Posted on 12/03/2013 5:21:29 PM PST by Vince Ferrer
From what I have seen the administration is full of young people who’ve seen the movie but not read the book. They act bright, they know the reference, they’re credentialed. But they’ve only seen the movie about, say, the Cuban missile crisis, and then they get into a foreign-policy question and they’re seeing movies in their heads. They haven’t read the histories, the texts, which carry more information, more texture, data and subtlety, and different points of view. They’ve only seen the movie—the Cubans had the missiles and Jack said “Not another war” and Bobby said “Pearl Harbor in reverse” and dreadful old Curtis LeMay chomped his cigar and said “We can fry a million of ‘em by this afternoon, Mr. President.” Grrr, grrr, good guys beat bad guys.
It’s as if history isn’t real to them. They run around tweeting, all of them, even those in substantial positions. “Darfur government inadequate. Genocide unacceptable.” They share their feelings – that happens to be one of the things they seem to think is real, what they feel. “Unjust treatment of women—scourge that hurts my heart.” This is the dialogue to the movies in their heads.
And when you apply this to the ObamaCare debacle, suddenly it seems to make sense. The White House is so unformed and chaotic that they probably didn’t ignore the problem, they probably held a million meetings on it. People probably said things like, “We’re experiencing some technological challenges but we’re sure we’ll be up by October,” and other people said, “Yes, it’s important we launch strong,” and others said, “The Republicans will have a field day if we’re not.” And then everyone went to their next meeting. And no one did anything. [...]
Because the doing isn’t that important, the talking is.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
They all read "Rules for Radicals".
Noonan is dead to me.
Low information pundit
No @#%# Peggy, how does she make the big bucks writing this stuff now and we have known about this forever!!!!
I liked her description of the airheads in meetings at the White House. It rings true. I attended many such meetings in my time in government.
Peggy may be personal non-grata here, but this is some good stuff, well worth the extended read.
No one in the WH fits that description better than 0bungles hisself. Maximum Affirmative Action in inaction.
They run around tweeting, all of them, even those in substantial positions. “Darfur government inadequate. Genocide unacceptable.” They share their feelings –
Krauthammer nailed 0bama on that. The presidency of rhetoric. 0bungles actually thinks he can alter reality with rhetoric.
Late to the party, but a good read.
Peggy channels Rush. BTW Peggy, the movie they all saw was probably Tommy Boy...
Can’t stand elitist snobs like Piggy Noonan, but I’ll put up with her long enough to read the article if it scores some bulls-eyes on these idiots in the white house.
Just like you, Peggy.
That woman is a simpering snob who believes herself better than any true conservative, especially any TEA Party admirer!
I'll never give her two seconds of my time but thanks anyway.
Everyone understands in their own rough way that ObamaCare is a big mess. And that it’s not the website, it’s the law itself.
Which we've been saying on FR for months now. If your model is a Mongolian cluster-folk dance, your program is going to look like a Mongolian cluster-folk dance. Fix the model.
But back to the president, and his problem with being known as intelligent—Columbia, Harvard Law, lecturer on constitutional issues at the University of Chicago Law School.
These aren't signs of intelligence, they're institutions, and a nose-picking illiterate is no less a nose-picking illiterate just because he is granted a pass by the admissions committee. 0bama has shown precisely no signs of any sort of credible intellectual life beyond that of a pretentious junior high school student.
Say something and it magically exists as something said, and if it’s been said and publicized it must be real. He never had to push a lever, see the machine not respond, puzzle it out and fix it.
Fact.
From what I have seen the administration is full of young people who’ve seen the movie but not read the book. They act bright, they know the reference, they’re credentialed. But they’ve only seen the movie about, say, the Cuban missile crisis, and then they get into a foreign-policy question and they’re seeing movies in their heads. They haven’t read the histories, the texts, which carry more information, more texture, data and subtlety, and different points of view.
Fact.
And off we go into another dissertation about Reagan - she was his speech writer, don't you know? In this case, though, I'll give Peggy the credit of personal observation. No, 0bama is no Reagan. He can keep a distorted interpretation of Reagan in his imagination and that's all he can do, and here I agree with Noonan's thesis: that's precisely what he and his administration have done with respect to all of the major facets of government they've managed to screw up: foreign policy, the budget process, electronic intelligence, and with such major issues as race relations, gun control, and an out-of-control promotion of gay politics on all fronts. They're the heroes of the movies in their heads on all of these issues and anything bad that happens with regard to them is the super-villains' fault, variously the Republicans, the Tea Party or any one of our international friends who have felt the back of this administration's collective hand.
If they thought he wasn’t very bright, they might give him some leeway on that question. But they think he’s really smart...So they think he knew...And deliberately misled.
On the contrary, he's proven himself to be the possessor of a political tin ear and quite stupid enough to lie blatantly about a program that was a disaster and for which there is no excuse for him not knowing how big a disaster. "Would I be stupid enough to lie about that?" he asked, and the answer is an observable and resounding "YES!" Of course he lied, it's in dozens of video clips. He just didn't think it would matter.
What is befuddling him is not the intrusion of reality - we should be so lucky - but the failure of his usual crew of skid-greasers and spinmeisters to turn it into a triumph. Not that they aren't still trying. But at some point even a low-information voter has to concede that they're putting Christmas ornaments on a clutch of stinkweed.
I’d observed previously that this President seems to operate by WISHING really hard for a reality - which can do a lot amongst sycophants, but rather less amongst outsiders, and nothing against the physical - and it appears Noonan has come to a very similar view.
” No, 0bama is no Reagan. He can keep a distorted interpretation of Reagan in his imagination and that’s all he can do, and here I agree with Noonan’s thesis: that’s precisely what he and his administration have done with respect to all of the major facets of government they’ve managed to screw up: foreign policy, the budget process, electronic intelligence, and with such major issues as race relations, gun control, and an out-of-control promotion of gay politics on all fronts. They’re the heroes of the movies in their heads on all of these issues and anything bad that happens with regard to them is the super-villains’ fault, variously the Republicans, the Tea Party or any one of our international friends who have felt the back of this administration’s collective hand.”
Excellent summation of the situation.
Unless you can’t Enron, I’ve never seen such “low information” Leadership on display before. I can almost hear him talking like Sgt. Schultz of Hogan’s Heroes....”I know NOTHINK!”
Human Events has an article that mentions that Obama still hasn’t tried to sign up - as promised - and the White House won’t say why.
For four years I have been told, by those who’ve worked in the administration and those who’ve visited it as volunteers or contractors, that the Obama White House isn’t organized. It’s just full of chatter. Meetings don’t begin on time, there’s no agenda, the list of those invited seems to expand and contract at somebody’s whim. There is a tendency to speak of how a problem will look and how its appearance should be handled, as opposed to what the problem is and should be done about it. People speak airily, without point. They scroll down, see a call that has to be returned, pop out and then in again.
This was also true for Clinton, Carter and Kennedy. Johnson's people were more focused, but Kennedy's meetings all ended up like college bull sessions, including that all-important meeting in 1961 that led to the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
Republicans seem to be more focused and better organized than Democrats in general.
This is actually a very good piece. It reminds me of the way Noonan used to write before she exposed herself as a Rino elitist.
Never too late to start getting it right, Peggy.
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