Sowell: A Truly Great Phony (Obama)

Creators Syndicate ^ | August 27, 2013 | Thomas Sowell

[IronJack]

If Cornel West wasn’t black, he’d be in an asylum. Instead, he’s at Harvard.

But I repeat myself ...

[ChildOfThe60s]

The Great One speaks his wisdom again.

I can’t recall ever reading anything by Dr. Sowell that was not absolutely first tier.

[windsorknot]

There are rodeo clowns and there are pedantic academic clowns like Corny West.

[stephenjohnbanker]

” If Cornel West wasn’t black, he’d be in an asylum. Instead, he’s at Harvard.”

Harvard used to have standards........50 years ago. West is not literate.

[COBOL2Java]

"Obama is the least qualified guy in whatever room he walks into"

[rdb3]

I'll make the wild guess that Sowell is referring to Cornel West.

I hope you've thoroughly cleansed yourself. That "man" is disgusting!

[driftless2]

I watched a debate on C-Span some years ago between West and Ward Connerly. The debate took place in some college out east in front of a mostly black audience. The topic was affirmative action I believe, and Connerly spoke first. He presented all the standard, conservative arguments against AA in a calm, dispassionate voice. When he was done with his opening arguments, he got about two soft claps.

Then The Great Spellbinder himself, Cornel West, gave his opening arguments. He invoked every cultural icon of the left from Dylan to Malcolm X saying a lot of 1000 dollar words and phrases. When he got done, I doubt anybody in the audience had a clue as to what he had said. Nevertheless, he got rapturous applause from the audience. He was their hero.

[kelly4c]

I dunno. I’ve always been an avid reader and good with words on occasion but on most occasions when debating or trying to get a point accross I stumble and can’t think of the right word or lose my train of thought or whatever. He’s not a good speaker. But it might have nothing to do with his “book smarts” or lack thereof. There might be some kind of learning disability.

[kelly4c]

“He is concentrating on making deep rich sounds with appropriate pauses and gestures.”

Yes! That’s the feeling I get when listening to him. Phony and trying to sound oh so intellectual. I can see right through it.

[SMARTY]

I was told very EARLY in my education:

“NEVER use a word you can’t pronounce or that you can’t define.”

Keeps you out of a lot of trouble.

[RedMonqey]

I was one of the few people who had read all three volumes of Marx's "Capital,"

When I was younger man and seeking knowledge on all the great books inspiring or inspired on the great 'isms" of history, i.e, Capitalism, Marxism, Nazism, etc, by far the hardest, most boring read of them all was "Das Kapital"

Marx had the most difficult writing style and used phrases and words only a college professor could understand. Finally I gave up and went on to Mein Kampt, which was the easiest of all(English version)

The "phony" has my sympathy and, of course, as always, Dr. Sowell has my respect and awe.

[kelly4c]

Good advice there. Goes along with that saying about stupidity which is something like: Better to be silent and let them wonder than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Haha.

[RedMonqey]

He invoked every cultural icon of the left from Dylan to Malcolm X saying a lot of 1000 dollar words and phrases.

He no doubt, was mimicing his great mentor, Karl Marx(see my post 51)

He too was a phony who knew nothing about real economics but dazzled ignorant audiences with, as you put it, 1000 dollar words and phrases

P. T.Barnum would be proud of both of them.....

[RipSawyer]

“Yep - the only difference was that Chance (from all appearances) was actually a GOOD man...”
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Even more, Chance was a gardener, a profession which adds to the world something of beauty. Obama has never done anything one tenth so worthy as being a gardener.

[RipSawyer]

“He’s like Dan Quayle on steeroyds!”
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How dare you make such a comparison! The carbon dioxide that Dan Quayle exhales contains more correct information than Barack Obama’s brain.

[TheOldLady]

Thank you for the ping.

Dr. Sowell has exactly described Mr. O’Bambi’s nature.

He is a manufactured mannikin, but I don’t understand why his strings were
cut loose to leave him floundering and misspeaking about nearly everything.

[lentulusgracchus]

“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.

Hallmark of someone who was always able to get by, gundecking his homework, using crib notes, borrowing other people's notes and papers.

Cheat.

But "it seems to be working so far ....." An article I once saw (I think it was James Fallows in The New Republic, about kinds of intelligence, and one man who set out to study inventiveness) described a conversation three Harvard profs had about a student who'd been caught cheating on a test or assignment. One of the profs decided that the student had deserved to get away with it (I think he actually didn't get caught), because his idea of "adapt, improvise, and overcome" at any cost, especially the cost of the rules, was ultimately "smart as hell".

The same kind of idea is propagated today in popular culture by references, in the Star Trek/Gene Roddenberry genre, to "The Kobayashi Maru Exercise", which James T. Kirk successfully gamed.

[lentulusgracchus]

He no doubt, was mimicing his great mentor, Karl Marx(see my post 51) He too was a phony who knew nothing about real economics but dazzled ignorant audiences with, as you put it, 1000 dollar words and phrases

If I were to read Das Kapital, I wouldn't read Marx himself but (to apply some Kirk-like gaming of my own -- see my last) would instead get a Cliff Notes version by someone who knew what he was talking about.

Someone like Milton Friedman.

Cheating? Not if you own the book and understand the questions.

[lentulusgracchus]

I don’t understand why his strings were cut loose to leave him floundering and misspeaking about nearly everything.

His handlers are moving on, and are already taking up the Cause Hillary.

[tet68]

The people who put Obama in office and who voted for
him a second time, and would no doubt vote for him
a third time are that portion of the people who can
be fooled “All the Time”.