The Non-Education of the Unteachable President Obama
The New York Times' Peter Baker penned "The Education of President Obama," a marathon piece concerning what Obama has learned in his first two years and what he might change after the upcoming electoral bloodbath. Disclosure: I couldn't force myself to wade through all of it, but please read this little section from the first of eight online pages:
Most of all, he has learned that, for all his anti-Washington rhetoric, he has to play by Washington rules if he wants to win in Washington. It is not enough to be supremely sure that he is right if no one else agrees with him. “Given how much stuff was coming at us,” Obama told me, “we probably spent much more time trying to get the policy right than trying to get the politics right. There is probably a perverse pride in my administration — and I take responsibility for this; this was blowing from the top — that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who’s occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can’t be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.”
If you have been following Obama closely you will recognize that there is nothing new here. He has made precisely the same point many times. He did it after his shellacking in the Massachusetts Senate race -- a referendum on his agenda. He didn't say he had learned his lesson, or he had now heard the loud voice of the American people and would adjust his policy to accommodate our concerns. He said, "I want the American people to take another look at my plan."
On other occasions he said he just hadn't spoken to the people clearly enough about his policies. He hadn't spoken to our core values. Of course that was absurd on two fronts: 1) he had given some 54 speeches on health care alone, if memory serves, and 2) he doesn't share mainstream America's core values, so how would he propose speaking to those?
It's disingenuous of him to say he spent too much time trying to get the policy right and ignored the politics. Well, what were all those speeches about then? And can you feel the dripping arrogance jumping off the page as he boasts of the perverse pride in "doing the right thing, even if in the short-term it was unpopular?" The right thing? And short term? He is still convinced that everything he's done is right and that someday the unwashed Neanderthals will come to see things his way.
Also notice his familiar refrain, "Given how much stuff was coming at us." This is his glib excuse for everything: he inherited the worst mess in history and he just couldn't be bothered to deal with politics while he was busy saving us from ourselves. But that dog won't hunt either. He didn't inherit the worst mess -- Reagan was dealt a far worse hand from the worst president until Obama. And he didn't whine about it; he didn't say it would take ten years "to get out of this mess." He just got busy unleashing America's entrepreneurial engine.
But there's also another subtle deceit in there. "So much stuff was coming at us" implies Obama was the passive recipient of an ongoing avalanche of hell that he was simply trying to rectify. In fact, he was working in warp speed to exacerbate that hell. He wasn't the catcher; he was the pitcher. He wasn't having stuff thrown at him. He was throwing stuff at us -- at America. Screw ball after screw ball. He always portrays himself as a personal victim of bad economic conditions that he has been trying valiantly to ameliorate. In truth, Americans have been his victim and we still are. I know it's very tough for him to accept accountability, but he's the change agent here, not an innocent bystander merely trying, along with Saint Nancy Pelosi, to sweep up the mess that President Bush allegedly left for him.
Finally, I want to paste one other tidbit from the preceding NYT paragraph. Peter Baker said Obama told him he had no regrets about the broad direction of his presidency. Can you believe that? Yes, I'm sure you can.
But, Obama "did identify what he called 'tactical lessons.' He let himself look too much like 'the same old tax-and-spend liberal Democrat."
What? I repeat, "What?" Tactical lessons? He let himself look like a tax-and-spend liberal Democrat? Earth to Obama: You are a tax and spend liberal Democrat -- on steroids. And what can tactical lessons mean other than clever schemes to fool the people into believing his policies aren't as noxious as they are.
I would say that a more realistic assessment of Obama's first two years is that there are limits to Alinskyite, Chicago street thug politics. Much of the American public, partially due to the rise of the alternative media, is highly informed and political savvy and is not falling for his incessant rhetoric designed to disguise his socialist agenda. His vague promises of hope and change might have resonated with many people before he had an executive record against which they could be judged. But that lost its effectiveness pretty quickly.
He went to the rhetorical well dozens of times too many and his trips were yielding increasingly diminishing returns. Prior to his Oval Office ascension he knew little else but talking and receiving idolatrous praise. Governing involved way more than that and his skill set didn't rise to the challenge.
But in fairness, to quote someone famous, "You can put lipstick on a pig -- (but) it's still a pig," and his agenda is just a big porkulus pig. No way to dress that thing up enough to fool the electorate. No amount of clever tactics would have worked. But he still doesn't get it. He's incapable of getting it because he's so sure he's right. A scary kind of narcissistic arrogance.
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Jun '10
Re: The Non-Education of the Unteachable President Obama
David Limbaugh, Guest Contributor:
But in fairness, to quote someone famous, "You ca put lipstick on a pig -- (but) it's still a pig," and his agenda is just a big porkulus pig. . ·
And you can analyze its DNA, watch its behavior, and count its calory intake every day for a year and it will still be a pig. It'll never be a silk purse.
Jul '10
Re: The Non-Education of the Unteachable President Obama
He states:
"Let me be clear....."
But his policies say,
"Can you hear me now?"
Edited on Oct 13, 2010 at 3:45pmMay '10
Re: The Non-Education of the Unteachable President Obama
More likely, David, President Obama's intellect is such that even a description of it goes over our heads!
Jun '10
Re: The Non-Education of the Unteachable President Obama
America owes a great deal of thanks to Mommy and Daddy Limbaugh for birthing and raising two great sons.
Re: The Non-Education of the Unteachable President Obama
Jason Hart
More likely, David, President Obama's intellect is such that even a description of it goes over our heads! · Oct 13 at 3:53pm
That's hilarious.
Re: The Non-Education of the Unteachable President Obama
What the Peter Baker piece reveals is that after 2 November nothing of substance will change. Obama is like a tourist visiting, say, Greece who thinks that if he cannot make himself understood to a local he need only say what he said again a whole lot louder.
Re: The Non-Education of the Unteachable President Obama
"Reagan was dealt a far worse hand from the worst president until Obama. And he didn't whine about it; he didn't say it would take ten years "to get out of this mess." He just got busy unleashing America's entrepreneurial engine."
Exactly.
Oct '10
Re: The Non-Education of the Unteachable President Obama
There was that time when Sam Donaldson asked President Reagan about the continuing recession and if he was at all to blame, and he responds, "Well, yes, because for many years I was a Democrat.". But seriously, the constant blaming of Bush for everything is incredibly unattractive. And when the President makes statements like "You think they would be saying thank you" when describing tax day tea party protests, he come across very badly. Which is why I can't figure out why his "personal" approval rating is so high.
May '10
Re: The Non-Education of the Unteachable President Obama
Can my sister, her husband and my nieces, who I love as if they were my own children, not see this guy for what he is yet? I don't discuss it because I'm afraid of the answer; tensions among the family are already frayed because of political "discussions" over the past 2 years. But it's gotten to the point where I'm incapable of understanding why anyone would fail to get this guy. And I voted for Jimmy Carter :">
Obama truly is unprecedented.
Jul '10
Re: The Non-Education of the Unteachable President Obama
Welcome to the Ricochet conversation pit, Mr. Limbaugh!
It is beyond doubt that President Obama is "stuck on stupid" in terms of his ideological agenda. He is bullheaded and devoid of nuance. And apparently very full of himself.
What I find more interesting is the way that this supposedly unstoppable force has broken up on the shores of good old fashioned American bourgeois stolidity. I have a working theory - which I call "Dialectical Suburbanism" - that the great American middle class serves as a great filter that screens out the nonsense of the political class and eventually renders its excesses inert. No other Western democracy works quite this way.
Obama thought he was tapping this vein of energy - and in a sense his campaign blather did, for a while, But now he is finding out that this blob of bitter clingers has in fact more power than all the community organizers and union thug allies could possibly muster. Ane we are exercising that power.
A more facile politician would recognize this and adjust. I don't think President Obama will. That, I think, is exactly the line between arrogance and hubris.
Jul '10
Re: The Non-Education of the Unteachable President Obama
He's becoming visibly unhinged.
I swear, he's starting to remind me of Salvador Allende or Hugo Chavez. No matter how dismal the failure of his policies, he's committed to pushing on towards the Glorious Achievement of Socialism.
True Believers never learn.
Re: The Non-Education of the Unteachable President Obama
Now tell me that doesn't just warm your heart -- and make you chuckle with nostalgic fondness or is it fond nostalgia or is it fondly chuckle with nostalgia?
Oct '10
Re: The Non-Education of the Unteachable President Obama
As uneducable as Obama might be, he has proven himself to be a great teacher--better, even, than his irregular stint as an unpublished "law professor."
I don't think anyone else has spurred so many Americans to learn for themselves about civics, economics, and political philosophy. I know I got exposed to Rand, von Hayek, Friedman, Sowell, and Williams because of him.
It's too bad it takes a really off-track public official to effect this.
Jul '10
Re: The Non-Education of the Unteachable President Obama
We can call this man any name we like, but it was Republican failures to walk the walk that put Reid, Pelosi, and Obama in their current positions. The tin ear of the Republican leadership has given rise to the Tea Party movement.
I saw a great headline on the Onion today, American People Hire High-Powered Lobbyist to Protect Their Interests. The experienced, insider tacticians and pundits who lament the fate of Castle and castigate O'Donnell in the Delaware race failed to steer the Republic prudently in their turn.
My amazement is that incumbentism (I know it is not a word, just work with me here) still has such a hold on the Republic that we discuss a prediction of a 20% turnover in the House as if it were some barely conceivable thing when an informed electorate should probably turn out more than that on a regular basis. Maybe we need to invert the Congressional seniority rules and, like Shelley at the perambulator coaxing the baby to share Providence's secrets before they are completely forgot, mete out chairmanships and such to the rookies who can still vaguely recall living in their home districts.
Aug '10
Re: The Non-Education of the Unteachable President Obama
Delusional cognitive disconnect. A template for insanity. It's becoming impossible to communicate with these people.