Fired Up? Ready to Fight?

By CHARLES M. BLOW
NYT

In Barack Obama’s memoir, “Dreams From My Father,” he recalls a scene in which he reassures his mother after one of his friends is arrested.

“I had given her a reassuring smile and patted her hand and told her not to worry, I wouldn’t do anything stupid.” This was in part a tactic that he adopted to satisfy people — being a “well-mannered young black man who didn’t seem angry all the time.”

In his Wednesday address, the president tried to turn this tactic on its head — to reassure us that he could get angry.

Seven times in his speech, he began his thoughts with the words “I will not. ...” I will not back down. ... I will not let up. ... I will not waste time. ... I will not stand by. ... And, I will not accept the status quo. Boom boom pow.

It was interesting, but an affectation. The president wears outrage like another man’s suit. It doesn’t quite fit. He’s a hand-patter, not a knuckle-rapper. A mollifier was what the country needed in the waning days of W., but is it what we need right now?

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