Maureen Dowd, "Tension on the Tarmac": Read the Body Language

In her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Tension on the Tarmac" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/opinion/sunday/dowd-tension-on-the-tarmac.html?ref=opinion), Maureen Dowd observes two instances when women gesticulated angrily at Obama, and the president responded by placing his hand on their arms: With Hillary Clinton in December 2007, and earlier last week with Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona. Regarding the episode with Hillary, an Obama aide explained that Obama put his hand on her arm “to chill her out.”

Ignore what Obama's aide said. Placing your hand on someone else's arm in the heat of debate is a studied technique intended to demonstrate superiority and control of both that person and the situation. Yes, it is an act of condescension. Without regard for Brewer's politics, it would be natural for her to feel "unnerved" and "a little bit threatened" by Obama.

Dowd observes that this confrontation with Brewer has made him "a hero to the Hispanics," but I don't know how this will play among women.

Dowd would have us believe that Obama does not like debating because he disdains anything he sees "as superficial politics, from sound bites to macho put-downs." Wrong. Obama and his advisors have consistently sought control over content and situation. Listen to Anita Dunn at a 2009 event focusing on Obama’s media tactics and hosted by the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development, in which Dunn discusses how Obama controlled the media during the 2008 election (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlGNhAnwp_Y):

"One of the reasons we did so many of the David Plouffe [Obama’s chief campaign manager] videos was not just for our supporters, but also because it was a way for us to get our message out without having to actually talk to reporters. We just put that out there and made them write what Plouffe had said as opposed to Plouffe doing an interview with a reporter. So it was very much we controlled it as opposed to the press controlled it. . . . very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn’t absolutely control."

Listen as Dunn goes on to say:

"There is no such thing as off the record . . . . Obama himself learned that when he told a fund raising group in San Francisco . . . about people who owned guns in small communities that ended up of course costing us a lot of votes in rural Pennsylvania. . . . Anything you say you should expect to be on You Tube."

Debates and press conferences are avoided by Obama, because in these settings he loses control. It's that simple.