These are the kind of people who want to run cities and countries and command armies, but they cannot even govern themselves. Those who delve into the psychology of these things might well conclude that people like Weiner and the Clintons want to control everything else precisely because they cannot control their own lives. It’s the ultimate overcompensation.
But the point is that I don’t want to delve into their psychology. I don’t want to have to think about their psychology, partly because it’s not very pleasant but mostly because my liberty and prosperity and security should not be so dependent on some powerful neurotic straightening out his or her tangled personal life.
For example, I don’t care even the remotest little bit about the Obamas’ first date, and I think people who do should check themselves into a rehab program for political sycophants. But if someone chooses to make a movie about it, which apparently someone did, I get to ignore it. I can do that, because one of the few good things about Barack Obama’s presidency is that his personal life is not a soap opera, at least not a public one. I do hope that, whatever personal demons the Obamas might have, they will continue to shove them way back into the back of the closet so we never have to know or care about them. That frees us up to spend more mental energy understanding what a disaster president Obama’s policies have been. After all, shouldn’t the policies, and the lessons we learn from them, be more important than the person who proposes them?
Join the conversation as a VIP Member