Posted on 11/20/2009 11:49:11 AM PST by SeekAndFind
A few weeks back, the new head of the National Endowment for the Arts, Rocco Landesman, said of Barack Obama, "This is the first president that actually writes his own books since Teddy Roosevelt and arguably the first to write them really well since Lincoln."
Landesman was not alone in his praise. This month's GQ has a faux-exhaustive article on "the untold story of the first man since Teddy Roosevelt to serve as author in chief."
In truth, however, if Teddy Roosevelt came back to life today, he would find that he would have much more in common with Sarah Palin than Barack Obama, both as a fellow adventurer and as a fellow writer.
I am not being ironic here: Palin's new memoir, "Going Rogue," is superior to the 1995 memoir that made Obama's reputation, "Dreams From My Father."
A clue as to why can be found in one choice moment from "Dreams."
At the time, 1988, community organizer Obama was contemplating law school, and he announced his potential choices as "Harvard, Yale, Stanford."
What makes any narrative compelling is when the protagonist confronts obstacles and overcomes them through force of will and character.
But when a mediocre student with LSAT scores too humble to reveal can casually limit his law school choices to Harvard, Stanford and Yale, the reader winces.
It is as if the good witch told Dorothy to click her heels together on day one and skip the damn yellow brick road. There is no drama here.
In fact, Obama's career has been greased by affirmative action and its bastard offspring – "diversity" – from prep school on.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
You’re absolutely right on all but the Arab part. I saw a pic of Barack senior. I’m not anthropologist, but the guy looked totally black to me. I’m suprised that people are so quick to believe Kenneth Lamb, considering that he provided no proof for his allegations.
TR? Ugh.
I hate hyperbole, it does history a disservice.
Taft was a chief justice fer cryin’ out loud. Kennedy wrote while england slept, and he was the first to be on about this whole ‘book’ rubbish. Truman was a professor. Eisenhower a general.
While it is true that many presidents came from humble backgrounds, TR is remarkable in his acheivements and publications. Had he not been president he would still have been very notable. Obama couldn’t hoist his quartermaster’s boots.
TR the trust buster. I thought you were pro-business?
As for why I'd still take Morgan over TR, the reason is TR was grandstanding for the rubes instead of just trying to change policy on the ground. Morgan said "if we have done anything wrong, just send your man round to see my man and we will fix it." A perfectly sensible business attitude toward the entire thing. But TR didn't want to fix it, he wanted to stop it, as he put it - and to be seen smacking a rich banker.
But TR built the navy. We are the great power we are today because men like Morgan built up US industry and men like TR used it to make us a great power. To me the republican party in the home of both things. If they ever truly decide they can't live with each other and prefer to smack each other around instead, then we won't be a great power anymore.
Teddy was a populist back when Americans still believed and liked America. He couldn’t get away with more than the myth of the robber barons. Americans were not fully indoctrinated back then.
Yet, he paved the way for Wilson and his cousin FDR. Their progressive movement gave us the mess we have today. Just the 16th Amend. has been destructive enough.
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