Hume's reponse: "But Senator, your vote for the Iraq resolution came in Oct 2002, 3 months before the 2003 SOTU address."

This sort of thing is precisely why ARM and vicki from Pasadena don't like Hume.

Hume holds dems to some standards.

That is utterly unforgivable.

And racist.

And sexist.

And Hume pulls womens hair!; 9/4/14, 2:01 PM
Drago said...: You would think with all the trashing of Hume by ARM/Vicki that a few examples might have been proffered by now to justify said trashing.; 9/4/14, 2:02 PM
Original Mike said...: "You would think with all the trashing of Hume by ARM/Vicki that a few examples might have been proffered by now to justify said trashing."

You know better than that.; 9/4/14, 2:06 PM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: Drago said...
You would think with all the trashing of Hume by ARM/Vicki that a few examples might have been proffered by now to justify said trashing.

Either Hume has a written record of this conversation, with a plausible date or he doesn't. Why is he hiding his records? What is trying to hide?

Hume told a friend of mine, before he was a commentator, that he liked dressing up in women's clothing. And, we do have footage of him wearing makeup.; 9/4/14, 2:33 PM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/4/14, 2:33 PM
Original Mike said...: And you call yourself reasonable.; 9/4/14, 2:45 PM
Michael said...: ARM

You continue to amuse. Tomorrow morning take a pen and as you read the NYT underline those sentences that use phrases like "an unnamed source" or "a highly placed source" or "a top Democrat" or "a key Republican" or….

Go from page one to the sports section. Do this every day.

Become a reasonable man. Learn.; 9/4/14, 2:53 PM
Drago said...: ARM: "Why is he hiding his records?"

LOL

Journalism 101 eludes ARM.

Or is this again, as if we need another example, of "special rules" for folks in "less than good standing with the lefty powers that be"?

I guess Brit can't even begin to aspire to the level of integrity exemplified by that hero of the left, Dan Rather.; 9/4/14, 3:33 PM
Drago said...: ARM, you should be a bit more careful.

You are veering dangerously close to 'garage-ville' with your ridiculous 'journalists need to open up their records to validate their claims'.

Exactly when did this become your "standard"?

45 minutes ago?; 9/4/14, 3:36 PM
Just asking questions (Jaq) said...: Well Robert Cook, I know it is a point of pride with you to be to the left of everybody, but what you are arguing is not that Obama is a centrist, but that he is unpopular for being too right wing.

ARM has made the Obama is a centrist claim. I would just like to hear him explain himself once.; 9/4/14, 4:07 PM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: tim in vermont said...
ARM has made the Obama is a centrist claim. I would just like to hear him explain himself once.

Bush I was unquestionably a centrist, he was also unpopular. You are trying to infer a relationship that does not exist.

Why would centrism and popularity be related? You could argue that centrists tend to piss off the most fervent (crazy) members of their own party without attracting adherents from the other party so that they are invariably weak. This was what happened with Bush I.; 9/4/14, 4:13 PM
Shanna said...: Is anyone actually surprised by this? Obama clearly thought he could waltz in, give a couple speeches and fix everything. Because he's smarter than everybody else. That is his mentality.

This has been clear for a while.; 9/4/14, 5:14 PM
victoria said...: ARM,

you are spot on. If Britt has evidence, then show it or stop being a blowhard. If he is being secretive about the info, I'll bet he doesn't have it.

Vicki from Pasadena; 9/4/14, 5:31 PM
Original Mike said...: "If he is being secretive about the info, I'll bet he doesn't have it."

Secretive? As far as I know, the only one who's asked him for proof is Vicki from Pasadena (and some guy who's a self-styled reasonable man). I think you'll have to speak up if you expect him to hear you.; 9/4/14, 5:40 PM
PackerBronco said...: He was half right.

It was great for Russia, it was great for China, it was great for Iran, it was great for ISIS, it was great for ...; 9/4/14, 11:25 PM
Quaestor said...: ... extraordinarily not adaptable.

The express train to extinction.; 9/4/14, 11:55 PM
Quaestor said...: Shanna wrote: Obama clearly thought he could waltz in, give a couple speeches and fix everything. Because he's smarter than everybody else. That is his mentality. This has been clear for a while.

I suspected this from the beginning of his campaign in 2007. It was made abundantly clear to me when Obama accepted that Nobel Peace Prize back in '09, an award granted by blithering idiots for no accomplishment whatsoever.

An honorable man would have said thanks, but no thanks. But not Obama. I knew right then that he hadn't the stuff to be anything but a slow motion tragedy.; 9/5/14, 12:03 AM
zefal said...: He wasn't the only one.; 9/5/14, 12:05 AM
Just asking questions (Jaq) said...: ARM, I will buy that explanation for your thinking as plausible.

As far as the veracity of the quote, this is the guy who said "you have me" when asked why the Democrats should not worry about forcing crap down the country's throat before the '10 mid-terms.

So Obama's real problem is that it is so plausible.; 9/5/14, 6:26 AM
Just asking questions (Jaq) said...: OK, I clicked on the Fox News video. At the end of it, an NPR interview is played where he makes the same "point" in different words.

Vickie, ARM, I know you prefer not to look at Fox, but the video in this case makes an extremely strong case that if he didn't say it, he certainly thought it, and the case is made by NPR, not by Fox.; 9/5/14, 6:31 AM
Just asking questions (Jaq) said...: I love too how the Obama voters are distancing themselves from the mania, closest I can think of is Beatlemania, that accompanied his candidacy.

Remember that college professor who suggested the the audience form an O with their hands in worship? Well, he didn't call it worship, but what would you call it?; 9/5/14, 8:45 AM