Is President Obama LOST IN THOUGHT? (WaPo Piece)

[polichick]

While I don't always agree with Mr. Milbank, I thought this was a very interesting take on President Obama - what do you think?


Obama, Lost In Thought
by Dana Milbank

"Seeking a template to understand the enigmatic president, I consulted three leading academics in the fields of psychology and behavior. With their help, I put Obama on the couch and came away with a reasonably coherent diagnosis: There’s too much going on in the poor guy’s head.

“What distinguishes Obama particularly is the depth and carefulness of his thinking, which renders him somewhat unfit for politics,” said Jonathan Haidt, a professor of social psychology at the University of Virginia. “He is a brilliant social and political analyst, which makes it harder for him to play hardball or to bluff.”

Obama’s strengths and weaknesses come from his high degree of “integrative complexity” — his ability to keep multiple variables and trade-offs in mind simultaneously. The integratively simple thinker — say, George W. Bush — has one universal organizing principle that dominates all others, while the integratively complex thinker — Obama — balances many competing goals."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obama_lost_in_thought/2011/04/26/AF0FrwsE_story.html?wprss=rss_homepage

[Schema Thing]

1. LOL! "somewhat unfit for politics"

about the best politician of my lifetime.

[polichick]

3. I don't agree that he's unfit for politics but I do believe that he is a much more complex thinker..

...than we usually see in a politician.

[ProSense]

2. Seriously,

<...>

One type of thinker isn’t necessarily better or smarter than the other; it depends on the circumstances. A simple thinker such as Winston Churchill, for example, was a better answer to Adolf Hitler than the complex Neville Chamberlain. “Leaders need to be simple enough for people to relate to,” said Tetlock, “but complex enough to explain to people that they can’t have everything.” Obama was simple enough during his campaign, but, as president, became submerged in subtlety.

As Obama’s capacity for complex thought can become a liability, so, too, can his cool rationality. Politics often rewards the emotional over the rational. Nuclear deterrence, for example, works only if your enemy thinks you are crazy enough to destroy the world.

Such “strategic irrationality” can be useful in negotiations. If your opponent thinks you really might do something crazy — like, say, shut down the federal government over a small budget dispute — then you have more power to bluff. But because Obama is unfailingly rational, opponents aren’t afraid of him doing something crazy.

“If the logic of a threat doesn’t make sense, it can still work if think you will be in the grips of an emotional reaction that’s not under your control,” says Robert Frank, an economist at Cornell University who specializes in behavior and emotion. “With Obama, it doesn’t seem there would be any emotional reaction that is not under his control.”

<...>

...someone needs to snatch Milbank's computer and strap him to a fucking couch.

What a moron!

[polichick]

4. Actually, he's right that Obama's rationality can be a negative in negotiations...

...because the other side knows he won't let things go off the deep end - he gives a lot in order to maintain order.