"If memory serves, he's a personality-less moderate. But memory is often faulty. I was just pointing out that I would think that the political junkies of the DR would at least recognize the name."

He handily defeated "Puff" Daschle, the Democrat Senate Minority Leader in 2004.
Incidently, I came across something you might wanna peruse, Prag. I've mentioned it before but you pled ignorance and no interest. Do your self a favor and look it over.

"Thanks for climbing on board and admitting just how handily the GOP got its collective butt handed to it at the national level."

Yeah...but I take heart that 30 of the governorships are held by republicans and only 19 by democrats with one being independent. Republicans also control 27 state legislatures. It all starts at the local levels, right, Doc? I believe 2014 might see the worm turning more too. Go ahead, enjoy the current mayhem taking place as long as you can.

"It seems to be more tripe about the Rules for Radicals, at least a few of which have been practiced by pols of both sides for ages."

Tripe...right, Prag. My point was that the "Rules" are being masterfully practiced today by this administration as they have never been practiced before. Since you don't know what the rules are, you just can't see it. Well, it's all to be expected seeing as how Barackus Caesar lectured on and taught them long before running for office. There's method to his madness in office today...You probably won't read this article, but here's an excerpt.

"The late Harvard Professor Saul Alinsky wrote that the key to weaken -- then take over America, its economy and its people -- is to "destroy the middle class." Alinsky advocated use of class and race warfare. He believed that "wealth redistribution," taking from those who work and giving it to those who don't, is the catalyst to bring down the U.S. economy and free-market capitalism. After four years in office, Obama is well on his way to doing just that. Alinsky's socialist guidebook is embedded in Obama's record of economic policies that he has visited upon all Americans and their families -- specifically the "middle class."

"We are not a Christian nation, nor a religious nation. We have some religious folks and some atheists."

Your opinion...probably skewed by that "worldview" you cling to so tightly. According to this Pew survey the nation is 77% Christian, 6% "other faiths" and 17% "unaffiliated" which includes atheists, agnostics etc.

"Also, I find it absurd that anyone could think that a person would devote pretty much his or her life to becoming president in order to destroy the country. That's conspiracy-theory nonsense."

HE doesn't THINK he's destroying the country. He said he was going to fundamentally TRANSFORM the country and has set about transforming the U.S. into a semi-socialist nanny state. Now we have a failing economy that is affected by a myriad of choking regulations, highest corporate tax in the world, a permanent dependent class, and excessive spending. The size of the government is expanding, spending is increasing....well, I could go on but to no avail. You've never read and WON'T read "Dreams FROM My Father" or "The Audicity of Hope" so it won't make sense to you that he's accomlishing just what he said, in accordance with those dreams FROM his father.

"Even Carter, the best-known religious president of my lifetime, knew better than that."

I think Carter was an honorable man, just in over his head. I don't think Obama is religious at all other than for expediency sake AND he's an outright liar. He's spending a lot of time right now trying to convince the country that this sequestration wasn't HIS idea. Look up the signs of narcissism and see how many traits fit. OH...you probably don't have the time and aren't interested. You probably think I'm being "absurd" too.

"You've got to be the most boring person in your neighborhood."

I'm the ONLY person in my neighborhood (well,the wife, you know.) Only two houses up here and I just about never see the other guy. We can't see his house anyway, just his vehicle occasionally. Besides, he, and the greatest majority of the whole county kinda have the same views as I. I'm sure I'm not nearly as boring as YOU are annoying though.

"Excessive spending? Oh, like two unnecessary wars."

As I said in an earlier post to Doc, I have ALWAYS considered Bush to have been a big government, big spending wannabe-conservative. THIS guy in office now is Bush on steroids!
MUST you and your little friends always deflect to Bush, Bush, Bush, even if it is covertly? I wasn't fond of Bush, didn't vote for him in the primary and I CERTAINLY am not fond of Obama. Incidently, before you ask, I didn't vote for Romney in the primary either.

"I know about narcissism, and I know you critics love to throw that label around."

HOW would you know? Did you look it up? How did you find the time?

"As you know, I avoid discussions of the economy."

I wasn't alluding to the economy. I was referring to his truthfulness. The sequestration was HIS idea and now he's saying it wasn't.He's travelling all over talking about how it will cause firefighters, police, teachers etc. to lose their jobs and that's all BS and he knows it too.

"So ... what do you think of John Thune? : )"

Don't really know all that much but I know he's a lot more conservative than Daschle was.

In the spirit of helping youout...the first three signs:

"Sign #1: Unilateral listening.

What I want is all that matters. When we make decisions together, what you want, your concerns, your feelings..these are mere whispers, inconveniences and irrelevancies. When we discuss issues, my opinions are right. Yours are wrong or else of minimal importance. If you expect to have input, you are undermining me.

Instead of listening in order to be responsive, narcissistic listening listens to dismiss, negate, ignore, minimize, denigrate or otherwise render irrelevant other people's concerns. One specific indicator: frequent responses that begin with "But....", which is linguistically a backspace-delete key."

"Sign #2 It's all about me.

I know more, I know better, I'm more interesting, When we talk, it's mostly about me. In conversations, I take up most of the air time. Maybe that's why people say I suck up all the air in a room.

When I want something, I need to have it. Never mind how you feel about it; it's all about me. I'm big and important and you are merely also here, mostly to do things for me, like a third arm."

Narcissistic people are sometimes, and even often, generous. The difficulty with trusting a narcissist to take actions that are sympathetic to your interests comes at the times when what they want is contrary to what someone else wants. Odds are that at these times they will act in a manner that is selfish, that is, responsive only to their own concerns."

"Sign #3: The rules don't apply to me.

I can have affairs, cut into a line where others are waiting, cheat on my taxes, and ignore rules that get in the way of my doing what I want.. Rules are for other people to follow.

Narcissists suffer from what I call Tall Man Syndrome. They experience themselves as above others, so the rules don't apply to them.

#28 | Posted by jestgettinalong

Signs of narcissism (cont.)

"Sign #4: Your concerns are really criticisms of me, and I hate being criticized.

If you insist on my listening and taking your concerns seriously I'm likely to get mad. Criticism hurts. I can criticize others, and often do, but if you criticize me you're hurting my feelings so I'll hurt you back.

Narcissists paradoxically manifest an inflated idea of their own importance, yet are quick to feel deflated by negative feedback.

In addition, because they think everything is about them, they hear others' attempts to talk about personal feelings as veiled criticisms of themselves. Taking others' concerns as personal criticism is called personalizing. E.g., If she says "I'm feeling lonely," her narcissistic friend will hear, "You don't spend enough time with me."

"Sign #5: When things go wrong between us, it's always your fault.

I can't be expected to apologize or to admit blame. I'm above others and above reproach. You shouldn't have… . Don't threaten me with expecting me to say how I've contributed to a problem or I'll get mad at you.

Unwillingness to take responsibility for mistakes goes hand-in-hand with quickness to blame. This trait may come from confusing the part with the whole. If I've done one thing that's not right, then I must be all bad. That's also all-or-nothing thinking."

"Sign #6: If I'm angry, it's your fault.

You made me mad. You didn't listen to me. You criticized me. You're trying to control me. Your view is wrong. So you need to apologize, not me.

"II's never my fault if things didn't go well. I'm not responsible for the problem. Someone else is. I'm not responsible either for my anger. If I'm mad that's your fault."

Narcissists may seem generally quite socially agile. At the same time, they also can be quick to anger, and when they do, will immediately blame their anger on others. What do they react to with anger?

Critical comments will do it. As I said above, as much as narcissisitc folks see themselves as special, they also can be remarkably thin-skinned. Any feedback that punctures their belief in total specialness can feel quite threatening. The immediate response will be to issue blame."