[Mr. Bird]

There’s a whole lot of disturbing connotations to calling Obama something like “philosopher-president”, clearly a take on Plato’s “philosopher kings”. One could argue that our history holds a boatload of butchers and tyrants who fancied themselves philosopher kings. The whole point of a philosopher king is to force the citizenry into conditions deemed “correct” by the king himself. If the author is attempting praise, he falls well short.

[Mr. Bird]

In addition, similar "praise" was heaped on Clinton when he entered the White House. Reports of "bull sessions" running on into the night were supposed to make us a feel so glad that such brilliance was leading the nation. Clinton was a policy genius, they told us; the culmination of some sort of DNC husbandry resulting in his "Third Way" philosophy. All bunk. Bill Clinton was and is a brilliant politician, but absent the arena, he is an empty suit.