esrosedotblog

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS DEREK?

I had looked forward to reading this New Yorker piece

The Conciliator
Where is Barack Obama coming from?

I tried and tried to divine the answer to the title question and ended up rather confused.

Is he coming from being religious? Multi-racial? Lawyerly? An adult child of alcoholism?

Many presidents come from these and other places. Well, all except the multi-racial as far as we know.

The writer comes up with the idea of Obama as a conciliator.

Certainly some kind of religious bent would lead to that.

Working both sides of a racial divide would do it too.

Lawyers conciliate (sometimes).

And conciliation is one of the primary chores of a child in an alcoholic home.

But do we need a POTUS who is a conciliator? Who has no experience managing anything?

I have never thought that being a Senator prepares anyone for anything but being a Senator.

Now that is a role that could use some conciliation.

He is a slippery cuss.

One of the problems is that we do not have any history on him.

Two biographical books is not a history. It is auto-bio-history.

There is no real legislative record. No administrative experience that we can look at. Indeed very little political track record.

And the position does call for a skilled politician.

All in all, he remains a puzzle.

And not a puzzle with many pieces.

The ambition shines through. So does the rhetorical ability.

I always get a little itchy when candidates bring out the icons like Lincoln.

He surely hopes to be percieved as Lincolesque.

I percieve him as a bit phony. I don't like the open shirt collar thing. A lot of them are doing it now. He has it down pat. It just doesn't ring true.

I am nitpicking.

I don't know. He is ahead in the polls, goddammit. And we don't know who he is.

We are as bad off as the GOoPers.

Labels: obama, politics