Tuesday, August 05, 2008
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In It, But Not Of It
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Posted by:
Carol Platt Liebau at
3:07 PM
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In a remarkably perceptive piece, David Brooks puts his finger on a key element influencing voters' comfort factor with Barack -- or, more accurately, the lack of it.
Brooks notes that Barack has been a "sojourner," but even that isn't really the point. The problem is that it's difficult to get a grasp of what Barack's interior life is like -- where his core commitments and roots as a person really lie. As Brooks points out, Barack was in U Chi law school, but not of it. He was in the Illinois Senate, but not of it. He didn't serve long enough as a community organizer really to have roots there, either.
The point applies excellently well, also, to Barack's tenure as President of the Harvard Law Review. As I've noted before, he often "worked from home" -- shorthand for seeming somewhat disconnected from the everyday rhythms of the place. The advantage, of course, was being able to avoid the often petty and always bitter controversies that frequently roiled Gannett House.
But it resulted in a leadership style that could fairly be described as a kind of "benign neglect" (ironically, especially benign for the very outnumbered conservatives, who were well aware that they could have had a radical committed shoving ridiculous policies down their throats).
Last Sunday, the NY Times ran a piece touching on the controversy on the Review surrounding affirmative action for women. It raged the year I became a member; of approximately 500 in a law school class, 39 made law review. At the start of the 1990-1991 year (in the middle of Barack's term), only 9 of those 39 new members were female, and some wanted to include women in the affirmative action measures the Review had for minorities as a result.
Interestingly, I don't remember Barack ever taking a stand one way or the other. It was assumed that he supported the measure (which thankfully never came to fruition), but he never really spoke out. Was it because he didn't really care, having bigger fish to fry (my assumption at the time), or because he didn't want to alienate conservatives on the Review (many of whom were very hard workers), or because he really didn't think the measure was warranted?
Who knows? And as Brooks notes, that's the problem with Barack. It's hard to piece together how he really thinks or what he really feels about anything. He just seems a bit disconnected. And when you're being asked to trust the fate of the free world to a guy, you like to have a clue about what's going on with him.
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Gotta give Kimberly courage credit for being a lamb in the lions den! Maybe not, she could be a masochist? Ha! Kim, you overlooked the value of being flexible instead of regid, when things have changed! McCains no drill position before was right when gas WAS AFFORDABLE. A true leader doesn't have to be told what to do, like the puppet Obama, who is quite predictable. If you want to know where "O" will stand on an issue, just follow the "polls" and majority desire! Thats where he will end up, regardless of all his previous "nay" saying. Like the naive youth, he goes with the flow! |
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We know where the evasive Obama came from and where he will take us. But fiction not fact, is what the Obama camp spins and smitten, easily led "0" groopies etc., are manipulated! Bill was so right when he said the Obama Iraq spin was a fairytale! He can add to that, now that we come to know the misguided Rookie better. Most of the deluded dreamers ideas will not become a reality! His worshipers are being built up for a big letdown! Amen |
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Kimba (Kimba) Kimba (Kimba) Kimba (Kimba) Kimba (Kimba)
Who supports the candidate with a dad from Africa?
(Africa)
Who's the one who tries to bring Barack fame?
Who's the queen of liberal trolls at Townhall?
Kimbicile the Liberal is her name!
When Obama gets in trouble and turns in flight.
Who's the the one to explain it all away?
Who believes in doing wrong is doing right?
Kimbicile the Liberal is her name!
Barack's the greatest leader, there's no doubt of it.
The German people spoke, it must be so.
Barack will change the world and make things better--
Kimbicile the Liberal is in the know.
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John McCain is a complete and well-formed man. Barack Obama is completing himself. As he moves to fit what he perceives to be a right-of-center country, he distances himself from the simple and authentic passion of a young candidate who once pledged "Change We Can Believe In."
This is the trap Barack Obama has made for himself, the one he cannot escape, the one Hillary Clinton foresaw, the one that may doom him. The Obama campaign knows it too. In fear the dream is being lost drop-by-drop, they are going negative on John McCain.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-castellanos/the-molten-c ore-of-barack_b_116904.html
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I just ask because the man has written a few books about his thoughts on politics and America.
If you were legitimatley curious about him you might want to consider checking one out. |
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