Class, Grace, or Their Lack

People are right to criticize Obama’s comments at the recent event for George W. Bush at the White House. In the context of a ceremony to honor a former president on the occasion of the hanging of his portrait at the White House, his remarks were rude, petty, self serving, and offensive, whether or not intentionally so. This is unfortunate but not surprising. Irrespective of what one thinks of Obama’s  politics, it seems clear that as a human being he is an arrogant, narcissistic, and graceless jackass. From his  jaw jutting posturing, his rewriting of White House biographies of former presidents to feature himself, his shameless stealing of the credit from the actual participants in the mission to get Bin Laden, and many other examples, we have been given a fairly good look at this side of his personality.  People generally say with good reason that he is another Jimmy Carter.  However in this respect he calls to mind more a Lyndon Johnson without the political skills or perhaps a Douglas MacArthur without the courage.