THE TAKING OF UNICORN, ONE, TWO, THREE...:

All the President’s Captors (FRANK RICH, 12/05/10, NY Times)

THOSE desperate to decipher the baffling Obama presidency could do worse than consult an article titled “Understanding Stockholm Syndrome” in the online archive of The F.B.I. Law Enforcement Bulletin. It explains that hostage takers are most successful at winning a victim’s loyalty if they temper their brutality with a bogus show of kindness. Soon enough, the hostage will start concentrating on his captors’ “good side” and develop psychological characteristics to please them — “dependency; lack of initiative; and an inability to act, decide or think.”

This dynamic was acted out — yet again — in President Obama’s latest and perhaps most humiliating attempt to placate his Republican captors in Washington.

While he's certainly right that the UR isn't much on acting, deciding or thinking, those are characteristics that long predate his presidency.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 4, 2010 6:47 PM