While the New York Times house "conservative," David Brooks, continues to shower love upon President Barack Obama, editor-in-chief Marty Peretz of the liberal New Republic has become highly critical of The One. Just how critical? Well, here is Peretz using a Financial Times report on the humiliating Olympic snub of Obama in Copenhagen as the platform to launch a withering critique of the president's self-defeating attitude:
As the FT went on to say, the IOC "delivered an astonishing snub" to the president "by eliminating Chicago in the first round of voting." Chicago was dumped before Madrid was dumped and before Tokyo was dumped. Had the Obama folk not done any canvassing which would have alerted them to the fact that they were jet-setting to a humiliation? Maybe Michelle's presence added to the over-confident sense of invincibility. Moreover, how could they lose with Oprah Winfrey in tow?
Ouch! And from this Olympic defeat, Peretz ponders just how effective Obama can be on the diplomatic stage:
So this question arises: If Obama could not get Chicago over the finish line in Copenhagen, which was a test only of his charms, how will he persuade Tehran to give up its nuclear weapons capacity or the Arabs, to whom he has tilted (we are told) only tactically, to sit down without their 60 year-old map as guide to what they demand from Israel.
And now for the money quote:
What I suspect is that the president is probably a clinical narcissist. This is not necessarily a bad condition if one maintains for oneself what the psychiatrists call an "optimal margin of illusion," that is, the margin of hope that allows you to work. But what if his narcissism blinds him to the issues and problems in the world and the inveterate foes of the nation that are not susceptible to his charms?
If Obama is a "clinical narcissist" that would make the MSM his enablers since months before he was elected president, they were already portraying him in images and print as having a saintly halo image.
Peretz concludes with a "nervy query":
I know that the president believes himself a good man. My nervy query to him is: "Does he believe America to be a good country?"
So while The New Republic continues with its strong support of liberal policies such as a public option ObamaCare bill, they sometimes steer sharply away from the party line. And the NewsBusters Eye of Sauron will continue to be focused on these "heretical" deviations.
