"Obama is the least qualified guy in whatever room he walks into"
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 ...
If Cornel West wasn’t black, he’d be in an asylum. Instead, he’s at Harvard.
But I repeat myself ...
The Great One speaks his wisdom again.
I can’t recall ever reading anything by Dr. Sowell that was not absolutely first tier.
There are rodeo clowns and there are pedantic academic clowns like Corny West.
” 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.
I hope you've thoroughly cleansed yourself. That "man" is disgusting!
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
“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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
His handlers are moving on, and are already taking up the Cause Hillary.
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”.
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