DAMN!!!! Obama has aged

[bigdarryl]

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/obama-syria-chemical-weapons-proposal-96547.html?hp=t1_3

[polichick]

1. Anyone would in that job.

[CreekDog]

23. He's 52, he looks pretty damned good if you ask me

[polichick]

34. He looks good when he's rested and tired when he's not - like anybody.

[riqster]

2. Everyone does, in that job.

Anyone with any sense would take a Shernan if the situation arose. Bless the man for serving.

[hedgehog]

3. It's not just the job - when you go from your late forties to middle fifties,

you go from middle age to early old age. It's when gray hair hits most people.

[bemildred]

5. It is a long way from 50 to 60, and even longer from 60 to 70.

But if you make it through in good shape for active life, with a handle on diet and exercise, and a partner you get along with, it's not so bad after all ...

And stress will make you old no matter your age.

[brush]

28. You are right on the money

We here this about every president young enough to take office without gray hair. In your 50s is when gray hair shows up. It's not the "stress of the job", it's just nature.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

4. Why people make such a big deal about this is just another double standard with this man...

EVERYONE AGES!!! Especially being president. Good God!!

[polichick]

6. Good grief, first we're psychological racists for not thinking he's Superman...

and now it's a double standard to say he's aging - like every other president?!

Someone is a bit paranoid.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

7. Naw. Not paranoid. Just at one with reality. To continue to assume that racism and racial

double standards do not exist is to reject reality. I don't do that.

And yes, I do believe that this president has been subjected to racial double standards since Day #1. You can deny all you want, but I'm sure there are more people who agree with me than with you.

Continue to deny but your refusing to face truth doesn't negate it.

Carry on...

[polichick]

8. So people say Obama's aged because he's black? That's crazy...

ALL presidents age - anyone would, which is what I posted on this thread.

You're looking for racism in all the wrong places.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

9. Naw. In reference to all the other racial double standards. No one gave a fuck about before him.

That's all I really have to say. If you don't agree, you don't agree. No need to keep going 'round and 'round with me.

We can just agree to disagree.

There's no racism. No racial double standards. I get it.

[polichick]

10. Right - when it comes to the topic of this thread, there's no racism.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

22. ...in YOUR view. Not in mine.

[Squinch]

26. Saying Obama has aged is not racist. Carry on.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

30. I didn't say it was. Read post #31 for clarification.

[Squinch]

36. You mean the post where you reiterated that you think it's racist, and added that nothing will

change your mind?

Yeah, that didn't clear it up.

Saying Obama has aged is not racist. Carry on.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

37. I didn't call anyone a racist. I said that psychological racism--unconscious racism--

explains some of this stupid-ass trivial shit that Obama has had to contend with. All this pettiness about his hair and the way he looks; about his teleprompter...all this other shit.

Yes, I know other presidents are ridiculed for aging while in office, but no other president has had dealt with this much in the way of preoccupation with trivial bullshit like this.

And yes, I do believe that there is UNCONCIOUS, PSYCHOLOGICAL racism involved here. If you don't understand what that means, that's on YOU!!

Not calling anyone racist!

[Squinch]

38. If you don't understand that saying that someone has "psychological racism" is

the same as calling someone a racist, that's on you.

You really ought to stop calling people racist for saying Obama has aged.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

39. Who did I call a racist? If you're not a racist, then don't take offense.

If I called anyone on DU a racist, point it out and then have me banned. If you can't find evidence of me calling someone a racist here on DU, then shame on you for lying.

Racism = noun
Racist = adjective

Learn the difference.

And nowhere in any of my posts did I call anyone a racist for saying that Obama has aged. That was an assumption made by some other poster. What I did say--and I will keep saying--is that all the bullshit, trivial crap that this president has endured in terms of his looks, his talents, his intellect, whatever stupid nonsense that folks are preoccupied with supposed some kind of inferiority because they feel some discomfort with a black man in charge. I believe it IS unconscious. And I believe it is psychological in nature.

And yes, I do think many people suffer from psychological racism. I will keep saying it over and over again and no one will change my opinion on that. You can call me all kinds of names. Accuse me of whatever you want. I don't really care. However, I did not call anyone out here on DU; I did not call anyone a racist.

[Squinch]

40. Seriously? You're going to say that when you accuse people of racism, you aren't

saying they're racist? Because one is a noun and one is an adjective? Really, now. That's just silly.

And the fact is, due to the extreme stress of his job, Obama has aged. Which was the original point. That you said indicated racism. And that didn't indicate any such thing.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

41. I said that people suffer from psychological racism. I said that this is one example

out of MANY stupid trivial shit that people are preoccupied with when it comes to this particular president... moreso than for any other.

We can keep going and going and going. Nothing will change what I believe on this. Sorry, but you'll have to deal with that.

You're now on IGNORE.

Enjoy writing to yourself.

[Squinch]

42. So nothing will change your insistence that it is racism to say the president has aged.

Glad to be ignored by you.

[marshall]

18. The aging of a president is a long standing meme

Certainly not invented, or even furthered, by references to this President.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

19. Which was my point earlier, but it seems that people make a bigger deal

Last edited Wed Sep 11, 2013, 02:57 PM - Edit history (1)

of it when it concerns this particular president, as if to suggest the he can't handle the job. There are subtleties here.

[marshall]

24. I think it has more to do with his relative youth

Both in terms of his actual age--although he was one year older than Bill Clinton when he was inaugurated, and also because he has young children. The last time we had children this young in the White House AND a young president was Kennedy. Also Obama does more things that younger people do, like play basketball, body-surf, and wear jeans. He just SEEMS younger than other presidents.

[brush]

29. I think you're reading more into it than there is

Shallow people go on and on about this with every president young enough to take office without gray hair.

The simple thing they fail to take into account is that our young presidents get elected in their late 40s and if they're lucky serve two terms which puts them in their 50s, which is when gray hair sprouts.

It's no "stess of the Job", it's nature. Duh!

It's no racism either, just lack of smarts.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

31. I think there's more of a preoccupation of most trivial things like this when it comes

to this president. Yes, Bill dealt with it too but not to this extent. I think there's more to it. Not necessarily racist in itself but taken everything together that he's had to confront in terms of the stupidity, the trivial shit, the suggestion that he's in over his head and can't handle the job, that everyone thinks they're smarter than he is, yes...I do think there's a little unconscious racism there. This is my opinion and nothing will change that.

[brush]

33. Oh I agree that there's unconscious racism . . .

. . . against this president but not on the gray hair thing. You're absolutely right about many thinking they're smarter than he is, yet he keeps running circles around them in the smarts department.

Like with this Syrian chem weapons crisis. All the war drumming corporate media, the whole military industrial apparatus and their paid-for Congress persons have just about demanded war — continued war really — to refill their coffers but he figured out a way to avoid it. First by flipping the script on them by throwing the decision to Congress, then by pulling another rabbit out of his hat by having Secretary Kerry with a seemingly throwaway remark offer an olive branch to Putin and Assad.

They jumped at it. Assad blinked. He kinda remembers what happened to Bin Ladin and he wants none of that.

This President keeps getting stuff, difficult stuff done (the ACA) but they keep underestimating him.

I mean a Harvard-educated, president of the Harvard Law Review, former Constitutional prof who has to put up with insinuations that he's in over his head. Now the "R" word definitely comes into play there.

I like his "cool" though, he let's that stuff run off him like water off a duck's back. African Americans deal with that kind of foolishness daily.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

35. Maybe not on a conscious level, but again, all these things taken together...

not just the gray hair thing alone. The *totality* of focusing on the trivial, stupid, inconsequential things.

You made my point very well. Thanks so much.

If people are honest, they know damn well what I'm talking about; they're only pretending to be ignorant.

[mshasta]

20. wtf is wrong with you

I we agree that the job is making him old is because I am concern about my president's health and it-is- a- big fucking deal -to ME and has nothing to do with race.
Mr Obama has age faster than any other president , he gets so much shit from the right and from the left, this men have being working hes ass more than stupid clown bush.

don't freak out this is democraticunderground...is not freepville.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

21. Are you responding to me because I didn't say anything contrary to what you have

stated. You need to go back and reread the thread. I'm DEFENDING the president!

I think both the LEFT and the RIGHT have demonized this president, and yes, I think some of it has to do with his race.

[Sunlei]

11. The job is hard on people, especially today. Grateful he ran this second term.

When he said he would discuss with family first , I thought there was a small chance he wouldn't run.

[sakabatou]

12. It's said that the presidents age twice as fast as the normal population

Dunno if that's true.

[Jamaal510]

13. That is one job

I would NEVER consider having, despite the pay. The only way I'd want to be president (or any other elected official) is if it were the only alternative to being broke and homeless. Not only do ideological media voices drag your name through the mud, but too many Americans seem to know very little about the political process and how government works, so they have unrealistic expectations of their elected leaders.

[polichick]

16. I wouldn't want it either - dealing with lobbyists and the mic...

would be horrible, not to mention Congress and the size of our problems (poverty, climate change, etc., etc., etc.). Too much!

[rury]

14. And yet he is STILL AS

HANDSOME AND SEXY AS EVER!!

[bigwillq]

15. So have you. So what?

We all age. Deal with it.

[struggle4progress]

17. It's stressful and nonstop

[winter is coming]

25. Happens to all Presidents. Remember how much better Clinton looked after he left office? n/t

[Historic NY]

27. The Presidential Edition...

[davidpdx]

32. Bill Clinton aged as well in office

His hair was white when he left office.