As we careen towards the finish line in this tumultuous electoral season, President Obama is asking voters to renew his contract as a father figure. And with his new, 11th-hour message that this election is all about “trust,”I think the father-thing is going to resonate.
Without going all Carl Jung on you, presidential campaigns are often about archetypes. John McCain as warrior. Paul Ryan as super-hero. Joe Biden as the loyal friend.
In 2008, with the whole “hope and change” narrative – not to mention his youthful good looks and energy – Obama was situated somewhere between Jesus Christ and Rock Star in our collective unconscious. But now look at him. After four sobering years of economic crisis and an Arab Spring that just won’t quit, that increasingly-visible graying of the hair above his ears is symbolic. The President has aged, matured, and – like the rest of us parents – seems both wiser and wearier as a result.
It’s evident in the way that he speaks to us. As I’ve watch the presidential debates with my own kids, I’ve been struck by how parental he sounds. Particularly in the third and final debate, where the president could barely mask his disdain for Mitt Romney’s less-than-up-to-date grasp of our military, many pundits – including my colleague, Melinda Henneberger – saw his tone as patronizing, and wondered whether it wouldn’t alienate undecided women voters in particular.
Read the rest of this post at The Washington Post’s She The People blog…
Image: Obama 2008 Presidential Campaign by namakota das via Flickr under a Creative Commons license
October 27, 2012, 4:20 pm
It must be comforting to go through life in such a delusional state. This is typical liberal pap. It’s the same as the pony tailed guy back in Clinton’s first election. He wanted Clinton to be our father. B.S. I want someone to lead with honor. Try and tell me Obama is a better father than Romney. That’s grounds for a good argument anyday. You’d better hope Obama skates on the Benghazi scandal before the election. If not, we’ll see a traitor bigger than Tokyo Rose.
October 27, 2012, 4:22 pm
Thanks, for your Reblog. I do like the article in the post about Obama in the light of C.G. Jung. Indeed Obama comes across as devoted father. As a father of the nation I am not so sure. As it has been pointed out, fathers don’t lie. That’s why I went in direction of the dominating mother archetype. If you look closer to C.G. Jung, say his book “Four archetypes ” or others, you will not find a direct father archetype. An archetype of mother, yes also of a trickster. Which brings me to the great book “King, Warrior, Magician, Lover from Moore & Gillette about male bipolar roles and archetypes. They have the manipulating magician – similar to the trickster. That maybe, father no.
October 27, 2012, 9:21 pm
Obama is thin skinned, effeminate and a liar. Archetypal father figure? Well, if you want to go down that road, I doubt you’d find more of that any anyone other than Romney.
Obama is more like the poster boy of a Man’s Country Tubs Lizard.
Nice job he did protecting those guys in Benghazi.
The media is going to pay in big ways for propping this fraud up. How can you look at yourself in the mirror, really?
Oh, and a lot of women thought he acted pathetic and snotty with the condescension the last debate. Poor little fraud, never had to compete with a worthy opponent before….always pushed and pulled over every hurdle by the racist Left because he was half black.
October 27, 2012, 9:26 pm
Daddy issues, Ms. Lloyd?
And thus we have Obama’s primary constituency: women looking for someone to take care of them.
October 27, 2012, 9:54 pm
“Mitt Romney’s less-than-up-to-date grasp of our military”
It must be nice to live in an infantile cocooned liberal dreamland. If daddy makes a sarcastic and incorrect comment about Mitt Romney than daddy must be right because he’s daddy. It doesn’t matter that the Navy itself is calling for a level of 310 ships or the Quadrennial Defense Review Independent Panel says we require 346 ships – if Barack Obama snidely says that Romney is wrong than he must be wrong regardless of anyone else’s opinion.
I’ll be thinking of you on the evening of the 6th when daddy gets fired.
October 30, 2012, 1:55 pm
Delia,
To see Obama as a father figure one must wants a father who acts real generous and buys you and all your friends dinner and drinks at an expensive restaurant and then later leaves the tab for your kids to pay. Also, sad to see an adult actually watch Obama’s snotty response about bayonets and see a positive instead of being shocked that that fool has been commander in chief for four years and has no idea that our Army and Marines still use bayonets and we have many more than in 1916 as he foolishly claimed.
Please attempt to become more well informed before opining on adult subjects like politics.
Take care,
Bill
October 31, 2012, 1:26 am
I like what you have to say, Delia, but based on the commentary I’m now worried that I’m your only coherent, not bitter, almost wholesome fan.
October 31, 2012, 8:27 am
No worries, Sandra. There are plenty of you out there and I appreciate your speaking up! But this post clearly struck a chord with some of my less-than-fans!