Valerie Jarrett – Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Liaison – on Morning Joe this morning was asked about the incident that saw Airforce One (or more accurately: “the 747 that is called Airforce One when the President is on board”) flying low and slow over lower Manhattan with a fighter trailing it. “The president was furious,” she said. “You wouldn’t have wanted to be in the room.”
Yes, we would have.
I think Valerie was very happy to take that question, and I think she said exactly the right thing. Americans want a strong leader, and the image of our pleasant and polite President being “furious” enough that we wouldn’t have wanted to be there is one that makes us feel secure. A president is a parental figure – he or she provides safety and security and along with the tolerance and understanding we crave. There is nothing more fear-inspiring than not being able to picture your parent or leader standing up to the things that scare you.
While the parental analogy can be easily stretched too far, we all know the Shouting Parent who has no control and gets no respect from their children. “He/she is always shouting, it’s just how they communicate” so their kids discount all of the smoke and noise (and usually the content as well) and keep on doing what they were doing. Then there is the quite and confident parent whose kids snap to attention when the command goes out. They know that there is a mom/dad inside there that they don’t want to be in the room with.
We’re glad to have a picture in our heads of an Angry Obama. We don’t want it pointed at us, but we like the idea that Bad People will try to avoid having it pointed at them, too.
Thanks for the image, Ms. Jarrett.
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