The Discerning Reader of These Pages will have noticed that it has not yet been the policy of FP to reference the current Occupier of the White House in the lower case. Such has been the practice with clinton, and with carter -- clinton for the disgrace he brought to the office while in power, and carter for his shoddy emeritus conduct. Obama is too small for the office, and wrong on every issue of importance, but he is not yet a fornicator or a traitor.
Obama: a man of surpassingly minor accomplishments prior to the gifting of his current station. Fate must always have conspired to ensure that he was the glibbest man in the small room. Or perhaps he so engineered the situation. In any case, out of unchallenging circumstances he constructed for himself a prodigious self-regard. The greatest of his many many failures of judgment, values and perception -- "gay" "marriage", Obama-"Care", "Global" "Warming", etc -- is his high opinion of his own abilities. It may be that he is as smart as he thinks he is. Objective evidence to the contrary not withstanding. His virtue falls short of his ambition.
It is not reasonable that I actually am as smart as I think I am. I'm smarter than Lisa Simpson, per her published IQ (a lot smarter). But my meager life accomplishments mitigate against the Great State of California's testing of my intelligence, way back in the day when it was legal and mandatory for states to take such measurements. You know, before we found out that it was racist to measure for differences. Now we measure only for similarities. You know, to firmly establish equality and fairness.
This pretty interesting blog post uses what objective measurements there are to yield an IQ for Obama of not over 116. That is perfectly respectable. "Bright normal". Obama is bright. No one would argue that he is not bright. He's bright. That means there are likely to be realized talents, perhaps even optimized. The careful composition of several poetical speeches, and their delivery in sonorous, yea, mellifluous tones. I'd give him an A minus. But as with elite marathon running, sometimes there is only one or two truly great performances in a man. Obama shot his wad in his 2004 DNC speech, and in his "Si se pueda" candidate poem. Since then, on occasion he has been bright normal. Mostly, though, not that bright.
It's not that Icarus flew too close to the sun. It's that Icarus did not fly at all -- it's just a made-up story, about an impossibility. Man-sized wings made out of sticks and wax and feathers are not functionally operative in the real world. How nice it would be, if fantasy could be made real. But dreams aren't real. Realistic goals and effective training create excellence. There are natural prodigies, who excel with little real exhaustion or development of character. Just so are there snakes hatched with two heads. Prodigies, that did not earn their uniqueness. They were noticed by the gods, and bear the mark. There is no blessing in having two heads. Better to diligently develop the intelligence contained within one's own, single head -- the intelligence, and the character. Rather than getting by with the dog and one-trick pony show -- glib speaking skills honed between tokes during all-night sophomore rap sessions.
My expectation is that Obama labored over his several speeches, in their composition and delivery. It need not be so, that he sold his soul for them. Maybe he earned them. Even a socialist must have some small grasp of the concept of earning what you attain. But the presidency of the United States should not have been purchased for so cheap a price. Something about a mess of pottage.
Obama's great failing -- aside from how poorly he has served the best interests of America -- is that he judged himself sufficient to the job. At some point the possibility arose, to run, and after some thought -- for what man is so trifling that he would not at least pause -- Obama said, Yes, I am the man for this job. I'm the best man in the field. No one could do this job better than I. To so underestimate the task, and overestimate his abilities -- well, you kids nowadays use the word "epic" a fair bit. Here we have it. Epic fail.
Were my arrogance altered in such a way as to make me crave a literal spotlight, and I conceived the idea that I had great leadership skills, and party apparatchiks observed my excellence and manipulated the media to present me as a golden boy ... well, even under such a circumstance I might very well demur, knowing myself as I do. I am amazing, but I'm not up to the presidency. Under those same circumstances, Obama thrust himself forward. Fail, re self-evaluation. Sadly, history will be the judge. If only Obama had adequately judged himself. He would have remained a perfectly sufficient Chicago ward politician, sidelining as an associate professor and part-time community organizer. He would have made some sociology grad student a very nice obscure subject for a research paper -- "An Analysis of 'Present' Voting Patterns in the 2002-2003 Illinois State Assymbly". Grad student, Pass. Obama, Epic fail.
Next time, estimates about the size of Obama's dick.
J
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