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Post 0

Thursday, December 10, 2009 - 7:49pmSanction this postReply
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it's not arrogant. It's a defensive "yeah, you wanna make somethin of it" gesture. He know's he's spouting BS and he's challenging you to call him a liar.

Post 1

Friday, December 11, 2009 - 12:28amSanction this postReply
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http://macsmind.com/wordpress/2009/12/10/5091/

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTg5NDc1MzllMDYxOGUwZjYzZjNjYzFhYjdlM2NlNmM



Post 2

Friday, December 11, 2009 - 3:16amSanction this postReply
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This could be the man who makes America just another country, the equalization of America and the world as a whole is under way. We can see this in the character of Toomey from the Fountain Head and now in live portrayal by Obama.

Post 3

Friday, December 11, 2009 - 6:31amSanction this postReply
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Ted:

I think it is arrogance. This man has supreme confidence and doesn't need to be defensive.

Speaking of arrogance, Pierre Trudeau, when confronted with a bunch of protestors when he was driven by in his limo gave them a one finger salute and mouthed something to them. When asked later what it was he said he said it was "fuddle-duddle." Ask any Canadian what "fuddle-duddle" means and they'll quote this incident.

My recollection varies with what is reported in Wikipedia.

Sam


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Friday, December 11, 2009 - 7:28amSanction this postReply
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Elitism and arrogance are bedfellows.

Post 5

Friday, December 11, 2009 - 8:02amSanction this postReply
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No, confidence is a virtue which Obama lacks. Next you'll call him selfish!

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Saturday, December 12, 2009 - 10:18amSanction this postReply
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I think it is arrogance. This man has supreme confidence and doesn't need to be defensive.

It could be both arrogance with a touch of defensiveness. It couldn't possible have escaped Obama that his poll numbers are plunging and his health care dreams and cap and trade schemes are on the ragged edge of going down due to popular opinion turning against him.

No, confidence is a virtue which Obama lacks. Next you'll call him selfish!

Confidence isn't a virtue when the person has an unrealistic notion of their abilities -- or when they are justifiably confident about doing something evil. Confidence is the base word for "con-man".

Just as incompetence is a virtue in most politicians -- if you're pushing a statist agenda, the inability to implement that agenda because of bumbling mistakes is, if not exactly praiseworthy, certainly a desired outcome.


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Saturday, December 12, 2009 - 11:13amSanction this postReply
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Jim, I use the words confidence and incompetence differently. For me, confidence is a feeling of trust in one's abilities in a particular area. It is acquired over time, from experience. Because it is based upon a series of evaluations of past events in that area, and those evaluations might have been made on bad information, or on faulty reasoning, the confidence might be misplaced. There is also pseudo-confidence. That would be where the person lies to themselves about their abilities in a particular area. Confidence and pseudo-confidence feel very different. The first feels comfortable and freeing. The second feels brittle and restricting and uncomfortable.

Competence and incompetence are determined in the context of the task undertaken - not the context of a third parties value judgment of the desirability of the task. E.g., the more incompetent Nancy Peolosi turns out to be in getting Obama-Care passed, the happier I am.

Obama had reason to be confident in his abilities to persuade people, based upon his competent performance in getting elected. As he experiences failure despite his best political skills, will he lose confidence? Well, because appearing to be confident is a political skill, he will try to fake it for his audience and politicians are often good body-language liars.

But his expectations and motivations will tell the story about his actual confidence level. If he went into this knowing that his popularity would decline and that the tide would turn and that he would start loosing battles, then his confidence might not drop. Just as my understanding that I can't flap my arms and fly keeps me from losing confidence if I were to flap my arms and show someone that it wasn't going to happen. On the other hand, if Obama suffers a narcissistic need to see himself succeeding or being loved even when the polls tell a different story, then he will start experiencing pseudo-confidence.

If he does not lie to himself, but it comes as a surprise that he isn't still winning most of them, he will suffer lowered confidence. Confidence is a tendency to feel predisposed to success in a specific skill or task based upon the relation between past experiences and the expectations held at the time.

(Edited by Steve Wolfer on 12/12, 11:40am)


Post 8

Saturday, December 12, 2009 - 12:46pmSanction this postReply
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A con man is called such because he gains your "confidence." The word there is being used to mean trust, not self-assurance.

Obama is a child. A braggart is not a proud man. Obama lives in constant campaign mode. (If her were confident he would govern, not speechify.) He can't talk, he can't think without a teleprompter. His constant self references are telling. He is perhaps the least confident person in public life.

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