The Unfeeling President

[frogcycle]

This is three years old, but sadly, all the more fitting today.

Published on Thursday, September 9, 2004 by the Easthampton Star / Long Island, New York
The Unfeeling President
by E.L. Doctorow


I fault this president for not knowing what death is. He does not suffer the death of our 21-year-olds who wanted to be what they could be. On the eve of D-Day in 1944 General Eisenhower prayed to God for the lives of the young soldiers he knew were going to die. He knew what death was. Even in a justifiable war, a war not of choice but of necessity, a war of survival, the cost was almost more than Eisenhower could bear.

But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for the weapons of mass destruction he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the carefully screened crowd, smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man.

He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn. He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

more...

[mwb970]

1. There is definitely something wrong with the president.

He seems so disconnected from real people, real feelings, real events. Having him as president has been one of the great tragedies of American history.

[frogcycle]

3. Even more disturbing

is that so many do not recognize this.

This article was written three years ago - before the 2004 election - when most of the press was ranting and raving about Kerry's botched joke and slobbering over "the decider" saving the world from evil, and half the country was eating it up.

Those of us who DO see it cannot comprehend that others do not. I keep thinking of H.G. Wells "The Time Machine," with the Morlocks and Eloi as descendents of what are today called humans, and feeling that we are well on the way toward that future.

[Briar]

10. There's definitely something wrong

with a political system and a democratic electorate that refuses to do anything about such a president and even continue to support many of his core values. How many democrats are prepared to repudiate an attack on Iran?

[bemildred]

2. Unfeeling? Unthinking? Which to choose? nt

[frogcycle]

4. how about inhuman?

[Olney Blue]

5. Lyndon Johnson visibly showed the strain of war. This one thrives in it.

[reprobate]

6. Unfeeling. The short definition for SOCIOPATH

[truth2power]

7. That's because he's a psychopath...

He has no conscience and he's indifferent to to the consequences of his actions on others.

People have talked about how "incurious" he is. "Indifferent" is more like it. That's why his statements about how he hugs the mothers seem so stilted and somehow, "off". He tries his best to fake it, but the genuine emotion simply isn't wired into his brain. Those of us who are fairly normal know that something isn't right, but we don't know exactly what.

When he was at that John Deere factory (I think it was) and he climbed into that huge earth mover, fired it up and started "driving" it across the factory floor, is another perfect example. That wasn't funny. It wasn't a joke. People (staff, reporters etc.) were truly terrified and fleeing for their lives, as it was described in news articles. There was no way he would have been able to control that vehicle if something unforseen had happened.

Yet, afterward, he slid the window open and grinned and chuckled at the crowd. He was totally indifferent to the fear he had inflicted on those people or the implications of what he had done. Nevertheless, that incident was minimized by the media as if it were no big deal.

You would never purposely put a psychopath in a position of having power over others. But, here he is....6+ years now. He's driving this country crazy! Why are we surprised?

[frogcycle]

8. I have an inlaw who fits this description

He just plain doesn't "get it" when he is inappropriate - which is all the time.
He says and does things that are truly outrageous, and then smirks like a two-year-old waiting to be told he is cute. He is just plain stunted. Reasoning with him is like reasoning with the pigeons in the park. And yet he is reasonably intelligent - that is, capable of learning skills.

In his case, from what I know of him, I suspect a combination of some sort of developmental disability & lack of treatment thereof, growing up in a family where the siblings all outperformed him, perhaps exacerbated by a domineering and physically abusive father. Portions of the personality development just did not happen. Like a puppy removed from the mother too soon, that does not get properly "socialized."

[MasonJar]

9. When W gives a speech and snatches appear on camera before

I can get to the tv to change the station, he always sounds so phony and insincere. It is unnatural for GWB to resonate any kind of emotion; in addition, he isn't savvy enough to fake it. The man appears to be a textbook sociopath. His speech writers can put in any appropriate amount of drama and concern through their carefully vetted words, but Bush cannot deliver them with any semblance of aplomb.

[lib2DaBone]

11. Psychopath Bush

Bush is a full blown Psychopath. He has no conscience, no feeling for fellow man, no remorse for his actions. He is Adolf Hitler re-incarnated. No one can change this, and very few people in America care about his persona. We can only hope that somewhere, somehow, intellignet humans will wake up and call out this Monster for what he really is.....

[Prophet 451]

12. He's emotionally retarded

W is not stupid but he has the emotional range of a small child and like a small child, he's incapable of understanding the concept of death except on a purely biological level. That's not a sociopath or psychopath but it is still extremely dangerous.

[AZgirl7]

13. Nothing less than astounding!

Are the people who cheer no matter WHAT Bush says or does, or HOW he says or does it, simply psychopaths too??! Is that why we can't figure THEM out? It's really a terrifying realization!! God help us ALL when the true scholars, true Christians, true intellectuals, and the truely respected business people in this country, can't collectively have this madman removed! And us little chumps are supposed to do it??

Recently, I saw a moment on TV where the cameraman obviously mistakenly panned backstage during a Bush speech. 3 or 4 Secret Service guys were pacing, AK-47's (or whatever they were) drawn, poised for shooting!!! This, in ADDITION to the pre-screened, body cavity searched audience. OMG! From day one this guy KNEW he'd be hated. He's the most protected 'human' on earth!

[Diclotican]

14. frogcycle

Hello


I wonder if his medical reports wil be opened someday, to try to explain what was was doing his "clockwork" Ie What was going in his head.. I dont dubt that the medical staff that are in the Presidents staff work on him, not just fysical, but alså psycial to se how he react to things.. The CIA have "profiled" the goverments over the whole world for over 50 year now, and I dont doubt they too "profil" theyr own President.. For the sake of it anyway.. And this medical reports _can_ be open, and the world can know what was mr Bush inner workning...

Former president Eisenhower _know_ wat war was, and as you point up, he on the eve of the D day, prayed for alle the soldies who was to die the next day.. And maybee to for all the soldiers who was to die before that war was over and Peace was in the card...
And hi was maybee one of the more great president you have after www2.. Even that hi was a republican..
This man, mr Bush are just plain mad.. If halv of what is coming out, not just here, but also at POAC and other sites is true, the US congress should put the Whole White House staff in the brigg, and explain for the whole world that the last 6-7 year have been a BIG misunderstanding.. Tha they haved been duped by a meniac, a psycopat and the "yes-men" behind the throne.. Mr Bush is maybe dangrous, but they who are behind him, in the darkness is maybee more dangrous, becouse they are not in the light. And WIL STRIKE AGAIN under a another President.. I am not trying to be pesimist, but if you just trow mr Bush and Chenney into the brigg, you have not fix the underlining problems.. If you want to stop this maniac to rebuild itself, you have to tear up a lot of dirt in the prosess..
Its like let most of the top leades of the nazi-party be in position becouse "they are not that bad as mr Hitler was". If they have doing that after 1945, the German wasent been a peacefull nation it is today.. Thank to the okkupied forcres after the WW2 they arrested, trialed and executed some of the worst leaders, others was not find guilty, and some was rotting in prision for a loooong time after the war... And One was sitting in Spandau to his death in 1988...

Diclotican

Sorry my bad engelish, not my native language

[frogcycle]

15. Your English is fine; you make yourself understood

Your point about those behind the movement that the current administration represents is spot on. The problem is much, much deeper and far reaching than the handful of individuals we can see. It is a fundamental issue of concentration of power among the extremely wealthy, not necessarily all in the US, with our government "of the people" reduced to just a pretense.

As to putting them all in the brig - an attractive prospect, to be sure, but unfortunately not that simple within our Constitution.

I doubt that any inside information about their health will ever be public.

[Skittles]

16. GWB is a sociopath

he is incapable of normal human feeling so he mimics - badly

[Vidar]

17. Doctorow's always a good read.

[Doctor_J]

18. The word sociopath is usually used to describe a person with no conscience

That fits this pathetic loser to a "T". He has never done an honest day's work in his life, never made an honest dollar, never had to earn anything.