A Psychiatrist's Perspective: Has Obama Really Changed?

Fox News Medical A-Team psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow discusses President Obama's State of the Union Address using his "third ear", which he describes as "listening to myself listening, polling my gut for when it alerted me to true or false notes…In other words, I was paying as much attention to whether I sensed the President believed what he was saying, as to whether I agreed with what he was saying."

Dr. Keith Ablow explains that in listening to Obama recite his State of the Union Address, he heard a man simply reading a script and acting out a part.

The words the President spoke about reducing our national debt, reining in the size of government and working collaboratively with both Republicans and Democrats sounded—to my third ear—like the words of an alcoholic who tells me that he won’t drink, that I should just believe him, even though he can’t share any compelling insight (let alone a true moment of epiphany) as to why he started anesthetizing himself with booze to begin with, nor any compelling narrative as to why he now believes he has to be sober to walk the path ahead. In short, he sounded like a man with new words, but without the new perspective that would make them his own, and, thereby, make them either credible or moving.

It was all too "add-water-and-stir" for me. I would have had to be drunk myself to believe it. This new fiscally-disciplined, job-focused, centrist, collaborative, entrepreneurial president arrives on the stage with no back story to explain the character “arc” he has traveled on the national stage. 

Dr. Ablow further explains that if questions such as how, why, and when did Obama make such a drastic change in opinion cannot be clearly answered, then we have to ask whether he truly has had any change of opinion at all.

Might it be, instead, that the president is the same man he was two years ago? Might he be a politician who doesn’t feel compelled to share his genuine thoughts and beliefs with the electorate? Might he have assessed the mid-term elections and decided that the best chance he would have at maintaining power would be to repackage himself—for now? Isn’t the whole progressive agenda defined, in part, by taking steps toward government control of individuals, solidifying gains, taking cover when necessary, then taking more steps toward government control? Couldn’t that explain this add-water-and-stir conversion?

Keith Ablow, MD is one of America's leading psychiatrists. He is a graduate of Brown University and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, an assistant professor at Tufts Medical School, and is board certified in adult, adolescent and forensic psychiatry.You can read more about Dr. Ablow's evaluation of Obama here.