Obama Invests in Janus Mutual Funds
David Brooks has done it again. As I have mentioned, he consistently writes eloquently about ideas that only swirl the unrefined periphery of my mind.
Brooks claims that Obama is a brilliant politician. I thought going into this election that the national mood was ripe for a genuine reformer, a pistoling maverick. Obama sensed that too. The problem is that Obama isn’t a genuine reformer, he’s only incredibly good at acting the part. Brooks will show you why.
Suppose we admit that Obama is shady underneath his stage makeup. Does it matter? In some sense, as Brooks says, we need a sly and ruthless President to combat fellow Machiavellian world leaders. The point Brooks doesn’t make is that there will (hopefully) be enormous pressure from his legion of drooling drone followers (followers, not supporters), such that the people will compel him to do what he currently does not intend to do: make genuine reforms. Perhaps a candidate’s followers mold the candidate’s accomplishments more than the candidate himself.
I do not have a peculiarly high level of innate intelligence, but I am confident in my innate ability to divine who a person really is. I have a bad visceral feeling about Obama. That feeling is gradually reinforced by the rational observations that have been streaming in about him over the past few months. I expect that we will hear more about this mysterious man in the coming months and I expect for my buddy David and I to be correct.
Comment by Joshua on 21 June 2008 at 9:50 am:
My reading of Brooks’ column was a little different – I didn’t get the impression that Brooks things, as you do, that Obama doesn’t really intend to pursue the majority of the reforms he speaks of on the trial.
His column had a great ending.
Comment by Billy Joe Mills on 21 June 2008 at 11:52 am:
Joshua,
I based my understanding on sentences like the following, what’s your evidence?
“But then on the other side, there’s Fast Eddie Obama, the promise-breaking, tough-minded Chicago pol who’d throw you under the truck for votes.”
“On the one hand, Obama did sell out the primary cause of his professional life, all for a tiny political advantage. If he’ll sell that out, what won’t he sell out?”
“Even Bill Clinton wasn’t smart enough to succeed in politics by pretending to renounce politics.”
“This guy is the whole Chicago package: an idealistic, lakefront liberal fronting a sharp-elbowed machine operator.”
“Dr. Barack said he could no more disown the Rev. Jeremiah Wright than disown his own grandmother. Then the political costs of Rev. Wright escalated and Fast Eddie Obama threw Wright under the truck.”
“But Thursday, at the first breath of political inconvenience, Fast Eddie Obama threw public financing under the truck.”