Es Obama inteligente?
Un caso de estudio en stupid is as stupid does
El avion era grande, moderno, y considerado uno de lso mas seguros en el mundo. Pero esa noche habia una tormenta, la turbulencia era extrema y los indicadores dela velocidad del viento no estaban funcionando muy bien. Peor los pilotos no eran muy competentes. Cundio el panico, perdio velocidad en lugar de aumentarla. Todo acabo en minutos.
Esto es lo que esta pasando con la presidencia de Obama.
Cuando hablamos de pilotear, Obama parece que s el equivalente a Charles Lindbergh, Chuck Yeager y en "Fly Me to the Moon" mas o menos como - Nat King Cole se convirtio en uno: "Yo creo que lo que yo escribo es mejor que los que escriben mis escritores, "Se mas de las politicas en cualquier caso que muchos de mis directores politicos y son un mejor directo politico que mi director politico"
Igual que Obama diciendo en el 2004. So soy LeBron, baby, yo puedo jugar a este nivel, tengo juego.
Por supuesto, es tentador no ser modesto, cuando tus admiradores son tan poco modesto como tu. Cuantas veces he escuchado a Obama decir que el es el presidenten pas inteligente de la historia. Aun cuando el es criticado, sus fracasos son usualmente causados por su supuesta brillantez. Los liberales dicen que el es cerebral, muy cerebral para la politica de Washington; conservadores dicen que todo esto esta hecho a proposito para convertir al pais en una combinacion de Finlandia, Cuba y Saudi Arabia.
Yo no creo eso, yo creo que el presidente no es muy inteligente.
Socrates ensenio que la inteligencia empezaba con el reconocimiento de lo poco que sabiamos. Obama intenta decirnos de manera perpetua lo mucho que el sabe. Aristoteles escribio que el tipo de inteligencia que mas se necesita en la politica es la prudencia, lo cual require experiencia. Obama vino sin experiencia. Plutarch advirio que el ser arrogante crea un obstaculo y pestilencia a las grandes casas y asuntos. Hoy dia la Casa Blanca, mas que nunca en su memoria, esta llena de arrogantes y creidos.
El Obama politico, hace predicciones que no se cumplen, hace promesas que no cumple, aumenta las expectativas que nunca se cumplen. Reniega de sus obligaciones en privado. Rinde posiciones en publico. Esta ausente de los asuntos que son los mas importantes de una presidencia. Esta demasiado metido en asuntos donde deberia estar ausente. En la cumbre del panico financiero en 1907 Teddy Roosevelt por lo menos tuvo el buen sentido comun de dejar a JP Morgan que se haga cargo de la crisis. No este presidente, cada vez que abre la boca el sustrae de la suma total del capital financiero.
Y esta su habito de nunca enmendar errores. Cuando Bill Clinton fue derrotado en el seguro de salud, el se fue al centro, paso la reforma de beneficencia. Cuando la guerra en Iraq parecia estar perdida, G. W. Bush despidio a Don Rumsfeld y ordeno mas tropas.
Obama en contraste, parece creer que esta inmune al error. Quizas esa sea la explicacion por mantener a Geithner. Tambien explica su insulto y habito al sugerir no importa que se hable del seguro de salud, de la paz en el Medio Oriente, o el cambio en el que podemos creer que la culpa siempre la tienen los que no escuchan atentamente a lo que el dice. No es eso. En politica, el fracasar e comunicar el mensaje es siempre el error del comunicador.
Los medios se pasaron casi toda la decada pasada criticando la manera de hablar de Bush, la ignorancia de Sarah Palin y la estupidez de Rick Perry. Nada es mas tipico de esas mentes que atacar las deficiencias intelectuales de los que ellos considerar menos inteligentes y considerablemente mas exitosos.
Pero en realidad, ser inteligente es entender que la confianza en si mismo no es suficiente para probar la genuina inteligencia. Estupidos hacen estupideces, dijo el gran filosofo Forrest Gump. La presidencia de Obama es un caso de estudio de un estupido que hace estupideces.
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bstephens@wsj.com Is Obama Smart? A case study in stupid is as stupid does.
By BRET STEPHENS
The aircraft was large, modern and considered among the world's safest. But that night it was flying straight into a huge thunderstorm. Turbulence was extreme, and airspeed indicators may not have been functioning properly. Worse, the pilots were incompetent. As the plane threatened to stall they panicked by pointing the nose up, losing speed when they ought to have done the opposite. It was all over in minutes.
Was this the fate of Flight 447, the Air France jet that plunged mysteriously into the Atlantic a couple of years ago? Could be. What I'm talking about here is the Obama presidency.
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.
Socrates taught that wisdom begins in the recognition of how little we know. Mr. Obama is perpetually intent on telling us how much he knows. Aristotle wrote that the type of intelligence most needed in politics is prudence, which in turn requires experience. Mr. Obama came to office with no experience. Plutarch warned that flattery "makes itself an obstacle and pestilence to great houses and great affairs." Today's White House, more so than any in memory, is stuffed with flatterers.
Much is made of the president's rhetorical gifts. This is the sort of thing that can be credited only by people who think that a command of English syntax is a mark of great intellectual distinction. Can anyone recall a memorable phrase from one of Mr. Obama's big speeches that didn't amount to cliché? As for the small speeches, such as the one we were kept waiting 50 minutes for yesterday, we get Triple-A bromides about America remaining a "Triple-A country." Which, when it comes to long-term sovereign debt, is precisely what we no longer are under Mr. Obama.
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.
Then there's his habit of never trimming his sails, much less tacking to the prevailing wind. When Bill Clinton got hammered on health care, he reverted to centrist course and passed welfare reform. When it looked like the Iraq war was going to be lost, George Bush fired Don Rumsfeld and ordered the surge.
Mr. Obama, by contrast, appears to consider himself immune from error. Perhaps this explains why he has now doubled down on Heckuva Job Geithner. It also explains his insulting and politically inept habit of suggesting—whether the issue is health care, or Arab-Israeli peace, or change we can believe in at some point in God's good time—that the fault always lies in the failure of his audiences to listen attentively. It doesn't. In politics, a failure of communication is always the fault of the communicator.
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.
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