I think you could find similarly dismissive assessments of Bill Clinton in 1993...perhaps a bit later in the year. Of course by this time in his first year Clinton had had to send up three names before getting an Attorney General confirmed and had incinerated dozens of children at Waco.
Indeed, but, if you recall, the press narrative at that time was: "Reagan was successful because he was a dolt. Bill Clinton is failing because his mind is just TOO POWERFUL."
At one point some wag actually claimed that Reagan's brain was like an index card, but Clinton's was like a CD ROM (they were bleeding edge tech in 1993) and we all needed to catch up with him to understand how his failings were really going to lead to huge successes.
And the rest, as they say, is a stained blue dress.
Indeed, but, if you recall, the press narrative at that time was: "Reagan was successful because he was a dolt. Bill Clinton is failing because his mind is just TOO POWERFUL."
At one point some wag actually claimed that Reagan's brain was like an index card, but Clinton's was like a CD ROM (they were bleeding edge tech in 1993) and we all needed to catch up with him to understand how his failings were really going to lead to huge successes.
And the rest, as they say, is a stained blue dress.
"I think there is a tension in Clinton between the student of Presidential power and the student of policy," said Michael J. Sandel, a Harvard University political theorist. "As a student of the Presidency, he knows he should keep it simple, but as a student of policy he can't. The risk is that he knows too much. Reagan did not have that problem. For Reagan, a thematic Presidency was easy because he did not know very much. All he had were broad themes on three-by-five cards. Clinton has a CD-ROM in his head."
These facile rationalizations followed less than a week after Clinton's AG had just incinerated 76 Americans -- many of them women and children -- in Waco, Texas.