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Does Barack Obama Have a Learning Disability?
American Thinker ^
| July 23, 2010
| Michael Applebaum, MD
Posted on 07/23/2010 3:03:18 PM PDT by neverdem
Does Barack Obama have a learning disability (LD)? It seems like an outlandish question to ask, but the actions of President Obama suggest that he may suffer from one. Consider:
Learning
Learning is "the cognitive process of acquiring skill or knowledge."
Intelligence is defined as
capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity; aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings, etc. or
1 a (1) : the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations
: reason;
also :the skilled use of reason
(2) : the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one's environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria (as tests)
There is a relationship between learning and intelligence.
Intelligence is measurable.
IQ tests "are designed to measure your general ability to solve problems and understand concepts. This includes reasoning ability, problem-solving ability, ability to perceive relationships between things and ability to store and retrieve information."
It follows that a
learning disability affects a person's capacity or ability to learn or understand, to grasp truths, facts, meanings, and relationships. So what demonstrations of LD can we find in Obama?
Presidential Appointments
The president has recruited a number of key appointments who appear to have LDs.
According to the definition she accepts and publishes, she is a
health illiterate: "Health literacy is the ability of an individual to access, understand, and use health-related information and services to make appropriate health decisions."
Somewhere along the bucket brigade of learning -- i.e., "access, understand, and use health-related information" -- all the water spilled, since she certainly failed to "make appropriate health decisions." Hence, her self-recognized and personally lamentable fatness.
Clearly in the domain of sick care, health illiteracy despite medical training is evidence of an LD.
Holder is pursuing a lawsuit alleging that "the state of Arizona's recently passed immigration law, S.B. 1070" "unconstitutionally interferes with the federal government's authority to set and enforce immigration policy."
However, during a House Judiciary Committee meeting, Holder
admitted to not having read the law, despite
repeatedly voicing concerns about it, especially about "
racial profiling." His statements must have been based on hearsay.
Holder's
bio states that he attended law school and is in the practice of law.
Holder should have acquired a grasp of hearsay, absent an LD.
Geithner is a person who demonstrated an
inability to properly do his own taxes even with the help of a mass-market consumer tax preparation
software package used by people without a financial background.
It would be expected that a person nominated for Treasury Secretary would be able to figure out how to do taxes, unless an LD was present.
Clearly, BHO was unable to learn how to recognize individuals qualified for appointment.
The Supreme Court and Professorship of Law
BHO
claims to have been a professor of constitutional law.
[BHO] ... has regularly referred to himself as "a constitutional law professor," most famously at a March 30, 2007, fundraiser when he said, "I was a constitutional law professor, which means unlike the current president I actually respect the Constitution."
He was not really a law professor. He was a "
senior lecturer," though the
University of
Chicago (U of C),
where BHO served as a senior lecturer, claims that he was "regarded as" a professor.
Persons
other than constitutional law professors claim respect for the Constitution. Absent an LD, certainly at some point in his career, BHO should have learned that respect for the Constitution is not limited to law professors or senior lecturers -- e.g.,
The Founders.
... last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend without limit in our elections.
It would appear that a U of C "constitutional law professor" did not learn how to analyze U.S. law. (
BHO also should have learned about hearsay during his legal training, absent an LD.)
ADHD
In 1972, Jeremiah Wright
became pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. BHO became a member in 1988.
BHO admits that Wright was his spiritual leader,
married him to Michelle, and baptized his children. BHO
took them to Trinity United Church for sermons.
Assuming he cares about his children, it is reasonable to expect that he would have paid attention to the words from the pulpit and been aware of what his kids' spirits were being fed.
He did not and was not.
Further, assuming the same, one would have expected conversations between parents and children discussing the contents of the sermons, their takeaway lessons, what his children may have learned from their friends in attendance, etc.
It stretches credulity that in about twenty years' worth of attendance (around 1,040 Sundays, though he claims not to have gone
every week), a number of them with children in tow, BHO never heard Wright speak "controversially" or learned of Wright's positions, either directly at church or indirectly from family, friends, newsletters, etc
Never -- unless BHO suffered from LD, or perhaps
ADHD (or mendacity). ADHD is considered by
many not to be a learning disability. However, LD can
coexist with ADHD. And ADHD can be an
adult condition, possibly from an undiagnosed childhood ADHD.
This could explain how over the many years BHO spent attending church, the nature of Wright's sermons eluded him.
Anyway, LD, ADHD, ADHD-associated LD, or a combination, the presence of a condition inimical to learning is problematic. Those who believe in the exceptional nature of the office might say that this is even truer in the case of the presidency.
It is not beyond possibility that an episode or episodes of inattention or inability to understand will compromise the nation.
Perhaps one already has.
In the matter of the Gulf oil spill, some have suggested that
presidential inattentiveness contributed substantially to the suffering and damage. Although others might argue that the delay was a variation of a brilliant political move (
H. L. Mencken: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed [and hence clamorous to be led to safety] by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."),
James Carville, renowned for his political acumen, certainly felt otherwise.
The Harvard Counter-Argument
Some might argue that BHO's attendance at Harvard Law where he graduated
magna cum laude is conclusive evidence against an LD.
They would be wrong.
Despite his pedestrian undergraduate achievements, Harvard Law gave him entry -- some suggest under
intriguing circumstances.
He was elected to the editorial staff of the Harvard Law Review (HLR).
Until the 1970's the editors were picked on the basis of grades, and the president of the Law Review was the student with the highest academic rank....
That system came under attack in the 1970's and was replaced by a program in which about half the editors are chosen for their grades and the other half are chosen by fellow students after a special writing competition. The new system, disputed when it began, was meant to help insure that minority students became editors of The Law Review.
...the Review has two other goals. First, the journal is designed to be an effective research tool for practicing lawyers and students of the law. Second, it provides opportunities for Review members to develop their own editing and writing skills.
Without a "paper trail" to evaluate his abilities, basically only his grades remain. His Harvard transcript was
never released (neither were the Occidental and Columbia transcripts). His graduation magna cum laude appears uncontroverted.
And if one were to assert that the grades are still from Harvard, and the world regards these students as America's best, even BHO himself would have to assert that
he "believes in Harvard exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the students at
University of Bridgeport believe in
Bridgeport exceptionalism" -- i.e., there is nothing special about a Harvard grade.
This essay is not offered as a professional diagnosis.
TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: obama
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1
posted on
07/23/2010 3:03:20 PM PDT
by
neverdem
To: neverdem
“Does Barack Obama Have a Learning Disability?”
Nah, he’s just stupid.
To: ZirconEncrustedTweezers
Does Barack Obama Have a Learning Disability?
Nah, he’s just evil.
3
posted on
07/23/2010 3:06:10 PM PDT
by
donhunt
(Where does this totalitarian ashwipe get off telling me I can't chose for myself?)
To: ZirconEncrustedTweezers
How can the self proclaimed leader of 57 states be stupid?
4
posted on
07/23/2010 3:06:44 PM PDT
by
A CA Guy
( God Bless America, God bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
To: neverdem
Nah. It’s just that he is a liberal elitist, and they are always right.
5
posted on
07/23/2010 3:07:18 PM PDT
by
Ted Grant
To: neverdem
what say we get his college records, writings and financing information?
6
posted on
07/23/2010 3:08:05 PM PDT
by
sappy
To: neverdem
Is that their excuse they’re using. Gracious
7
posted on
07/23/2010 3:08:16 PM PDT
by
GoCards
("We eat therefore we hunt...")
To: neverdem
Nah, he just “acts stupidly”.
8
posted on
07/23/2010 3:08:28 PM PDT
by
FrankR
(It doesn't matter what they call us, only what we answer to....)
To: neverdem
Careful or Obama will throw you under the short bus.
To: Snickering Hound
With the number of folks that he has already thrown under the buss, he must have a fleet of these babies....
10
posted on
07/23/2010 3:17:17 PM PDT
by
Cyclone59
(Don't blame me, I voted for the hot chick and the old guy!)
To: neverdem
Liberalism IS a learning disability.
Zero’s the poster child.
11
posted on
07/23/2010 3:17:24 PM PDT
by
rock_lobsta
(November can't get here fast enough.)
To: neverdem
What a really poorly written piece.
To: ZirconEncrustedTweezers
ROFLMAO!! Thanks, I needed that. ;-)
13
posted on
07/23/2010 3:20:10 PM PDT
by
doc1019
(Martyrdom is a great thing, until it is your turn.)
To: neverdem
14
posted on
07/23/2010 3:21:05 PM PDT
by
onona
(dbada)
To: neverdem
15
posted on
07/23/2010 3:23:24 PM PDT
by
Bean Counter
(don't forget the barbed wire...)
To: ZirconEncrustedTweezers
To: All
No. He’s just a Marxist/Muslim alien usurper.
17
posted on
07/23/2010 3:25:36 PM PDT
by
patriot08
(TEXAS GAL- born and bred and proud of it!)
To: jazminerose
What a really poorly written piece.It works for me.
To: ZirconEncrustedTweezers
Mister Obama is a lot of things (in the opinion of some or many...socialist/Marxist, narcissist, pathological liar, political xenophobe, Chicago crook...and etc.)
He is not, however, stupid.
19
posted on
07/23/2010 3:30:35 PM PDT
by
Seaplaner
(Never give in. Never give in. Never...except to convictions of honour and good sense. W. Churchill)
To: neverdem
BHO knows exactly what he is doing. More than that he also knows who he is doing it for and who he is beholden to. The liberals, Soros, dem party are all trying to cash the chits every day.
20
posted on
07/23/2010 3:31:18 PM PDT
by
JSteff
(((It was ALL about SCOTUS. Most forget about that and HAVE DOOMED us for a generation or more.)))
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