Saturday, October 27, 2012

A Star Falls Over Chicago

Daniel Greenfield has an article which provides the words many Americans have been searching for.
The Obama Campaign was never serious, but it once aspired to an Oprah level of seriousness, to the dignity of the self-help sections where trite observations are recited with great solemnity so that they sound like they must mean more than they do.

For the Northeastern New York Times reader, Obama held out the promise of atonement for the country's grave racial sins. For the San Francisco wind farm executive, he offered the prospect of a presidency that would be one long endless TED talk with plenty of subsidies for the cunning Greenvestor. And the college student would finally have a president who watched the same shows, listened to the same music and got the same jokes making him the perfect Resident Adviser for the country.

Two biographies and four years later those same people have learned that like that party guest who mentions that he's a nuclear physicist, a poet and an explorer of supernatural phenomena, Obama wasn't actually interesting, he just seemed interesting in a cursory sort of way. Obama's biography made him an interesting party guest, but not past a 5 minute chat, and it in no way qualified him to hold the country' top job during an economic crisis and two wars....

Obama does not know how to govern. He does not know how to address the economy or war. The one thing he knows how to do is be popular. That is the one and only skill that he has cultivated in his life. And it is a good skill for a politician, but a politician whose only skill is popularity had better avoid taking responsibility for anything that might make him unpopular.

Popularity is a trend, and like every reality show star still pounding away on Twitter five years later, trying to move their latest CD or comedy club appearance, Oprah's most popular boy toy since Dr. Oz has failed to realize that he is no longer popular, his moment has passed, his relevance is through and no one wants a man whose only skills are on-camera skills to be the one standing between them and economic oblivion. (Read entire article.)
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6 comments:

May said...

Not sure I can share the author's optimism. The race is still pretty close.

Divine Theatre said...

Just beacuse anyone can be president doesn't necessarily mean that they SHOULD.

lara77 said...

I frankly think the odds were all against Barack Obama as they seemed to be against the young Bill Clinton. These were not young men born into privilege as George W Bush or Willard Romney. That they achieved what they did is a remarkable testament to their hard work and brains AND this being the United States. Say positive or negatives about our President but his is a remarkable story. I may not agree with everything he has done but when I think of the mess we were in in 2008; President Obama saved us from going over the cliff; with NO help from the obstructionist Republicans in the Congress.

elena maria vidal said...

Obama's story is remarkable alright, in more ways than one.

BTW, I think it is wonderful how Bill Clinton has become so close to the Bush family. I hear he sees George Sr. as a second father and Barbara says that Bill is like one of their own boys.

julygirl said...

Future Presidents are loved before they become President, reviled while they are President and become respected statesmen after they are President. All the Presidents who succeeded Nixon called on him for advice, and who could have been more reviled than he.

Divine Theatre said...

I personally think that Barack Obama is a repugnant human being, especially in light of the Benghazi debacle. The presidency should never be a popularity contest. Barack is an entertainer at best.