Psychology and Politics

Everybody is a psychologist nowadays. Pundits raise the issue of "character" at the drop of a hat. We apparently don't really "know" Obama well enough. Bush is an idiot but has decent, albeit simpleminded "values." Bill Clinton's "character" was sullied because he was obsessed with sex. Hillary is a "ball-buster" who threatens men, but Joe Biden is a good guy because he raised his kids and takes the train home every night.

Fact is, we don't know shit, and should stop pretending that we do.

I don't even know shit, and I study character and psychology for a living.

In our culture of celebrity, everyone's an expert, entitled it seems to weigh in with psychological judgements about people about whose real personal life they know squat. Give me a fucking break! We don't "know" Obama? What the fuck do you want to know? His sexual fantasies? Whether he wipes his ass sitting down or standing up? The cute names he calls Michelle at home? You know more than enough to decide how to vote for him. So, Wolf Blitzer, quit "reporting" this as a relevant fact unless you attempt to actually understand what it really means when someone tells a pollster that he or she doens't "know" Obama. Otherwise, Wolf, you're just repeating the undigested code words and idiocy of the public as if we all know what they mean.

Fact is, we have no fucking idea what any of these folks are really like and should stop acting like we do.