President Obama is frequently described as
highly intelligent. His advisor Valerie Jarrett has described this as a
"burden." She announced at the John F. Kennedy School of Government
that "[p]art of the burden of being so bright is that he sees his error
immediately." Advisor David Axelrod claimed, "He does have an
incisive mind. This is someone who in law school worked with [Harvard
professor] Larry Tribe on a paper on the legal implications of Einstein's
theory of relativity." The president obviously shares this opinion, having
told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid early in his Senate career, "Harry,
I have a gift."
The "progressive" media can be
counted on to regurgitate this mantra. They have, in fact, surpassed it, and
they have often entered the realm of idolatry or even adolescent infatuation.
Chris Matthews is perhaps the leading example of this. Following one the
president's press conferences, Matthews claimed that "[t]he president
showed his analytical mind. He was at his best intellectually. I thought it was
a great example of how his mind works. What a mind he has, and I love his
ability to do it on television. I love to think with him." Matthews is
famous for the frequent "thrill" that goes up his leg. He apparently
also suffers from gender confusion. Watching Obama board a helicopter, Matthews
gushed, "We agree, we girls agree. I don't mind saying that. I'm excited.
I'm thrilled." Following Obama's speech at the Democratic National
Convention, reports on the president became so fawning that even Bill Maher, no
right-winger, commented "the coverage ... that I was watching from MSNBC,
I mean these guys were ready to have sex with him."
The commentators at MSNBC were not alone.
Judith Warner, who writes for the New York Times, claimed that many women are
dreaming of having sex with the new president. How did she know? Well, from
personal experience. She shared her fantasy of finding President Obama in her
shower. Was this news "fit to print"?
Another New York Times columnist, David Brooks,
shared the experience of his first encounter with the President: "I
remember distinctly an image of -- we were sitting on his couches, and I was
looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pant," Brooks reported,
"and I'm thinking, a) he's going to be president and b) he'll be a very
good president." Evan Thomas, Newsweek editor, provided this analysis:
"I mean, in a way Obama's standing above the country, above -- above the
world...he's sort of God." Historian Michael Beschloss, who might be
considered an expert on American presidents, claimed that the current
president's IQ is "off the charts." When pressed to reveal what he
thought the President's IQ was, Beschloss could only say, "he's probably
the smartest guy ever to become president." Even many of Obama's critics
have bought into the intelligence hype. FOX news contributor Fred Barnes of the
Weekly Standard claimed that "for all his brainpower," he is a
"slow learner."
This adulation may cause a serious problem for
supporters of the president. Joe Scarborough pointed this out on his MSNBC
program: "I tell you my biggest fear for Barack Obama, he has been
sainted. He is Saint Barack. The same mainstream media that tried so
desperately to get him elected has engaged in hyperbole, engaged in
exaggeration. They have deified this man. ... They have set up such unrealistic
expectations that no politician could meet those expectations."
Scarborough might blame the media for this hyperbole, but they are only willing
accomplices. The president himself has set the bar rather high. On June 3,
2008, he announced that future generations would look back on his primary
victory as "the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our
planet began to heal."
It would be unfair to elaborate on all of the
president's gaffes in order to bolster the argument that he is not as
intelligent as his supporters claim. It was unfair of the progressive media to
pillory Vice President Dan Quayle for misspelling "potatoe." It was
unfair to highlight every instance of Ronald Reagan and George Bush
misspeaking. But is it professional for the media to edit a president's remarks
in order to correct them? President Obama, speaking of the Somali pirates,
stated, "And I want to be very clear that we are resolved to halt the rise
of privacy in that region." This was obviously a mistake. However, the
major media reported that he vowed to "halt the rise of piracy" off
the coast of Africa.
Can an individual who is obviously infatuated
with a public figure provide an objective analysis of that figure's policies?
It seems unlikely.
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