FWIW, this isn't the NYT's opinion. Rather, it's Frank Rich's. But I agree that it's accurate, at least based on the behavior that we see.
(a joke for parents: why do parents love their babies so much? Stockholm Syndrome.) On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 12:19 PM, raghu <[email protected]> wrote: > This is brutal, but sadly accurate.. > > http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/opinion/05rich.html?hp > ------------------------------snip > THOSE desperate to decipher the baffling Obama presidency could do > worse than consult an article titled “Understanding Stockholm > Syndrome” in the online archive of The F.B.I. Law Enforcement > Bulletin. It explains that hostage takers are most successful at > winning a victim’s loyalty if they temper their brutality with a bogus > show of kindness. Soon enough, the hostage will start concentrating on > his captors’ “good side” and develop psychological characteristics to > please them — “dependency; lack of initiative; and an inability to > act, decide or think.” > > This dynamic was acted out — yet again — in President Obama’s latest > and perhaps most humiliating attempt to placate his Republican captors > in Washington. No sooner did he invite the G.O.P.’s Congressional > leaders to a post-election White House summit meeting than they > countered his hospitality with a slap — postponing the date for two > weeks because of “scheduling conflicts.” But they were kind enough to > reschedule, and that was enough to get Obama to concentrate once more > on his captors’ “good side.” > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- Jim Devine / "The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking." - John Kenneth Galbraith _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
