Obama "The Thinker"

Andrew Ferguson on Obama and his bestseller, via RCP:

The book is filled with passages that follow the same pattern: belaboring the obvious on the assumption that no one has ever had dared speak such bromides before, and then concluding the discussion with a rear-guard blast at those cynical politicians who ``refuse to make the tough choices.''

Rather than make his own tough choices, the 45-year-old Democrat prefers to float on a high level of abstraction. This, indeed, is how he is able to appeal to all segments of his party as well as large numbers of independents and even many conservatives and Republicans.

One of my political friends said a few months ago Obama reminded her of Ross Perot. I had to think about that for a while. When I got beyond the ears I could see what she meant about the third way appeal. At least Perot had the sense to say the devil was in the details, even though he didn't provide them either.

It's a strange mix, but I've thought for a while that Obama is both naive and slick. He's grown up cushioned in a liberal milieu and doesn't realize it. It's like he's never really had his ideas challenged, and has never chosen to take on real governing challenges that would test them. Presumably he doesn't want to risk his political future by taking real risks, and when he's had a choice to back a reformer locally he's chosen the safe route. But what passes for business as usual in Chicago may look slick to the rest of the country. And some of us in Illinois have noticed the hypocrisy of Obama's chiding Africans about corruption while failing the smell test here.

So I would say that adds up to Obama being a pedestrian candidate whose race and personality lift him above the pack, but for all his intelligence he's a conventional wisdom liberal essentially stuck in an ivory tower.

He wants to start putting his ideas to the test for the first time as president. He wants us to elect him to the toughest job in the world as a guy who has trouble making tough choices. At the toughest time our country has faced in a generation.

And it may come as news to Obama, but much of the country has seen these liberal ideas in action and they have failed miserably---30 years ago.

So I think the country would be better off if in the end Obama stayed in the Senate, along with his fellow blowhard Dems, and shine by comparison with them as "The Thinker".

UPDATE: And here's Tom Bevan, RCP blog, on Obama, going for the glory in the Senate on the war.

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