Alpha Move: Be the President.

There's in intriguing discussion over at Alpha Game concerning whether or not President Obama is Alpha or Beta.  Since the Manosphere is awash in right-leaning folk, naturally the consensus of opinion was that he's Beta, or some derivation thereof.

I respectfully disagree.

I commented to that effect, by my analysis was too long, which suggested that it deserved a post in and of itself.  So here it is, in lengthier form.

I can see the influence of politics on this discussion is going to skew any serious consideration of President Obama's Alpha-hood.  But I've studied the man as he's made his rise, and -- politics aside -- he's an incredibly savvy bull Alpha, who uses the common perception of him as Beta to his great advantage.

Remember that his public and private lives are very much different.  His public appearances are well-crafted and thought out to appeal to various demographics.  A potent one is women voters, who supported Obama in droves in the last election.  Consider that in almost all of the presidential elections the candidate with the higher Sex Rank won out.  So he has subtly crafted a public persona that will appeal to several different layers at once.

He's an ostensibly happily married family man.  After the sex scandals of the last two decades, his utter lack of scandal or appearance of infidelity gives him sterling appeal in the minds of mainstream American women, who fear a Clinton-esque drama that reflects their own poor choices more than cellulose.

Michelle is a strong Alpha woman who has a commanding presence in any venue.  That appeals to the single career women who elevate her social rank when she's shown such deference by Oprah and other popular and powerful women.  Her faithful support of her husband provides him with a powerful Preselection buff, which raises his Sex Rank further in the eyes of American women.  Add to that the bonuses he gets for his profession and education, his election victories, (let's face it) his race, and the innate power that comes from being POTUS, and he's got the entire XX chromosome community creaming their jeans.  Even the hard core GOP women are secretly fantasizing about him and would never admit it.

(Want proof?  Every porn parody featuring an Obama look-alike has done extremely well.  Without telling tales out of school, let's just say that they sold really, really well in the Red States.  'Nuff said.)

And that's just women, who are a slim majority of the electorate and therefore invaluable.  For men, he provides a balance of Alpha-Beta presentations, always tinting his rhetoric with skillful use of language that balances nuances of tone with semantic content to devastating effect.  The male perception of him as father figure is likewise powerful.  His very public fathering of his daughters sends a potent message of "Handling His Business" to men who crave examples of good fathering without emasculation.  His daughters reflect well on him.  Compared to the antics of the Bush girls, the Obama girls' respectable behavior and sincere respect for their father lends incredible subtextual power to his perception among men. 

You may see his verbal banter as Beta, but then you're missing the point.  By not publicly airing his marital grievances with his wife, he sends the message that he is a gentleman in his personal affairs, and that adds points to both genders' perceptions.  The very clear body language that they display around each other may be coached, but it is effective.  There have been very few occasions in which they appeared in public where there was any subtextual sign of tension between them.  She has an open and sincere affection and admiration for him, which translates to even further esteem amongst men.  The way he dresses (also carefully scripted) sends a confident, casual vibe regardless of the situation.  The man looks good in well-made clothes, and he uses this to his benefit.

And he watches his negatives, too, just like any good Alpha.  He's careful about who he pisses off, and more importantly he's careful about how he pisses them off.  Even the vitriol can be traced to specific memes floated around the right wing blogosphere that his people have coaxed and nurtured through sockpuppets.  Since you are judged as much by your enemies as your friends, Obama has taken care to use his very vocal foes as a successful foil for policy initiatives.  While the Right sees the Tea Party as righteous fury from the public directed towards an unpopular president, the rest of the country views their increasingly wild and silly reactions to policy and rhetoric as petty and extreme.  Obama has used that fact effectively. 

This is a skillful Alpha move on two levels, because a) extreme minorities don't win popular elections without stealing them and b) the GOP primary model gives these extremists a larger-than-proportional influence over the final selection of the Republican candidate.  When you can help pick the man you're going to run against, you've got half the election in the bag.  That's an Alpha move.

And if you've got a higher perceived Sex Rank than most of the GOP field combined, you've got most of the rest of it.  Based on Sex Rank alone, the only two candidates who have a prayer against Obama are Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman, and neither one of them are doing well enough amongst their own people to take the nomination.

Romney is pretty, but reminds women of their pompous ex-husbands -- he comes off as a tool, demographically.  Gingrich?  Old, unfaithful, old, wrinkled and old.  He appeals to the WWII generation that's nearly died off at this point, and a few Gen Xers who remember the Contract With America as a key moment in their political lives.  But his Sex Rank is low, low, low.  he even alienates his allies.  By contrast, Obama took on his biggest in-house opponent and got her to work for him -- Alpha move.

Bachman?  She's "office hot", but she doesn't hold a candle to Palin's sex appeal, and when she opens her mouth she sounds like your batshit crazy sister-in-law.  Ron Paul could actually give Obama a challenge, leveraging his grandfatherly, folksy image to improve his Sex Rank with the Silverback buff, but in the general election his extreme policies and the lackluster support of his party would torpedo him in the general election. 

Just consider the anger you can feel in some of the comments. Feel it. Some people hate Obama with a burning passion.  But you don't waste that kind of energy on an ineffectual Beta.  Anyone who can arouse that level of emotion is Alpha, pure and simple.  If you're seeing more Beta, or any other states, then that's because the POTUS wants you to see it.  And he is fooling you by effectively manipulating your perceptions.  You might hate him, but you're giving him attention, and that gives him a bonus to his Sex Rank whether you like him or not.

My call in the general election?  Obama over the unnamed GOP candidate (probably Gingrich or Romney) by at least 6 points.  And that's just looking at adjusted Sex Rank.  You throw in the big campaign warchest and intact election machine left over from the last election, and Obama 2.0 is going to mangle whoever runs against him.  Just sayin'.