Associated Press reporter Matt Lee asked State Department ventriloquist dummy Jen Psaki if Barack Obama was worthy of his Nobel Peace prize in light of what’s going on in the Middle East. Psaki’s two word answer (“Yes, Matt”) said quite a bit, not just because of the answer but because of her visible reaction. It was as if Psaki was agitated at Lee for making her lie in response to such an obvious and quantifiable truth (video below).

Matt Lee

This was a particularly relevant question from Lee, especially in light of the reasons given at the time, for why Obama was being awarded the prize. One of those reasons was his outreach to the part of the world that has since been plunged into chaos and civil war as a direct result of this administration’s policies.

Via the New York Times from October of 2009:

Mr. Obama has generated considerable goodwill overseas, with polls showing him hugely popular, and he has made a series of speeches with arching ambition. He has vowed to pursue a world without nuclear weapons; reached out to the Muslim world, delivering a major speech in Cairo in June; and sought to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, at the expense of offending some of his Jewish supporters.

The Saturday Evening Post wrote:

They (Nobel Committee) must have considered his efforts to build understanding between America and the Muslim world in a Cairo speech, and his United Nations speech urging greater global unity. They also would have known that this peace candidate was waging war in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

How’d that speech in Cairo help things?

Four years later, the Middle East is on fire and Egypt is sure to get much worse before it gets better. That is absolutely be a reflection on the Obama administration generally and Obama himself specifically.

Yeah, Psaki knew she was lying and was visibly agitated by the guy who asked her the question instead of by the President who made her do it. In psychology, that is a defense mechanism known as displacement. This definition even includes an example of when displacement is present between a boss and his or her ventriloquist dummy subordinate:

Displacement is the redirecting of thoughts feelings and impulses directed at one person or object, but taken out upon another person or object. People often use displacement when they cannot express their feelings in a safe manner to the person they are directed at. The classic example is the man who gets angry at his boss, but can’t express his anger to his boss for fear of being fired. He instead comes home and kicks the dog or starts an argument with his wife. The man is redirecting his anger from his boss to his dog or wife. Naturally, this is a pretty ineffective defense mechanism, because while the anger finds a route for expression, its misapplication to other harmless people or objects will cause additional problems for most people.

If Lee represents the dog or wife in the aforementioned example, Psaki’s displacement is another reason why Obama didn’t deserve the Peace Prize.

Via WFB: