Obamsplaining

It’s faded, but for a while there it was a fad among the wits and wags in the national press corps to compare the President to Mr Spock. I don’t know who started this. I blame Maureen Dowd but I can’t remember if it was her idea originally, or if she just liked it so much she did with it what she does with all her favorite witticisms and metaphors, beat it to death, or if I just like attributing all the flaws and follies of the press corps to her because she deserves it. Whatever and whoever, what was meant by it was that the President was cold, emotionless, unfeeling, and somehow not quite human, a slander on Spock as well as on Obama. But there is a way in which the President really is like Mr Spock.

He seems to expect logic to carry every argument and he’s baffled and annoyed when it turns out it doesn’t and he’s forced to re-explain things he believes he’s already made perfectly clear in more, well, human terms.

He’ll do it, and when he does, he does it well, but he doesn’t look like he enjoys it and he’s always a step or two behind in getting to the podium or in front of the cameras, so that even his most loyal supporters are often heard wondering afterwards, “Why couldn’t he have said that earlier?”

I think in his mind, he did, we just weren’t following the logic.

So here we are again with the President having to explain and sell the ACA …again.

Just once, I’d like it if the Administration got out in front and made the President’s case before the Republicans made their case and their toadies in the media started echoing it as the conventional wisdom.

Or maybe they could call on Bill Clinton, again. Make him the official Obamsplainer. He loves to explain things. And he’s brilliant at it.

Of course, back in his day, the press corps hated him for that.

Darn know-it-all. Who did he think he was that made him think he was so much smarter than us? The President?

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Fortunately for the President, there are good people willing to explain things for him.  Here’s Hank Aaron explaining the insurance cancellations.

Hat tip: Brad DeLong.

Comments

[paintedjaguar]

The thing about logic is, your conclusions are completely a function of your initial assumptions and boundaries. That's where the real meat is. Besides, Obama's never been about making honest arguments anyway -- the Obama machine may be even more reliant on marketing and PR flackery than Bush's gang was. Just compare his campaign promises (or even his current populist rhetoric) with his actual policies.

Of course Obama is still trying to sell us the Insurance Profits Protection & Unaffordable Care Act, they're pushing a defective product. Defective by design, but quite successful in heading off real reform.

Oh, and if Bill Clinton feels like explaining something, maybe he could tell us why the effects of NAFTA-GATT and other DLC/Republican bright ideas were exactly what his critics predicted rather than what he kept promising. He might be lucky to be remembered for Monica rather than for doing so much to lock in our current status quo.