--- !signs/object:Article 
attributes:
  title: "Stupid Remark of the Week: 'Sociopaths'? Really?"
  source: Outside the Beltway
  author: Alex Knapp 
  summary: "I know that Andrew Sullivan is a fan of hyperbolic rhetoric ("fifth column", anyone?), and I also know that a lot of time I enjoy his hyperbole, even when I don't agree with it. But the past few weeks of his tirades against the Clintons have gotten tiresome, and I say that as someone who was never a fan of the Clintons to begin with. But what really takes the cake is <a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/05/against-a-unity.html" target="_blank">this post from today</a>."
	text: "<blockquote>

The trouble is: the Clintons will create mischief wherever they are. If Obama becomes president without them they will do all they can to undermine, destroy, and polarize him. The question is how one deals with sociopaths like them. It's not easy.

</blockquote>

Andrew, do you honestly believe that the Clintons won't get behind Obama once it sinks in that they can't possibly win the nomination? Does anyone really believe that Hillary will try to undermine Obama from the Senate or Bill from the lucrative corporate speaking pulpit? Of course not. Not that they'll always agree with him or walk in step with him, but actively undermine? I doubt it.

I also really have to object to the characterization of Bill and Hillary as "sociopaths". This is a term that people like to bandy about loosely, but let's not forget that sociopathy is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisocial_personality_disorder" target="_blank">real psychological disorder</a> which is<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnostic_and_Statistical_Manual_of_Mental_Disorders" target="_blank"> defined by the profession</a>. <span class='BoldRed'>While I'm no psychiatrist, I'm confident in my layman's assessment that a former President of the United States and a sitting U.S. Senator are not sociopaths. Indeed, given the nature of the disorder, I'm also pretty confident that a sociopath would be incapable of achieving either office.</span>

The Clintons have their faults, lord knows. But sociopathy isn't one of them."
  comment: "And as long as you keep telling yourself that these deviants "would be incapable of achieving either office", you're going to keep finding exactly those types of people in them.

For anyone who thinks that psychopaths are incapable of attaining positions of power, we suggest the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Snakes-Suits-When-Psychopaths-Work/dp/0061147893/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210544202&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Snakes in Suits</a>."
  date: Sun May 11 18:09:00 -0400 2008
  type: Article
  id: "156131"
  votes: "26"
  link: "http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2008/05/sociopaths_really/"
  classification_id: "12"