Posted by
Mike Bates on Monday, November 02, 2009 11:04:24 AM
Chief White House correspondent for U.S. News & World Report
Kenneth Walsh is mighty impressed. In "He's Still No-Drama Obama,"
posted on the magazine's Web site, Walsh
writes:
Face to face, President Obama seems even more unflappable, cerebral, and dispassionate than he appears on television.
And later:
I have interviewed each of the past five presidents—
Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and now
Obama—and Obama seems the most cerebral and the least emotional of them
all.
"Cerebral" is one of the media's favorite adjectives to describe Obama these days. In the current Newsweek, Anna Quindlen notes:
(Obama) is methodical, thoughtful, cerebral, a believer in consensus and process.
National Public Radio blogger Frank James describes Obama as "the urbane, super cool, cerebral president."
In a Los Angeles Times piece last month, columnist Michael Hiltzik asks, "why are the Democrats so reluctant to drop the hammer on the opposition and pass" ObamaCare?
Could the answer lie in Obama's cerebral personality?
Obama seems to believe that if he explains his positions slowly and
clearly enough, their fundamental logic will inevitably win the day
without the need for arm-twisting.
Barry is very, very brainy. That's the message. There are
different types of intelligence, of course, and Obama clearly is bright
in certain ways. He did, after all, parlay his community organizer
background with a mediocre record as a state legislator and extremely
limited experience as a senator into a White House win.
Still, we also know Obama has problems at least occasionally with
elemental facts like how many states there are, what language is spoken
in Afghanistan, and to whom Memorial Day is dedicated. Then there was
the time last year he claimed 10,000 people perished in Kansas
tornadoes. The actual number was 12.
Tut, tut, advised his media accomplices. Trivial errors that anyone
could have made. Still, they can't explain why the genius must have
several of his favorite teleprompters around him at all times.
Then there are his policies. How smart does one have to be to think
that a country can spend its way out of its economic woes? That
government makes better decisions for people than the people themselves
do? That cozying up to ruthless dictators, dithering on important
decisions, and constantly apologizing for one's own country are prudent
policies?
The mainstream media have a vested interest in making Obama appear
successful. They did much of the heavy lifting necessary to get him
into the White House. As his failures become more apparent and he
sinks in the polls, they now hope to persuade us that electing this
"cerebral" man was the smart thing to do.
How dumb do they think the American people are?