Monday, June 23, 2008
False introspection watch: Barack Obama struggles with work-family balance
This latest claim of Barack Obama is nothing less but laugh-out-loud funny:
Later during a question-and-answer session with a group of about 30 women, Obama said he constantly questions the balance of work and family in his personal life.
"I'm away from my daughters all the time, and I'm away from my wife all the time," Obama said. "And so I'm always comparing, 'OK, is what I'm doing _ running for president or even being president _ worth the sacrifice of not being with my family?'"
Seriously? He does not know whether "being president" is worth the sacrifice of not being with his family? Either Barack Obama believes we voters are so stupid that we will fall for his faux introspection routine or he is arrestingly confused about his own character and motives. It is difficult to imagine what the third explanation would be.
CWCID: Rich Lowry.
9 Comments:
By 
, at
Mon Jun 23, 10:30:00 PM:
I don't know, TH. It looks like you are looking a bit closely to try and find something wrong with Obama (there are things that are wrong, and this isn't one of them I think). He's just trying to make his family feel special. It's kind of like when I say, "Baby...you KNOW I think you have the greatest ass in the world!" It's not really true, but some shit you just gotta say to make 'em happy.
-dave
By 
clint, at
Mon Jun 23, 10:37:00 PM:
Even from that specific appearance, I find his thrashing of the "equal pay" faux issue to be more troubling.
Perhaps next he'll come out in favor of extending women the vote -- which, of course, Senator McCain surely opposes.
By TigerHawk, at
Tue Jun 24, 06:32:00 AM:
dave -
Oh. I thought he was sucking up to the audience of women he was addressing.
By , at
Tue Jun 24, 11:43:00 AM:
Guys -- Help me understand this. Is it equally laughable for a man to question whether some other demanding job (CEO, pro athlete, Nobel prize-winning physicist, Marine), with the attendant loss of closeness to his family, is clearly the life that he wants to lead? Or is it just that being POTUS is the ultimate top job? And is it equally laughable if a woman says it? MCU
By Diane Wilson, at
Tue Jun 24, 01:41:00 PM:
I can't tell the Senator whether the sacrifice of being President is worth the time away from his family.
I can, however, tell him that his accomplishments as President won't be worth the time away from his family.
By Dawnfire82, at
Tue Jun 24, 01:58:00 PM:
Anon: No, and I'll tell you why.
Running for the Presidency takes a long time, and the sacrifice of millions of dollars of both yours and other people's money, not to mention the raw man hours that both motivated little volunteers and highly paid consultants and apparatchiks put into your campaign.
And now, 3/4 of the way through, he wonders if it's what he really wants to do.
Really? The hundreds of appearances, the interviews, the millions upon millions of dollars expended, the millions of primary votes, et al, and now, in fucking June, he still isn't sure about it?
Bull. Shit. He's trying to look like a reluctant family man, "oh I don't really want to do this, I'm torn between my home life and my higher calling as a Lightbringing patriot," so the people in the audience will go "aww, poor nice guy."
But if, somehow, he's being genuine and doesn't know if serving as President is worth not being with his family, then he doesn't deserve the job anyway.
By TigerHawk, at
Tue Jun 24, 02:31:00 PM:
Dawnfire nailed it. Nobody, with the possible exception of Gerald Ford in 1976, runs for president unless they are consumed by an ambition that long ago overwhelmed their interest in spending time with their family.
By , at
Wed Jun 25, 12:22:00 AM:
Wow -- so cynical!
Could it possibly be that . . . hey, he loves his family and knows that, actually, no matter what he does politically/professionally he is sacrificing a certain kind of family life -- which is actually incomparable to any sort of other achievement?
By , at
Wed Jun 25, 09:51:00 AM:
Obama's line reminds me of the many I threw out to chicks when I was single. The tortured soul that was stuck between one higher good over another, when all I really wanted was to bed the fair maiden. The funny thing about this particular rap, is that it was tremendously effective. So I am sure Mr. Obama "scored" (with votes that is) that night. Now had he been Bill Clinton, he would have gotten the votes and the booty...
(TH my appologies for dragging my own sordid past into this beacon of wisdom)
