Posted on 08/28/2013 6:30:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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.
With Argentina today beset by domestic problems, demanding the return of the Falklands is once again a way for Argentina’s government to distract the Argentine public’s attention from the country’s economic and other woes.
Because the Argentines call these islands “the Malvinas,” rather than “the Falklands,” Barack Obama decided to use the Argentine term. But he referred to them as “the Maldives.” It so happens that the Maldives are thousands of miles away from the Malvinas. The former are in the Indian Ocean, while the latter are in the South Atlantic.
Nor is this the only gross misstatement that President Obama has gotten away with, thanks to the mainstream media, which sees no evil, hears no evil, and speaks no evil when it comes to Obama.
The presidential gaffe that struck me when I heard it was Barack Obama’s reference to a military corps as a military “corpse.” He is obviously a man who is used to sounding off about things he has paid little or no attention to in the past. His mispronunciation of a common military term was especially revealing to someone who was once in the Marine Corps, not Marine “corpse.”
Like other truly talented phonies, Barack Obama concentrates his skills on the effect of his words on other people — most of whom do not have the time to become knowledgeable about the things he is talking about. Whether what he says bears any relationship to the facts is politically irrelevant. A talented con man or a slick politician does not waste his time trying to convince knowledgeable skeptics. His job is to keep the true believers believing. He is not going to convince the others anyway.
Back during Barack Obama’s first year in office, he kept repeating, with great apparent earnestness, that there were “shovel-ready” projects that would quickly provide many much-needed jobs, if only his spending plans were approved by Congress. He seemed very convincing — if you didn’t know how long it can take for any construction project to get started. Going through a bureaucratic maze of environmental-impact studies, zoning-commission rulings, and other procedures can delay even the smallest and simplest project for years.
Only about a year or so after his big spending programs were approved by Congress, Barack Obama himself laughed at how slowly everything was going on his supposedly “shovel-ready” projects.
One wonders how he will laugh when all his golden promises about Obamacare turn out to be false and a medical disaster. Or when his foreign-policy fiascoes in the Middle East are climaxed by a nuclear Iran.
— Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.
disgusting that this empty shell is our President...
Obama and Holder are publicly speaking about their ‘plan of the week’ that are just more smokescreen distractions to divert attention away from the incompetent manner Obama has handled his day job.
The best indicator of a PHONY ADMINISTRATION is the number of its REAL SCANDALS.
Commie Tyrant Obama’s current talking points are thus smokescreen distractions for the products of Obama’s first 4 years in office:
* Refusal to close US Southern Border to Mexican illegal alien invaders
* No known un-forged records of Place of Birth
* No known un-forged records of University grades
* Benghazi Massacre
* Dereliction of Duty as CIC during Benghazi Massacre
* Cover up of Benghazi Massacre
* Destruction of Seal Team Six
* Cover up of Fast and Furious murder of US Border Agent by Exec. Order
* IRS-Obama’care” Commune Death Grip on Wealth and Health
* NSA-Gestapo Death Grip on all citizen’s communications
* Use of Courts against News Media
* Use of Supreme Court to install Un-Constitutional Obama’care’ Tax
* Destruction of the US Coal Industry
* Refusal to permit XL Pipeline construction
* Trillion Dollar a year Federal Overspending
* Monthly violations of the US Constitution by Obama
* Use of Exec. Orders to bypass Congress.
REPLACE sniveling coward Speaker Boehner with a FIGHTER!
It is time to IMPEACH Tyrant B. Hussein Obama, aka Barry Soetoro.
_______________________
Tyrant B. Hussein Obama, (aka Barry Soetoro), continues his unopposed efforts to expand Totalitarian Obamanation in Liberty-based America.
Where are the Republican opponents of Tyrant Obama?
Why have the Articles of Impeachment for Tyrant Obama not been issued by US House Speaker Boehner, or Pro-Welfare Republicans Cantor or Ryan?
Have House and Senate Pro-Welfare Republicans formed a cave-in pact with Pro-Welfare Democrats to protect Tyrant Obama?
The main thing that Speaker Boehner is afraid of is being blamed for doing his job.
Speaker Boehner’s job now is to shut down the NON-ESSENTIAL parts of the US Federal Government until Obama’care’ is ABOLISHED, and keep it shut down for however long it takes.
Obama will continue to ruin America as long as Boehner is Speaker of the US House of Represenatives.
Four + years of Boehner has proven Boehner to be unfit to combat Tyrant Obama.
It is now up to the Members of the House to replace Boehner so that the new Speaker can shut down the non-essential parts of the US Federal Government ASAP in order to ABOLISH Obama’care.’
obama is a snake charmer, charleton, con man, pied piper, jack of all trades and master of none
Even a jack of the trade of statecraft would be able to make less of a mess of foreign policy than Obama has. Even a jack of the trade of fiscal policy would be able to make less of a mess of the U.S. economy than Obama has. He's just a snake charmer, charlatan, con man and pied piper.
you forgot closet homosexual,muslim, crackhead.
A talented phony indeed he is worthless to everyone.
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