A Presidency of Generalities, Abstractions and Images

A formerly-friendly mainstream liberal press is starting to ask hard questions and make hard observations about President Obama's Postmodern Presidency. Democratic congressmen are getting a bit testy over questions about the Obama Agenda. (But still getting some cover from the press).

When he was a candidate, making all those inspiring speeches full of vague, uplifting imagery, I thought that Obama would make a fine "ceremonial leader" of America - someone who had the potential to inspire people to follow their best impulses while leaving the day-to-day work of dealing with national and world events to a more experienced President. Now, with his insults to our allies, his  counter-productive overtures to our enemies and his preoccupation with fancy parties (leading to disturbing moments like this), I'm not so sure even about that role for him.*   Campaign-style speeches really seem to be his strong point.

But he "never" had doubts about deficiencies in his foreign policy experience when he was running for President. As a certain Soviet leader said about JFK (before the latter had some hard talks with Eisenhower), "Too young, too smart". (Obama started to admit to some doubts in January, 2010)

Victor Davis Hanson notes similarities between how the Obama's administration is being run and the largely consequence-free "La-La land" of elite American academia.  Are we being governed from the faculty lounge? Another academic comparison.

Update: MARK STEYN brings several related threads of thought together, comparing President Obama to the leader of the liberal party in Canada and to many leaders in Europe. WOW.:

So a man swept into office on an unprecedented tide of delirious fawning is now watching his presidency sink in an unstoppable gush. That's almost too apt.

Unfortunately, in the real world, a disastrous president has consequences. So let me begin by citing the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in Canada. . . .

Today, to be an educated citizen of a mature Western democracy – Canada or Germany, England or Sweden – is not to feel Canadian or German, English or Swedish, heaven forbid, but rather to regard oneself as a citoyen du monde. . . .  The U.N., Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Bono: these are the colors a progressive worldly Westerner nails to his mast.

You don't need to go anywhere, or do anything: You just need to pick up the general groove, which you can do very easily at almost any college campus.

This Barack Obama did brilliantly. A man who speaks fewer languages than the famously moronic George W Bush, he has nevertheless grasped the essential lingo of the European transnationalist: Continental leaders strike attitudes rather than effect action – which is, frankly, beneath them. One thinks of the insistence a few years ago by Louis Michel, then the Belgian foreign minister, that the so-called European Rapid Reaction Force "must declare itself operational without such a declaration being based on any true capability." As even the Washington Post drily remarked, "Apparently in Europe this works."

Apparently. Thus, Barack Obama: He declared himself operational without such a declaration being based on any true capability. But, if it works for the EU, why not America? Like many of his background here and there, Obama is engaged mostly by abstractions and generalities. . . . With one stroke of his pen, he has transformed the health care of 300 million people. But I suppose if there's some killer flu epidemic or a cholera outbreak in New Mexico, you losers will be whining at Obama to do something about that, too.

In recent months, a lot of Americans have said to me that they had no idea the new president would feel so "weird." But, in fact, he's not weird. . . . There are millions of people like Barack Obama, the eternal students of a vast lethargic transnational campus for whom global compassion and the multicultural pose are merely the modish gloss on a cult of radical grandiose narcissism. As someone once said, "We are the ones we've been waiting for." When you've spent that long waiting in line for yourself, it's bound to be a disappointment.

Steyn comes via Powerline: "Too Big, or Too Small?"  Something to think about.

Things change fast in American politics.  The pendulum swings wide here.  Many in the electorate seem to have a short memory, and tend to be swayed by emotions concerning events at the moment they vote, rather than developing and understanding of fundamental principles represented by various candidates. A shame. Time to start teaching young people to look beyond the immediate and beyond emotionally-rewarding feelings of the moment. A difficult task, in this day of instant imagery and information, when our media and universities are so dominated by "Progressive" thought.

Powerline again:

. . . this is the age of the college graduate, the age where 'brightness,' or the suggestion of intellect, is considered a fundamental requirement for even getting up in the morning. In order to be taken seriously, one must show the kind of mental agility popular with college admissions officers."

The scientific and political great men of the future, if we have any, will not be those who are popular with the college admissions officers of today.

* Update: Frank J. seems to disagree with me. Heh.