The Wizard of Obama

Subtitle: The president didn't just lose a debate. He lost an entire image of genius and control.

After President Reagan's listless performance in the first presidential debate of 1984 raised speculation that he was too old for the job, the Gipper took command in the second debate. Of his opponent Walter Mondale, Reagan famously said that he wouldn't try to score political points by exploiting his opponent's youth and inexperience.

Perhaps Barack Obama can likewise reassert himself in Tuesday evening's town hall in Long Island. But his problem is this: In Denver he didn't just lose a debate—he lost the carefully cultivated illusion of a larger-than-life figure who was Lincoln and FDR and Moses all wrapped in one.

It won’t be over until its over. 0bama is completely capable of BS’ing more low information voters back to his side tomorrow night. He’s more charismatic than Romney and can get to the emotions of many dimwits. Nobody connects to Romney in that way. If Romney wins, we will be crying tears of joy that 0bama is gone. I doubt any of us will be crying tears of joy that Romney will be the next president.

Good stuff in this article, Romney can use the “oceans” quote if o’bidens starts talking 47%:

Mostly this image was the making of his own immodesty, starting the night he clinched the 2008 Democratic nomination. Mr. Obama might have simply declared victory and congratulated Hillary Clinton on a valiant fight. Instead it became the backdrop for one of his more infamous egoisms. History, he said, would look back at his victory as the moment “the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

This was no aberration. A man who interviewed for a job on the campaign was told by Mr. Obama: “I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.”

Everything about his campaign fed that idea. The Styrofoam Greek columns at the Democratic convention when he was nominated. The faux presidential seal with its own Latin motto. And before the campaign, the two books he authored about—himself.

The press, far from exhibiting any skepticism about this immodesty, bowed before it. Leave aside the NBC reporter who conceded it was hard to remain objective in the face of all the “infectious” energy emanating from Mr. Obama’s quest for the White House. Or the New York Times commentator who knew Mr. Obama was meant to be president by the crease in his pants leg. Or the historian who told radio host Don Imus that Mr. Obama’s IQ was “off the charts”—but when asked what it was could only answer that he was probably “the smartest guy ever to become president.”

“Or the historian who told radio host Don Imus that Mr. Obama’s IQ was “off the charts”—but when asked what it was could only answer that he was probably “the smartest guy ever to become president.”

This claim about Obama’s IQ is provably false. The smartest guy EVER to become president could not possibly have governed as ineptly as Obama has. Therefore, the premise must be false.

I'm sure a lot of Presidents had higher IQs than Obama--John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, James Garfield (who taught Greek and Latin at a college), Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Richard Nixon...

Obama's problem isn't that he is stupid--he probably has an above-average IQ. It's that he is arrogant and lazy and his head is filled with a lot of the wrong ideas. All his life he has been able to get the credit without doing the work. November 6 will test whether he will get away with it once more.

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