The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
If you tried to write a parody of the New York Times, you simply couldn't do better than this. From today's book section, Patricia Cohen on James T. Kloppenberg's study of the academic influences that shaped our current, flailing president.
When the Harvard historian James T. Kloppenberg decided to write about the influences that shaped President Obama’s view of the world, he interviewed the president’s former professors and classmates, combed through his books, essays, and speeches, and even read every article published during the three years Mr. Obama was involved with the Harvard Law Review (“a superb cure for insomnia,” Mr. Kloppenberg said). What he did not do was speak to President Obama.
“He would have had to deny every word,” Mr. Kloppenberg said with a smile. The reason, he explained, is his conclusion that President Obama is a true intellectual — a word that is frequently considered an epithet among populists with a robust suspicion of Ivy League elites.
So that's why he's such a lousy president. That's why he has a hard time connecting with the American voter. He's just too...wonderful. On the other hand, according to Patricia Cohen's unintentionally hilarious essay, he's in excellent company:
In New York City last week to give a standing-room-only lecture about his forthcoming intellectual biography, “Reading Obama: Dreams, Hopes, and the American Political Tradition,” Mr. Kloppenberg explained that he sees Mr. Obama as a kind of philosopher president, a rare breed that can be found only a handful of times in American history.
“There’s John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and John Quincy Adams, then Abraham Lincoln and in the 20th century just Woodrow Wilson,” he said.
Let's forget, for a moment, that it's nothing less than a blood insult to the memory of four great presidents -- that's Adams, Adams, Jefferson, and Lincoln, if you're keeping score -- to toss that repellent creep Wilson into the mix. Let's focus on the idea that Barack Obama is a "philosopher president." What a spectacular piece of delusional straw-grasping idiocy! How perfectly it encapsulates the unplugged, unhinged cocoon of the academic left.
It's an analysis that has a delicious appeal, of course, to Barack Obama's most loyal following. Here's the punch line:
Those who heard Mr. Kloppenberg present his argument at a conference on intellectual history at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center responded with prolonged applause. “The way he traced Obama’s intellectual influences was fascinating for us, given that Obama’s academic background seems so similar to ours,” said Andrew Hartman, a historian at Illinois State University who helped organize the conference.
That's really all you need to know, isn't it, about our arrogant, out of touch, and hyper-vain president? He reminds that puffed-up, flatulent class of academic hoo-has of themselves! Applause, applause! He's just like us! We, too, could be presidents. Well, philosopher presidents.
Obama, says Kloppenberg, is a "pragmatist." (Which should come as news to actual pragmatists.) But he's a "philosophical" (there's that word again) pragmatist. Unlike, say, Bill Clinton, who was a "vulgar" pragmatist.
Obama, says Kloppenberg, has a "profound love of America."
It gets worse and worse. And funnier and funnier. Read the whole thing. And the next time you're tempted to complain about the liberal bias of the New York Times, stop yourself. Be grateful for life's unexpected comedies.
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Jul '10
Re: The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
Wow.
I have no doubt that President Obama is a highly intelligent person. But he is, as the British like to say, "too clever by half".
His intellectualism is that of the pseudo-practitioner: a mile wide and an inch deep. He has learned attitudes, poses, fashions, and - especially - methods to leverage others to do his dirty work. He'd be great on Wall Street.
We should be very careful not to disparage intellectual pursuits, or even elitism. But the phony, credential-driven attitudinal rot that currently masquerades as academic intellectualism must be called out for the self-serving dangerous, un-American, nonsense that it is.
Jul '10
Re: The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
I would agree that President Obama is like Adams in the Alien and Sedition Acts and his histrionics, and vacations. He is also much like Lincoln (the most overrated President in history?) in the consolidation of unprecedented centralized governmental power (see: the National Bank Act, suspension of habeas corpus, installation of tariffs, subsidization of railroads, etc.) and political gimmickry (The Emancipation Proclamation) and he is a lot like Wilson and his assault on the U.S. Constitution.
Oct '10
Re: The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
The obsequious Kloppenberg neglected to mention Obama's mathematical and economic influences, a minor oversight I am sure.
Edited on Oct 27, 2010 at 8:31pmMay '10
Re: The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
Reading every article in the law review was "a superb cure for insomnia," Mr. Kloppenberg said.
Funny stuff.
If I had to sit through a conference like that the gun would be in my mouth after five minutes.
Aug '10
Re: The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
Obama demonstrates perfectly how knowledge and wisdom are two completely different things. Many intellectuals, especially on the Left, have the common sense of your average 12 yr old Lady Gaga fan.
From what I know of Obama's history, he is the classic lazy intellectual. He's had others do the heavy lifting while he's skated by on charm and a favorable ethnicity. Intellectualism, at least Obama's brand, is highly overrated...
Jul '10
Re: The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
I get it now!
He's the black Adlai Stevenson.
America never deserved Adlai.
Jul '10
Re: The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
He is a great deal unlike Lincoln in that he was unprovoked (see: the secession of 11 states). And Lincoln's political gimmickry had a point (see: Brits don't recognize rebs).
May '10
Re: The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
This is like if The New York Times regularly carried stories cooing over the grace of Communist China or complaining about America's insufficient love for Keynesian economics!
Wait...
May '10
Re: The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
My guess is that Obama's verbal IQ is pretty high. We don't know his grades but probably they weren't impressive (and perhaps mediocre), given his tendency to get bored quickly. He probably got into Columbia and Harvard on his standardized test scores, which were likely exceptionally good for a person they classify as "black."
With his high verbal IQ, he can talk a good game, and being good with words is important to intellectuals. That's how they judge people.
Aug '10
Re: The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
Gosh he is up against world series game #1. Some kind of Greco-roman temple , just saw another Senator running away. Think it was Caligula's horse ?
Edited on Oct 28, 2010 at 6:25amMay '10
Re: The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
barf... It's articles like that that make me proud to be a college drop out.
May '10
Re: The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
Sorry, Rob. Funny it may be, but you're still feeding the enemy if you're subscribing to the NYT.
Oct '10
Re: The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
I don't know about him being a pragmatist, but what he is not is "post-racial" and "post-partisan"
Watch Krauthammer respond to Obama calling Latinos to "punish their enemies."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aSTzgxtn_s
Edited on Oct 27, 2010 at 8:51pmMay '10
Re: The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
That's just class solidarity on the part of the college-dipped pseuds we like to call Smart People® around Castle Gormogon.
Oct '10
Re: The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
Obama probably is a philosopher president, but that doesn't mean that he has good philosophy. History is littered with bad philosophers and their philosophies.
Sep '10
Re: The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
I'm in academia (mathematician), and I'm rolling my eyes at this idiotic NYT article. Sheesh. If Barack Obama is a "philosopher president" then I'm the reincarnation of Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Re: The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
Aaron Miller: Sorry, Rob. Funny it may be, but you're still feeding the enemy if you're subscribing to the NYT. I have to, Aaron. For the material. And also because I'm addicted to their food section on Wednesdays.
May '10
Re: The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
Palaeologus
He is a great deal unlike Lincoln in that he was unprovoked (see: the secession of 11 states). And Lincoln's political gimmickry had a point (see: Brits don't recognize rebs). · Oct 27 at 8:16pm
Ensuring that government of the people, by the people, and for the people did not perish from the earth is nothing compared to the tariffs and the railroad stuff. The man was a RINO.
Jun '10
Re: The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
I made the point on Dr. Rahe's "Proposition 19" thread that dope smokers suffer from arrested psychological development. David Solway this morning at PJM makes the same case for liberals in general. If you wan to read a true conservative intellectual, read his article "What makes the Left Tick." Maybe someone can provide a link.
Aug '10
Re: The Magnificent (and Unintentional) Hilarity of the New York Times
If you subscribe for the material, hopefully you are taking the expense as an itemized deduction on your Schedule C??? Eases the burden a bit.