Monday, June 28, 2010

Used to be, President Barack Obama’s cool, calm and collected composure was considered an attribute, like during the waning days of the 2008 election when John McCain was darting around like Chicken Little about whether or not the American economy was in trouble and dodging David Letterman.

Obama’s cool demeanor, emotionally detached and in self-control, didn’t mean that he didn’t have feelings, he just didn’t wear them on his sleeve.

But today, after 70 days of crude oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico and no end in sight, Obama is routinely blasted for keeping his emotions in check because the livelihoods of millions up and down the coast have been wiped out by BP.

This is such an atypical development that polar opposites like the New York Times and Fox News agree that Obama earned being branded as “bloodless” and needs to “openly empathize with the anger of others.”

If Obama succumbs to these clarion calls to cave, count him as the latest victim of the three C’s of our superficial, celebrity-saturated culture which demands confession and cynicism in equal measure.

This commanding cult expects everyone to bare their most intimate feelings on Facebook, in a tweet or, best of all, on a reality show.

Our chief executives first faced this slippery slope when Bill Clinton went on MTV in 1992 and fielded the query, “Boxers or briefs?” That seems quaint by today’s standards.

“Real World” refined Andy Warhol’s idea of everybody being famous for 15 minutes.

It seems as though everyone aspires to being a celebrity – especially those on the periphery of that culture who have tasted success and don’t want to let it slip from their grasp.

Look at how many carved careers from being reality stars, hopping from one show to the next.

You used to have to be a Hollywood star or professional athlete to achieve this status.

That makes us cynical, too, because building and manipulating an image so “Survivor” can sort you into piles as heroes or villains creates notoriety, if not necessarily true fame.

What Fox and the Times and others gloss over in wanting to see Obama erupt like the Deepwater Horizon and spew raw emotion all over the Gulf Coast is that politics should be about ideas, not feelings.

Democracy demands a reasoned argument with elements such as logic and evidence.

Obama keeping his emotions tamped down should be a good thing because such restraint won’t interfere with clear-headed analysis of policy.

Clearly, he is well aware of criticism he is playing it too cool in a crisis.

“I don’t sit around talking to experts because this is a college seminar,” he told the “Today” show June 7. “We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answer, so I know whose ass to kick.”

He should strive to tune out chatter about whether the disaster is being managed constructively to promote a wiser energy policy or he is guilty of trying to score political points for his party.

Cerebral, cool, calm and collected shouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.