Legendarily, King Midas converted all that he touched to Gold.
Our self styled Emperor Barry the First of the 57 United States has a unique touch as well. His is powerful in its aroma, and causes plants to grow.
Is Obama Smart?
A case study in stupid is as stupid does.
By Bret Stephens | Opinion Journal of The Wall Street Journal
…
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.
I don’t think the problem is a lack of mental gifts per se. It’s not that Obama is stupid (though it’s likely his gifts are entirely within the normal band), it’s that he’s ignorant and arrogant, which combination results in the anti-Midas touch.
Then there is Mr. Obama as political tactician. He makes predictions that prove false. He makes promises he cannot honor. He raises expectations he cannot meet. He reneges on commitments made in private. He surrenders positions staked in public. He is absent from issues in which he has a duty to be involved. He is overbearing when he ought to be absent. At the height of the financial panic of 1907, Teddy Roosevelt, who had done much to bring the panic about by inveighing against big business, at least had the good sense to stick to his bear hunt and let J.P. Morgan sort things out. Not so this president, who puts a new twist on an old put-down: Every time he opens his mouth, he subtracts from the sum total of financial capital.
This last may have made a temporary penetration through the cloak of Obama’s hubris, as he has cancelled his public appearances for today, and the markets seem to have taken that as a good sign. The less he touches, the less turns to shit.
