Sunday, January 10, 2010

Obama and the Job of President

I think this is a bit of an overstatement, but there is some truth to it.

"The Real Reason Obama Is Faltering"
Just look at the most recent line of presidents.  From Reagan, to both Bushes, Carter, who failed for different reasons, and a mostly successful Bill Clinton, these were individuals exposed to broad elements of America as a whole as they came up.  That isn't the case for Obama, an individual who has admitted to being bored by suburbs and with no real claim to having experienced rural America very much.

From private sector endeavors, to state governorships, a baseball team owner, along with previous experience within the academy and hallways of power, most of our Presidents had either experienced, or dealt significantly and directly with many of the complex elements that comprise American society beforehand.  Obama actually led a mostly insulated life.
The writers statement is a bit over the top.  What about FDR and DDE?  What about JFK, although swimming in the waters of the Southwest Pacific must have given him some sense of how life is for the other 99%.  Truman and Nixon and Ford had seen a broader swath of life.

Maybe there is something to this.

Hat tip to Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

PS:  And Maureen Dowd seems a little unhappy with the President.

3 comments:

  1. I deleted the post from Sylvester Cuyler, in that it was a link to some advertisement that didn't seem to be going anywhere uplifting and since I didn't follow it I can't state otherwise.  I took it to be spam of some sort.  If I am wrong, my apologies to Mr Cuyler.

    Regards  —  Cliff

    ReplyDelete
  2. The reasons he is failing are several, he has no experience in the "real world," his goals and expectations of outcomes are seriously hobbled by utopian fantasy philosophies, and finally, his extreme and unrestrained narcissism places him in a position that simply precludes understanding or "learning from experience."

    Regards

    Neal

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think there's actually something to this, at least in theory.

    I find that people who have a wide range of experiences and exposures are often the most likely to show a deep understanding of how difficult things can be, whereas people who haven't had that experience don't. That's why you get the "college kid radicals" who want to solve everything by banning Nike from southeast Asia. People who have really been around the issue usually know it's way more complicated than that.

    People who've been around the block a time or two usually tend to come out more moderate as a result.

    Whether it's economic issues, racial issues, health care issues, military issues, etc. it seems to me that people who hold extreme positions usually have this in common -- no personal, first-hand experience doing whatever *it* is.

    ReplyDelete

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