American Elephants

Barack Obama is the most puzzling of presidents. He has, as Richard Epstein remarked, the most perfect human disposition — complete self-control. He reveals almost nothing of himself. We are confronted with his words, soothing, flowery, in a pleasing baritone voice, and his actions which have nothing whatsoever to do with the words. We are left with questions, millions of questions. Why is he doing this? But I thought he said —? What does this mean? Doesn’t he understand—?

I have a folder of OPP (Other People’s Posts) and the headlines indicate the puzzle: “How Smart is Obama?” “Obama’s Nixonian Enemies List On Steroids,””Obama, Explained,” “The Most Polarizing President Ever,” “The Chosen One,” “Barack Obama’s Faux Populism,” “This White House Thinks That It’s Above the Rules,” “Obama is An Awful Economic Historian,” “Obama’s Godfather Speech,” “Obama vs. Capitalism.” Well, at least I’m not alone in wondering. I am, perhaps, a little more partisan than usual since we went to our Washington State caucus yesterday — big turnout. And I’m still pondering the loss of Andrew Breitbart, and wondering if his brave combat will spur usually non-combative Republicans into action.

Here are two posts that are especially thoughtful and carefully reasoned. The first is “How Obama Makes Decisions” by Ed Lasky, from American Thinker, which ought to scare the pants off you, and strikes me as probably completely accurate.( I knew there had to be some logical reason for all those Czars). The second is “Presence of Malice: Against the Conservative Portrait of the President,” by Gerard Vanderleun at American Digest. Read them both, they are real food for thought, and they don’t necessarily agree with each other. Vanderleun takes on the president’s foray into Libya, which he now cites as a great accomplishment. Which suggests that perhaps you should also read John Hinderaker’s “Springtime for Hitler” and watch the videos posted there.