Mark Steyn: The Very Model of a Modern Major Generalist

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE ^ | June 12, 2010 | Mark Steyn

[Ultra Sonic 007]

Brilliant stuff, that Steyn. Especially the last line.

[RightGeek]

Steyn - always the best

[Jeff Chandler]

. . . just sayin'.

[neverdem]

The very model of a modern Major Generalist

There's a blog called The very model of a modern Major Generalist. Go figure.

[aruanan]

One thinks of the insistence a few years ago by Louis Michel, then Belgian foreign minister, that the so-called European Rapid Reaction Force “must declare itself operational without such a declaration being based on any true capability.” As even the Washington Post drily remarked, “Apparently in Europe this works.”

Apparently. Thus, Barack Obama: He declared himself operational without such a declaration being based on any true capability.

This is so very true.

[SmartInsight]

Another gem by Mark Steyn.

[Mercat]

I realized something today. I’ve been grocery shopping now during every presidency since Nixon. As I wait in line, I read the headlines on the tabloids. OK, maybe I wasn’t doing that until Carter or Reagan but still, a long time. Every president has had to suffer, just like any other celebrity, from stupid headlines... for example, GHW Bush and Barbara were on the verge of breaking up. GHW was having affairs, Clinton of course, we got a lot on him in those headlines and George W. was going on drinking binges and Laura was always ready to leave him etc.

Since the first month or two of this administration, however, there’s nothing, nada, zip. BO seems to have accomplished what even the A listers in Hollywood could not - a blackout on coverage of him and his by the tabloids. scary.

[Tax-chick]

There are millions of people like Barack Obama, the eternal students of a vast lethargic transnational campus for whom global compassion and the multicultural pose are merely the modish gloss on a cult of radical grandiose narcissism.

He's hit it right on the head (of course): the reason Obama is so desperately *boring* (among his other problems) is that he's not knowledgable about or interested in anything past the end of his own nose.

[cdcdawg]

I think Steyn might be giving Obama too much credit. The guy is trying to fake his way through being President. The aloofness comes from his trying to look like he easily knows what he’s doing when he has no clue. He is overcompensating with an outward look of coolness and competence because he is in way over his head, and he knows it.

[TLI]

He’s the first president to give off the pronounced whiff that he’s condescending to the job — that it’s really too small for him and he’s just killing time until something more commensurate with his stature comes along.

I’m thinking shoveling $hit out of pigsties for the month of July ought to be about right.

[Screaming_Gerbil]

...he’s the product of the broader culture: There are millions of people like Barack Obama, the eternal students of a vast lethargic transnational campus for whom global compassion and the multicultural pose are merely the modish gloss on a cult of radical grandiose narcissism...

Barack Obama came from no where (relatively speaking), is not anywhere near qualified to be President, and by his behavior and what little we do know of his past history has some serious personal issues. His various personal issues have been speculated and discussed elsewhere on various threads on FreeRepublic.

To me, Barack Obama was obviously built up and put in power to be the President of the United States by very powerful interests who feel that they can control him.

That in itself is a frightening thought. But to me the even more sobering thought is that he got elected by the American voters. I don't see the problem so much with Barack Obama as with all the people who voted for him and this Hope and Change thing.

For with this attitude prevalent among the American people, (even though many people don't think that way) if it were not specifically Barack Obama as President, it would be someone else like him.

As the last lines of Mark Steyn's put it... "...he's the product of the broader culture " in America today.

[kabumpo]

Very good point,and yes, it is very, very scary.

[supremedoctrine]

Ira, didn’t you used to wear dresses?
Just sayin’..........(delivered in the spirit of good fun,
but couldn’t find the right emoticon.....)

[PaleoBob]

Great Steyn!

[xzins]

There are millions of people like Barack Obama, the eternal students of a vast lethargic transnational campus for whom global compassion and the multicultural pose are merely the modish gloss on a cult of radical grandiose narcissism. As someone once said, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” When you’ve spent that long waiting in line for yourself, it’s bound to be a disappointment.

What a gift Steyn has for boiling things down to a few shattering lines. He has just reduced liberalism to its core.

[supremedoctrine]

We must shop in different supermarkets.
The coverage is lighter on Obama, and Michelle,
(usually centering on some elusive ‘other woman’)
but there hasn’t been a total blackout.
Maybe it seems that way because there’s so much STILL
on the other side, the commemerative ‘special edition’ side
of PR crap that’s all supposed to be ‘collectible’.

[Oatka]

Brilliant stuff, that Steyn. Especially the last line.

Yeah, that one grabbed me as well. Spot on!

[bboop]

The last line is priceless. Steyn is always 5*.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Amen. And yet all those many narcissists aren't dancing by themselves. They've been invited to the prom by a specific, determined and vast entity who's calling the tune.

History isn't haphazard. History is controlled, just like everything else.

It's one reason why the religion of free will is proclaimed throughout the world -- to train us to think we're doing it for (and to) ourselves.