Roger Cohen reads Obama's mind

Via TAP's Mori Dinauer, New York Times columnist Roger Cohen pretends to read Barack Obama's mind -- time to break out the swami (emphasis mine):

The Obama presidency has been a shock to Europe. At heart, Obama is not a Westerner, not an Atlanticist. He grew up partly in Indonesia and partly in Hawaii, which is about as far from the East Coast as you can get in the United States. “He’s very much a member of the post-Western world,” said Constanze Stelzenmüller of the German Marshall Fund.

The great struggles of the Cold War, which bound Europe and the United States, did not mark Obama, whose intellect and priorities were shaped by globalization, and whose feelings are tied more to the Pacific and to Africa. He can make a respectable speech on a Normandy beach, but he’s probably the first U.S. president for whom the Allied landing is emotionally remote.

Sadly, this sort of projection is common practice among both reporters and pundits. After all, why should we let a lack of evidence get in the way of a good story?

Comments

[David]

While this column does attempt to read Obama's mind, it seems to me it's a bit different from some other columns that purport to present a precise chain of thoughts. This is more about Obama's world view or attitudes and their alleged cause.

Some people criticized Bush for his cowboy approach to foreign affairs. I think that's parallel. It could be classified as reading Bush's mind, in the sense of describing his world view or attitude. I have no problem with describig Bush as a cowboy, because the President's apprach to foreign is a valid concern of Amercans.

[David]

David Brooks column today, in a sense, tries to read Mr. Obama's mind, saying, "Obama is as he always has been, a center-left pragmatic reformer." I see nothing wrong with this sort of analysis.

The President's attitude is obviously a guess or a judgment. Nevertheless, he has so much power that his attitude is important enough for columnists to speculate about.

To his credit, Brooks makes his judgment based on Obama's words and deeds. I think what's objectionable about Cohen's column is that his basis was where Obaam happened to be born. That's a feeble reed to hang an analysis on.