It’s being made by Bret Stephens at the Wall Street Journal… and it’s compelling but I’m not sure I’m sold on this just yet:
When it comes to piloting, Barack Obama seems to think he’s the political equivalent of Charles Lindbergh, Chuck Yeager and—in a “Fly Me to the Moon” sort of way—Nat King Cole rolled into one. “I think I’m a better speech writer than my speech writers,” he reportedly told an aide in 2008. “I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m . . . a better political director than my political director.”
On another occasion—at the 2004 Democratic convention—Mr. Obama explained to a Chicago Tribune reporter that “I’m LeBron, baby. I can play at this level. I got game.”
Of course, it’s tempting to be immodest when your admirers are so immodest about you. How many times have we heard it said that Mr. Obama is the smartest president ever? Even when he’s criticized, his failures are usually chalked up to his supposed brilliance. Liberals say he’s too cerebral for the Beltway rough-and-tumble; conservatives often seem to think his blunders, foreign and domestic, are all part of a cunning scheme to turn the U.S. into a combination of Finland, Cuba and Saudi Arabia.
I don’t buy it. I just think the president isn’t very bright.
…
Much of the media has spent the past decade obsessing about the malapropisms of George W. Bush, the ignorance of Sarah Palin, and perhaps soon the stupidity of Rick Perry. Nothing is so typical of middling minds than to harp on the intellectual deficiencies of the slightly less smart and considerably more successful.
But it takes actual smarts to understand that glibness and self-belief are not sufficient proof of genuine intelligence. Stupid is as stupid does, said the great philosopher Forrest Gump. The presidency of Barack Obama is a case study in stupid does.
There’s meat to go along with those potatoes at the link… does he make his case?
H/T to Matteo for the find.
UPDATE: The Anchoress has relevant comments:
And yesterday, Obama’s empty, aloof, wasteful ten-minute remarks — during which he swiveled his head from side to side and seemed unable to look into the camera and meet the “eyes of the people”, nattered on about “coming weeks” and committees and November, and was unable or unwilling to break from his standard, overused script — the president proved that a vote of “no confidence” is just. The sharp-dressed politico who Hillary Clinton once derided as receiving too much glory because “he gave a good speech, once,” exposed himself as an aching void of a man, bereft of ideas or energy; a lonely planet, spinning as it fades away.
I say this as someone who opposed his presidency — for precisely the weaknesses that some of his supporters are finally admitting have always existed — but who wants the best for her country, and frankly for The American President. I am concerned about Obama. The guy I saw yesterday seemed barely in control of himself — he seemed angry, frustrated and terribly frightened — like a lightweight who had been thrown into a heavy-weight competition and knew he’d survived this long on luck and kindness, and was anticipating the bell which, this time, would force him to either fully engage or get knocked out.
Hence the deepening of his bunker mentality. The longer he can stay in the corner, huddled with his team, the longer he puts off facing that bell.
Well, the bell is striking. He’s going to have to either pull up his trucks and engage, or we all go down for the count. Forfeiting is not the option of champions.
Read it all.
