President Obama and Jay Carney played the god card yesterday and botched it badly.
The leader of a secular nation has no business giving anyone in that nation directives from deities. Mr. Obama is the American President. He’s not America’s High Priest nor is he our Head Pastor. He has absolutely no business publicly invoking deities in support of his policies. Instead, the leader of a secular republic should have responded to the House of Representatives’ moronic resolution by either:
a) chiding the House for wasting the people’s time (my preference), or
b) ignoring their resolution completely.
Instead, he tried outsmarting them at their own game – easily the stupidest choice available to him. When the president invoked god as a supporter of his specific policy he moved away from making a policy statement to making a theological pronouncement. Such a pronouncement rolling off the lips of a secular leader is, to say the least, highly inappropriate.
Unfortunately, Mr. Obama’s staff made the situation even worse; the president’s error was compounded by his press secretary (who, if he is not an idiot, had a really bad day). If Jay Carney wants to appeal to biblical authority (he shouldn’t want to do so in the performance of his duties, but he obviously did yesterday), he should begin by checking his source to make sure the citation actually exists. All he managed to do was display his ignorance. My advice to Mr. Carney is simple: don’t try to play the game if you don’t know the playing field.
Here’s my evaluation of how the president and his staff handled this situation:
– the chaplain
The Wise Fool
November 3, 2011 at 12:01 pm
Oh, that is HORRIBLE! I hope they learn their lesson from this and stop trying to do lip service to pander to the religious masses.
I had just commented recently on one of the posts on Ahab’s blog about situations where it may be appropriate for a president to play the religious card, such as after a national tragedy to sooth wounds, but this, this is absolutely the wrong way to do it.
I think you aptly call this a FAIL!
Button
November 3, 2011 at 1:56 pm
Eh. Maybe it’s because I knew of its pagan roots beforehand, but I don’t think this is something to get worked up over. It had to me the tone of a literary reference, not the tone of a scriptural citation.
I first read the moral “the gods help those who help themselves” in a book of Aesop’s fables, in which the god the lazy man appeals to is Zeus. If the President had attributed the quote to Aesop, I don’t think we’d see that as an endorsement of ancient Greek religion, but rather as an innocent citation. The fact that he got his citation wrong is pretty funny, but considering the number of Christians I’ve seen citing it as scripture, I’m not surprised a high-profile member of the religion thought he didn’t need to check it out. Extra /facepalm at such people because it’s nearly the opposite of what the Christian bible actually says: their god helps those who help others.
Tangentially, imagine the brouhaha that would have ensued if he had done his research and cited it in its (I presume) original form, with gods plural. Kenyan Muslim polytheist!
Kagehi
November 3, 2011 at 2:29 pm
Personally, I found the comment to be a toss up. Yeah, it annoyed me. But, at the same time, you know damn well that if the Rethuglicans had the presidency they would have been babbling **about** how they had gone through such an effort to reaffirm that stupid ass *extra* motto, precisely because they would either be using it as distraction, or some of them actually imagined that God would “fix” the economy, if they kissed his imaginary ass enough, without them having to do a damn thing, other than kissing the ass of people with money, at the same time.
So, on one hand, I found it annoying as hell that he didn’t treat it, as you say, as a useless thing, and chose to invoke religion. But, I also laughed my ass off at the fact that he called them on doing something so bloody stupid, instead of something useful.
the chaplain
November 3, 2011 at 3:53 pm
Wise Fool:
I think the pandering is going to get much worse over the next 12 months. Keep a large supply of barf bags handy.
Button:
Carney’s statement may be passed off as a poor literary reference, but President Obama’s testimony, “I believe in God,” can’t be passed off that easily. If it’s true, he needs to keep his faith in his pocket, not on his sleeve. If it’s not true, he needs to refrain from saying it.
Kagehi
I agree that the President was subtly chiding Congress for not moving on important legislation, such as the jobs bill, but he did not have to reaffirm his own faith to do so.
PhillyChief
November 4, 2011 at 12:03 am
Double Facepalm
Moe
November 4, 2011 at 5:23 pm
Oh come on Barry – don’t become ‘them’. I do wonder still if the president can come to where his supporters are.
Brian M
November 7, 2011 at 10:59 am
Moe:
You are making a very fundamental error…Obama IS where he wants to be…a right wing politician beholden to perhaps a marginally less insane branch of the elite business class than his opponents. He IS “them” in all practical ways. The “supporters” who matter are still pumping cash into his campaign. He is implementing the bipartisan vision (more wars, more subsidies for “bizness”, etc.). There are no “democrats”, no “republicans” there is only big business…which takes care of its own.
But don’t worry, as the Ratchet Effect continues to operate, his followers will soon follow him to a point on the political spectrum well to the right of Richard Nixon or Saint Ronald of Hollywood. They are already there as they gin up tepid support for Obama’s new wars.
http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org/2008/11/the_ratchet_effect.html
Moe
November 7, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Brian – I know he’s with the banks (or has been so far), but when I say don’t become ‘them’ I mean don’t become a politician who kowtows to the ‘christians’. GW and others before him love to throw out those Bibical refernces hoping to pick up a few extra votes. It always disappoints me.
He ought to be reminded of what Barry Goldwater said:
“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them”
Brian M
November 7, 2011 at 3:52 pm
LOL:
Jon Schwarz quoted “this description of Obama’s March 27, 2009 meeting with the heads of thirteen major banks” from Ron Suskind’s controversial new book Confidence Men :
The discussion moved swiftly across topics, such as the general soundness of the overall system and how to jump-start lending, before it came around to what was on everyone’s mind: compensation.
The CEOs went into their traditional stance: “It’s almost impossible to set caps; it’s never worked, and you lose your best people,” said one. “We’re competing for talent on an international market,” said another. Obama cut them off.
“Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn’t buying that,” he said. “My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”
It was an attention grabber, no doubt, especially that carefully chosen last word.
But then Obama’s flat tone turned to one of support, even sympathy. “You guys have an acute public relations problem that’s turning into a political problem,” he said. “And I want to help. But you need to show that you get that this is a crisis and that everyone has to make some sacrifices.”
According to one of the participants, he then said, “I’m not out there to go after you. I’m protecting you. But if I’m going to shield you from public and congressional anger, you have to give me something to work with on these issues of compensation.”
Yep…Don’t be like “Them”, President Hope-N-Change.