Journal pudge's Journal: Obama R Smrt 3
People keep telling me Obama is highly intelligent. What is this based on? I've seen no evidence he is as smart as I am, and I don't think of myself as having a particularly notable intellect.
He's no dummy, sure. But I've never seen him give specifics about an issue he hasn't carefully studied his talking points for; when he speaks impromptu he is often unimpressive; he has not even demonstrated a terribly deep understanding of the Constitution, for someone who supposedly taught it in law school.
Not that you have to be a genius to be President. Kerry and Bush are both moderately intelligent, but not geniuses. Gore and Bush Sr. and Clinton were a bit higher up the intellect chain, as were Carter and Nixon. Reagan was no genius, but he was very bright: capable of distilling lots of information and understanding big pictures, even if he wasn't an expert on the details. I think maybe Obama is like that, though perhaps not quite as astute.
McCain is no genius either, but he is not trying to use his supposedly lofty intellect as a qualification for President. Even still, I cannot think of a single issue where Obama is actually more intelligent than McCain.
And no, simply disagreeing with someone does not count, nor do silly errors like "57 states" and "Sunni/Shia" conflation. I am talking about demonstrating a deeper understanding of the issues involved. And I don't see that from Obama. I see him emoting a lot more, but that doesn't count either.
Maybe Obama is brilliant and I just haven't seen it. The thing is, I pretty sure most other people haven't seen it, either.
Cross-posted on <pudge/*>.
Read his books, then. (Score:1)
I formed most of my ideas about Obama by reading his books, which were given to me by a 70 year old Church Lady.
His first book is excellent, in my opinion, and I believe it clearly reveals what drives the man. It was written before he had any real expectations of achieving high office; he needed to pay off his student loans and had the ability to write.
His second book, the execrably titled "Audacity of Hope" lays out his political positions and the viewpoints that he would like us to associate with his pub
Re: (Score:2)
His first book is excellent, in my opinion, and I believe it clearly reveals what drives the man.
I do not care what drives the man, I care about evidence of notable intellect.
he needed to pay off his student loans and had the ability to write.
Ability to write is not evidence of notable intellect (as Slashdot proves!).
His second book, the execrably titled "Audacity of Hope" lays out his political positions and the viewpoints that he would like us to associate with his public image.
Does it demonstrate a notable intellect? If so, how?
As you can imagine, it's very different, and the major theme is unifying the country so that we can progress past the kind of idiotic self-destructiveness that went on in Tennessee on Sunday.
Yes, I understand that, and was drawn to Obama initially because of it. Unfortunately, Obama doesn't practice what he preaches. He has been extremely divisive in this campaign. I say this as a "Bitter Clinger," but that's only the tip of the iceberg. He talks up bipartisanship, but he has no history
Re: (Score:1)
Or did you miss the section where Obama writes about being angry (and accusing his white teammates of racism) when they wanted to leave a "black" party after about an hour or so - after playing in a basketball tournament?
Also, What do you think of his admission of cocaine use?