Not Able to Look People in the Eye

Larry Auster at View From the Right recently posted comments he'd received about the third Presidential debate. I sent my comments and observations about the debate. Here's what I wrote:

I think Obama looked a little manic last night. I’ve written about “a hard glint in his eyes.”

But I agree, despite his loss of weight and his gray hair, he looked stronger than Romney, who missed the presidential gravitas with his odd smile.

Here’s a pretty good side-by-side from the debate of Obama’s glare and Romney’s attempt at strength.

As in your post, I agree with you that Obama did not look “small or angry.” But, I don’t think his demeanor suggests a leader of the First World. He might be a leader, but I don’t think for Americans.

Larry Auster emailed me and made this comment:

[T]hat was a very insightful point, that he looks like a leader, but not an American leader.

Why? The confident, charismatic look in his wide-apart eyes was not in keeping with the American system. There was too much of "personal" power in it.

I reply:

I have spent some time looking at photos of leaders, in recent years.

One thing that intrigued me was the comparison between Haile Selassie, and the vicious dictator who "replaced" him Mengistu Haile Mariam.

Here is a photo of Haile Selassie
He looks stern, but compassionate.

Here is a photo of Haile Mariam:
He looks reasonably intelligent, but manic
(By the way, it was very hard to find a photo of him looking directly at the camera.)

Here is another one of him with a confident, almost charismatic, look.

He came on because leftist anti-Ethiopians (anti-traditionalists) decided to follow a liberal/socialist route for "equality."

Rather than bring on equality, Haile Mariam was actually the most vicious of all, indiscriminate in his destruction.

And these many years later, and after all that destruction, these leftists, equality-preaching leftists, still remain leftist, which shows the strength of their belief. Of course, they have almost all left the country which the harshness of their ideology destroyed, and are in safe havens in America and Canada. And, they are the ones who vote for Obama.

I think Obama has that same look as Mengistu Haile Mariam, and that same agenda.

I think the emperors in Ethiopia (I should be specify, as always, and say the Amhara emperors of Ethiopia) were true leaders, without that personal mania. I think it is because they ruled through Christianity. That gave them a certain humility. The religion and the leadership were intertwined. The religion, above all, was a controlling factor both for emperors and ordinary people, to live with humility. For leaders to lead through God, and for people to be led through God, and his leaders.

Of course it is the Amhara elite, the inheriting leaders of the country, who were infused with leftism and who rejected of true Christianity, who brought the demise of Haile Selassie. And like I said, they were quick to depart when the "revolution" didn't turn out as planned.

So, I think, ordinary Americans (even Mormons like Romney) have a certain humility about leadership because of the American tradition of caution towards elitism and the acceptance of ordinariness in America. So, it is not only Christianity that encourages such humility. This caution in the American tradition towards elitism is perhaps the important controlling factor to prevent dogmatic leaders.

Obama comes from a frightening elitism, or feeling of entitlement (because he's black? Because he's at war with whites? Because he wants to set the "racist" history right?" Because he doesn't trust, or believe in, ordinary Americans, i.e. whites?). But, I think ordinary Americans are catching on.

Here's an article at the Weekly Standard (via the indispensable Drudge Report) describing Obama's meeting with Charles Woods, father of Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods who was killed in the American consulate in Benghazi. Woods talks about Obama's inability to look him in the eye.

Woods says:

"When [Obama] came over to our little area" at Andrew Air Force Base, says Woods, "he kind of just mumbled, you know, 'I’m sorry.' His face was looking at me, but his eyes were looking over my shoulder like he could not look me in the eye. And it was not a sincere, 'I’m really sorry, you know, that your son died,' but it was totally insincere, more of whining type, 'I'm sorry.'"

Woods says that shaking President Obama’s hands at his son's memorial service was "like shaking hands with a dead fish."

"It just didn’t feel right," he says of his encounter with the commander in chief. "And now that it’s coming out that apparently the White House situation room was watching our people die in real time, as this was happening,” Woods says, he wants answers on what happened—and why there was no apparent effort to save his son’s life.

Woods says about his meeting with Hillary:

"Well, this is what Hillary did," Woods continues. "She came over and, you know, did the same thing—separately came over and talked with me. I gave her a hug, shook her hand. And she did not appear to be one bit sincere—at all. And you know, she mentioned that the thing about, we’re going to have that person arrested and prosecuted that did the video. That was the first time I had even heard about anything like that."