Posted on 08/26/2013 10:08:55 AM PDT by jazusamo
Many years ago, I was a member of a committee that was recommending to whom grant money should be awarded. Since I knew one of the applicants, I asked if this meant that I should recuse myself from voting on his application.
"No," the chairman said. "I know him too — and he is one of the truly great phonies of our time."
The man was indeed a very talented phony. He could convince almost anybody of almost anything — provided that they were not already knowledgeable about the subject.
He had once spoken to me very authoritatively about Marxian economics, apparently unaware that I was one of the few people who had read all three volumes of Marx's "Capital," and had published articles on Marxian economics in scholarly journals.
What our glib talker was saying might have seemed impressive to someone who had never read "Capital," as most people have not. But it was complete nonsense to me.
Incidentally, he did not get the grant he applied for.
This episode came back to me recently, as I read an incisive column by Charles Krauthammer, citing some of the many gaffes in public statements by the President of the United States.
One presidential gaffe in particular gives the flavor, and suggests the reason, for many others. It involved the Falkland Islands.
Argentina has recently been demanding that Britain return the Falkland Islands, which have been occupied by Britons for nearly two centuries. In 1982, Argentina seized these islands by force, only to have British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher take the islands back by force.
(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...
I'll make the wild guess that Sowell is referring to Cornel West. I've met the man. Probably the biggest phony I've ever spoken to.
Sowell yet again hits it out of the park.
This goes on all the time.
“O” is SUCH a bad speaker and SO obviously unread... that he routinely says wrong words or uses the right word in the wrong context, etc. ... he does all kinds of stuff like this.
It’s the way people speak who have not read much and are only mouthing things they’ve heard or else things they recall and have NEVER seen in black and white.
“O” was NEVER a scholar and is a bone-head puppet bought and paid for by America’s enemies. PERIOD
Well, and not everyone knows the difference between the Malvinas and the Maldives, unless the press bothers to explain it to them.
But you’d think that most people would be a bit puzzled by that claim to have visited 57 states. Like, where is this guy coming from?
BUMP for later...
"For the true believer no proof is necessary." Stuart Chase
That's easy-peasy: He will laugh them off, to great media applause, just as he has all the other gaffes. He'll blame the Republicans for the failures.
I really thing Obama (Chauncey Gardner) is an unread, barely educated person who always talked himself through the next affirmative action promotion. A complete empty suit. An empty chair.
Agreed...Were it not for his handlers doing the thinking and his writers writing his speeches for teleprompters even the enemedia wouldn’t have been able to ignore this phony’s ineptness this long.
Sowell is correct, Obama is one of the greatest phonies of our time. But in the end, it won’t matter how many gaffes Obama makes, how little he actually knows, or many promises he cynically breaks. Because a very large percentage of the people who voted for him are not very intelligent. Obama will simply say his policies failed because nasty, evil Republicans held him back. And his loyal sheep, including the media, will believe him.
But I don't think Obama discusses things. I don't think anyone ever corrects him. I don't think he really listens to his advisers.
He knows all. He is the center of the universe. It never occurs to him that there might be more to learn.
What’s telling is how he came to make that particular gaffe in the first place. He was sucking up to his Commie pal, the lady lizard-neck who runs Argentina. No other president would have made that gaffe, because no other president would have wanted to call the Falklands anything other than what they are: The Falkland Islands.
Obastard makes his most entertaining gaffes when he’s trying to suck up to the world’s worst people.
You’ve actually spoken to that clown? I’ve seen him on C-Span several times, and the baloney he vomits out is some of the best (worst?) verbal nonsense I’ve ever heard come out of the mouth of a human being. I don’t know how people can listen to his incredible gobbledygook without breaking out laughing.
Maybe from Austria where they speak Austrian. Or from Afghanistan where Obama thinks we need more people who speak Arabic. Or maybe from Penn State and the Nittaly Lions.
Understatement of the day.
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