17 Feb 2016 It’s Not About You, Mr. President

Handing more ammo to people who suspect he’s a narcissist, President Obama in his news conference today referred to Senators who might choose not to give consent to a future judicial nominee of his as doing so because they “don’t like the President.”

As even middle schoolers know, people who have believed for decades that the Constitution should be interpreted as written and that Supreme Court cases do not exist to give jurists a policy outcome that fits with their personal political beliefs, which describes most of the Republicans presently in the U.S. Senate, did not develop this viewpoint because they somehow realized that at some future date some guy named Obama was going to be President and they would’t like him.

That’s just stupid, and self-centered…

…but it’s also strategic.

Obama is laying the groundwork for the lie that Republican Senators will oppose his Supreme Court nominee because they are racist — either because he’s (half) black, and he appointed the nominee, or the nominee is black or partly black, or a combination of all three.

Part of his motive will be to help Democrats win races this fall by motivating black turnout, as black Americans overwhelmingly vote Democrat.

Dishonestly is necessary for President Obama’s strategy to work.

The Supreme Court nomination battle is not about race. It’s about saving the Constitution and the United States of America. Anyone who tries to divide Americans from one another by pretending a racism that doesn’t exist for political advantage is a low-down scalawag and totally undeserving of not only respect, but employment as a servant of the people.

We are as yet in early days of this nomination battle. It’s possible I’m wrong, and the President and his allies intend to act with honesty and honor, presenting a decent nominee who can take the oath of office (“I… do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”) without crossing his or her fingers, and promoting said nominee before the Senate with arguments based on actual issues of judicial philosophy, competence and temperament.

Stranger things have happened… theoretically.

But the most likely thing is that President Obama plans to play dirty, to lie repeatedly and then again for good measure, and to try to increase racial, gender or any other divisions he can in order to promote his political agenda, even if it hurts the American people and the country he theoretically is supposed to be making stronger. So expect that, and when the President behaves as a narcissist, look for the secret agenda that explains why he’s willing to let everyone believe he’s a narcissist. Obama’s statement today makes him look self-centered. There’s a reason he was willing to look that way in public.

Most of the time, narcissists hide what they are — unless they see a way to use the disclosure to personal advantage. Obama sees an advantage. Beware.