House of Eratosthenes

The president is using his “handy little to-do list” to portray Republicans in Congress as standing in the way of his economic agenda. “Just saying no to ideas that we know will help our economy isn’t an option. There’s too much at stake,” he said. “So even if Republicans are still saying no to some of the bigger proposals… there are some additional ideas that could help people get to work right now and that they haven’t said no to yet. So I’m hoping they say yes.”

Flanked by screens broadcasting an image of his checklist on a Post-it note, the president seemed to mock gridlocked lawmakers. “Every member of Congress should have time to read it and they can glance at it every so often. And hopefully we’ll just be checking off the list, just like when Michelle gives me a list, I check it off,” he said to laughter from the audience. [emphasis mine]

Two theories: One, this whole “Michelle tells Me to jump, and I say ‘how high?'” thing is a response to a sense within the White House, that the whole “sort of God” thing is hurting more than it’s helping, and the henpecked-hubby act is a graceful — and safe — way of winding it down.

Two, if my fuzzy distant memory would be backed up by the record, somewhere in the archives is a challenge against Theory One: I think the “Michelle tells Me what to do, and I do it” thing might have reverberated during the 2008 election campaign; it’s been with us from the very beginning. Which means, Theory Two says that Barack Obama has always put on a show of being ordered around by Michelle. This is part of the “change” that His constituency has always been demanding.

The theories are not necessarily mutually-exclusive, except in the generalized, compete-with-each-other sense of theories about causes of singular effects. Whichever one does apply — I like Theory One much better, but I think Theory Two is more likely — there is something going on out there, and it worries me.

I’ve been noticing for awhile that, every now and then, work & home & other pursuits will throw some time management challenges at me, uncoordinated with each other but all arriving, inconveniently, at the same time. And then I just have to suck it up and make sure the essentials are delivered. This happens to other people as well, and they say something about it…the thing is, and it’s taken me a long time to notice this…the way these other people manage this situation, is very different from the way I manage such a situation.

For one thing, I find I can read about this challenge of theirs, “so many things to do, so little time” — on Facebook. I can see something about “Hubby’s gone for six hours, I don’t have to work, I’m gonna go through this place wish me luck” followed by a six-hour blackout. Or, updating Facebook while something is compiling in the background. But that’s not what’s going on here at all. The uncertainty about being able to get everything done on time, from what I see, must be exaggerated; or else, the importance of getting it done, is over-stated.

But another thing I see happening is the Michelle Obama list-making point-and-click thing. If I’m going through a stretch where lots of things are being demanded out of me and I’m truly unsure about whether I’ll be able to get it all done, certainly I’ll appreciate it if I can delegate some of this. But only if the person to whom I’m delegating it, can do it, reliably enough that I’m not off doing something else worrying my fool head off about it. In which case, I’d say something positive. I wouldn’t talk them down, reduce their dignity by saying things to imply that’s their station in life, to get their lists from me and check them off. I’d be respectful and thankful. I’d act like I owed something to them. Because I would.

But that’s for the vitals. My observation here is, when I’m stressed out about having to do lots of things within timeframes I’m not entirely sure can be managed, it does nothing to reduce my stress to have something fetched for me at McDonalds or Starbucks or what-not. A fancy lunch at a nice restaurant wouldn’t do it for me, either. Maybe after we’re done-done.

My observation boils down to this: We seem to have a lot of our fellow citizens running around, on the loose, placing a very high premium on this ritual of saying what needs to be done and then having someone else do it. And not for sake of getting things done that need to get done, but just as a pleasant diversion, sort of a stress-reliever. Like cat-fishing with a ball of yarn. You can see this when you see the tasks being “delegated” are entirely non-essential tasks, and the person delegating doesn’t take any of the time saved from so delegating to plow into something else; she hovers over the non-essential task, instead, spending just as much time critiquing and supervising as she would just doing it herself.

And from President Obama’s behavior, particularly with this recurring meme of His in which, maybe He’s sort-of-God but Michelle’s back there pulling God’s strings — I’m gathering there is a constituency out there of people who’d like to be able to order other people around and tell them what to do, but they don’t know anybody who’s agreeable to it or can be relied-on to do the more important things…so they vote for someone who will get those results.

And they’re lining up to vote for Michelle Obama.

There’s a history of this in the democrat party. The democrat male politicians who are married, happily or otherwise, seem to delight in reminding their audiences that they’re married; and, their idea of being “married” seems to rely overly much on the ritual of the wife telling the husband what to do, and then the husband going off and doing it. Bill Clinton used to do this a lot. Actually, he still does it. And it’s been deemed impolite to inquire as to whether or not he’s even still married.

Remember when Obama resigned as President and put Bill Clinton back in charge? They exchanged a few words about how awful it would be to keep Michelle waiting. Yeah, yeah…a humorous quip, it’s a joke, it doesn’t count.

Except it does count when you keep seeing it over and over again, even after one presidential administration has gone away and another one has been started in its place. It means something.

I keep hearing about “is America ready for a female president.” If the country is not ready for such a thing, the reason might not have to do so much with a reluctance against female authority; it might have to do with too many among us having accepted the female authority, but in an unorthodox, subtle, surreal way. The vision seems to be, there’s this empty figurehead behind a desk who’s a guy, and then his wife is making the real decisions. For the woman to be the one behind the desk actually signing the papers that matter, says the mindset, would for some reason be uncouth. Women aren’t supposed to sign things; they’re supposed to point and say “I want that.”

Now, I can’t go out and find someone who will ‘fess up to actually believing in that. I certainly don’t believe that. But — this is just like that situation with the tabloids with the gaudy stories about Brad and Angelina splitting up, and Dick Clark’s brave last days, et al…everybody says it must be someone else buying them, because they only look at the covers while they’re waiting in line at the checkstand. If everyone is telling the truth about it, nobody is buying the magazines, but somebody must be buying the magazines because they’re still making them. Well. They’re putting out a lot of effort and energy to appeal to the “wives say what they want and then they get it” vote…the softly sexist mindset that says it’s a woman’s place to point at things and make lists, and a man’s place is to go get things and bring them. Women are in charge, all the time; but their fingernail polish is always wet, so be a dear, and go pick these things up. I’ve made you a little list, sweetie.

I don’t mind seeing it as long as the Commander in Chief of the military has nothing to do with it. Mister “I Won”‘s habit of campaigning on it is having a slow, cumulative effect on me. I’m at the point now where I’m more nauseated by it every time He uses it. Frankly, I liked Him better when He relied more on this pretend-deity thing. I wouldn’t have thought it possible for another act to wear out its welcome even more quickly than that, but the Obama The Henpecked Hubby routine managed to get it done.

But..but…when Harry Reid stands on that stack of proposed (by others)”things to do” piling up under his feet, on the floor, behind his lectern, he appears to be a big man.

You can lead a hoard to Wasserman….but you can’t make them think!
- CaptDMO | 05/17/2012 @ 12:19
I read a story a couple of days ago that basically said that anyone that crosses Michelle or one other high powered woman on his team (and I’ve forgotten her name) gets banished. I’ve always been uncomfortable about “the power behind the throne”. If they are good enough to be in charge, let them run on their own merits. Reminds me too much of Lady Macbeth and Marie Antoinette. And I also find it troubling, the number of Democratic politicians that publicly humiliate their wives with infidelity. If their wives can’t trust their behavior, why should the rest of us trust them? This is was one of the reasons I stopped being a Democrat.
- teripittman | 05/17/2012 @ 17:19
Well said. It does seem to keep on happening again and again, doesn’t it.
- mkfreeberg | 05/17/2012 @ 17:28

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DJEver Notice? LXXVIThursday, May 17th, 2012

DJEver Notice? LXXVI
Thursday, May 17th, 2012