We Play Chess; Obama Plays Go

Today | Me

[thecodont]

How many here have read the book “The Post-American World” by Farheed Zakaria? Wasn’t BO photographed holding a copy of that book? Supposing he has read it, what in that book is informing him?

[hflynn]

Does he have a Stone rating or is he just Stoned?

[antidisestablishment]

I think most conservatives give Obama way too much credit. He is nowhere near the strategist that Go requires. At most, he is a willing tool. The Go analogy is good, but remember, the larger the board; the more opportunity for both sides.

Ultimately, I think the Go analogy best represents the tendency toward factionalism and secession. We are engaged in endless "triple ko's" while we surrender territory wholesale. However, even if one side "wins," the other retains its own territory.

[dr huer]

A defense strategy in Go is to build safe groups inside of overexpanded big groups. Go was quite popular among the Mathematics Graduate students at Princeton 1950.

[FlameThrower]

even if one side "wins," the other retains its own territory.

Only until the game ends and score is toted. This is a winner (on points) takes all game. there are no safe havens.

[antidisestablishment]

True. It is often only late in the game that the real strategy is revealed. I think we now find ourselves totally surrounded. Time for a new game?

[expatpat]

He may not be -- but perhaps the puppet-master (Soros?) is.....

We are making ghote moves while the lefties go on the attack.

[antidisestablishment]

Unfortunately, I believe you are correct. While many conservatives have been thinking that the game was a ShidouGo, the left has been playing a kadoban. We definitely have Bad Aji.

[The Shrew]

PING!

[unique]

But, is it not a fact that we (the people) can make a huge statement next year by voting in Republicans that are conservatives and take back control of at least one of the two houses of Congress?

Obama can be stopped.

[zot]

I think this describes what has happened to America — bit by bit, piece by piece, ever since the 1920’s — apparently uncoordinated, but actually focused on the glorious dream of communist utopia.

[SuziQ]

Bump for Sat. reading

[pickrell]

Thanks for the ping.

[WashingtonSource]

I think a lot of Obama’s performance can be laid to incompetence and a lack of focus. He’s trying to do everyting at once and mostly failing at the overwhelming majority of them. How can that be seen as winning at Go? He might be all over the board and have lots of people who are acting in concernt with him, but, aside from the mandatory youth volunteer service and the horrible stimulus act, I don’t see how he has succeeded. Sometimes when a person comes across incompetent, he is actually incompetent and not dazzling us with moves off the field and out of the line of vision. But, I can see that it might be his intention to dazzle us with irrelevancies while consolidating power. So, it’s good people like you point out the danger.

[FlameThrower]

I oscillate between the two interpretations myself. But I wonder if an incompetent or even inadvertent Go player with the power Obama has amassed might not almost always defeat a disorganized rabble, each member playing a different Chess game. Seen through the lens of governance, he is "trying to do everything at once and mostly failing at the overwhelming majority of them". But the net effect might well be a commanding board position in four years in terms of social organizing.

He is a product of Harvard Law -- which often means brilliant but, in practice, incompetent. He is also an experienced radical organizer, so he knows how to achieve his radical goals.

Bottom line: I've decided on a quantum mechanical view of him as existing in two universes -- the real world and the alternative, radical world. His failures in one might well be victories in the other. And down the road, I fear, we'll wake up in the second universe ourselves.