Posted on 08/10/2011 9:09:57 AM PDT by SmithL
The buzz of last weekend was an opinion piece on the front page of the New York Times Sunday Review by Drew Westen. He has been a Democratic Party organizer and is now a professor of psychology at Emory University.
This is not a criticism of Obama from the right, from yet another Tea Party person foaming about birth certificates and socialism. This is a criticism from a progressive, a true believer.
First, Westen criticizes Obama's speechifying. The bully pulpit granted to each president has been largely squandered by Obama. His best speech ever, the one about race, came before he was elected. Other than that, the speeches have not been memorable, nor has their effect been transforming. Westen has a theory why:
"Stories were the primary way our ancestors transmitted knowledge and values. Today we seek movies, novels and 'news stories' that put the events of the day in a form that our brains evolved to find compelling and memorable. Children crave bedtime stories; the holy books of the three great monotheistic religions are written in parables; and as research in cognitive science has shown, lawyers whose closing arguments tell a story win jury trials against their legal adversaries who just lay out 'the facts of the case.' "
I've heard that sentiment expressed differently: All we have is our stories. I do think that's true in writing; I'm not sure that it's entirely true in rhetoric. The best speech I ever heard (John F. Kennedy's inaugural) did not present a narrative; it presented a vision. In Kennedy's day, people could accept an idea like the Peace Corps without cynicism.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
That's why people elected him. If people expect more than that from him, then they will be disappointed.
Let’s vote for a guy who won’t release his birth records or school records, never had a real job, voted present 129 times in the Senate, and can’t give a speech without a teleprompter and then act shocked that he can’t lead and focuses more on golf, partying, and eating.
The problem is, the vision is a fraud. Always has been, always will be.
Can he lead?
How long has he been in office?
Most people knew he couldn’t lead the moment he was picked to run.
He’s not even on par with the average Joe Blow on the street.
Zero’s not in charge. It’s his handlers and media “advisors” in charge now.
The Left would prefer that Obama be as explicit in his support for socialism as they are, and as uncompromisingly anti-Capitalist. In truth, he has only appeared to compromise, using vague language and platitudes in order to couch his true intentions. That might make him more politically clever than legions of Progressive professors and journalists, but it hardly qualifies him as a leader.
‘Can “O” lead?’
What a question!!
If “O” had that capability, we would have seen proof of it by now.
He can’t lead to save his own a&^!!! Literally.
Physician, heal thyself.
For a group who gives themselves sooo much credit for how smart and "humanitarian" they are, Liberals worldwide consistently demonstrate they are clueless regarding human nature.
Of course, what should be expected from a worldview/belief system whose very foundation is based on such a ridiculous contradiction as pretending to be for the "little guy" while at the same time viciously defending the killing of unborn babies as nothing more than a female rights matter.
Maybe the author of this piece is finally beginning to see through the fog of his pseudo-enlightenment enough to realize he's been a vocal proponent of can only be described as an Idiocracy.
Isn’t it a little late for the liberal idiots to ask that question. Maybe their wallets are finally getting the hint. They helped elect the goof and are finally getting around to the question of his leadershp. How pathetic liberals are.
Obama == David Dinkins except on a national level and no tennis but golf.
The Forgotten Failures of the Peace Corps
http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd1104c.asp
All government programs are failures.
“{Can Obama lead? Liberals want to know}”
Anyone who’s still asking that question is beyond hope.
Dear liberals it is not the person it is the ideology that fails so no no one else will succeed doing the same things you all believe in.
LOL because they are now complaining about EXACTLY the same things we were all pointing out during the campaign. (”he is a blank canvas upon which people project their own desires of what they wish him to be”, etc.)
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