Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Another resemblance to Jimmy Carter

Obama's faith in words is, I believe, a function of his life experiences. His faciility with words, both oral and written, is extraordinary -- and it accounts almost entirely for his astonishing success in life. Obama has never run anything substantial other than a political campaign, so he has not yet confronted the limits of his words. He has dabbled in lawyering, where words can take on a disproportionate significance, and in teaching law, where words are the be-all and end-all.
Somebody referred to Carter a few years ago as the first 'process President'; he's one of those people who seem to think that as long as the process is correct(in his view) then it doesn't really matter what the outcome is. Or that the outcome will, eventually, be what he wants because he had the right process.*

Obama's faith in his words, and use of them, seems directly related: "If I say the right words the right way, the PFM** will occur and all will be well and the Rainbow Unicorn will crap $20 gold pieces on Firehand's front porch in the morning." And now he's running into the fact that his words(especially when he doesn't have a teleprompter to prop him up) just don't make the world change rotational speed; in fact, they seem to be causing the anally-produced organic matter to strike the air movement device. And he either doesn't believe it, or can't understand why, or doesn't care.(and let's not forget his faith in- and counting on- symbols)

*Which reminded me of a friend who thought he was one of our finest Presidents because 'he signed all those international agreements'. Didn't seem to matter that the Soviets and the Norks were breaking them while signing; the fact that the agreements were signed seemed to outweigh everything.

*Pure Effing Magic.

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