What's wrong with Obama?

Submitted by James Guest (Australia), Nov 22, 2013 at 15:31

What is indeed wrong with Obama? It's not a matter of IQ points if one looks at most past Presidents, with only a few exceptions (Clinton, Nixon, Jefferson..... ??) he's not lacking in brains, or education. Even his life experience doesn't make him obviously inferior presidentiual material compared with that of many others, or does it? (If so, why in detail?).

He appears to be intellectually smarter than George W. Bush, as well as more interested in and knowledgeable about the wider world than Bush was for at least 5 years of his presidency, and he didn't have the disastrous Rumsfeld and Cheney to provide the brains and knowledge for him ot have Greenspan turning out to be the emperor with no clothes despite having apparently done a lot right and tried very conscientiously and thoughfully to get it right. And he hasn't had any need to apologise for the global financial crisis occurring on his watch....... So....?

A distinguished Australian political scientist turned practising politician of my acquaintance characterisied Obama has being and admittedly clever man who thought he could just turn his brains to whatever turned up but had no settled principles on which he could fall back. A clue there? Needs elaboration I think.

By contrast, I now recall, Steve Sailer made the interesting comparison between George W. Bush and his father that depended on George W. not having his father's intellectual ability [whatever that was: I know those who didn't rate him very high, but by Boston standards admittedly] or confidence and so being unable to sit back and react thoughtfully to crises or just major issues but finding it necessary to DO SOMETHING, more particularly to create his own reality by action. Whether or not you give that view any weight, it is the sort of opinion, well this side of pop-psych, that I would be interested to read about Obama.

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