So much has already been made of President Obama’s lack of substance. It has been suggested by conservative writers that he is everything from an empty suit to an emperor with no clothes. Perhaps he is just a man who has been told his entire life that he was special without ever being made to prove it. If the latter is true, the conspicuous lack of detail in his agenda stems from necessity; he carefully avoids scrutiny, like the Wizard of Oz hiding behind the curtain. But the problems facing the United States are more substantial than simply finding a way back home to Kansas; solving them requires more than pyrotechnics and smooth baritone oratory.
The common thread between President Obama and the causes of the American predicament is a shortage of new ideas; thus we are forced to resolve a dilemma. Despite his liberal use of the word "change," the itinerary for Obama’s plan to change America was never unfolded for our inspection and approval and yet, voters pulled the lever. How can we expect a majority of Americans to participate in the process of innovating when the bulk of us voted for change by proxy and without form? How is the nation expected to redefine its place in the world when it has chosen a leader who does not have the will to define himself?
For his part, Obama may be remembered as the politician who is to American politics what Andy Warhol was to American culture — a borrower of iconic ideas and imagery, but in truth, a creator of nothing truly original; a manufacturer only of symbols. He weaves elements of Kennedy, Reagan and both Roosevelts’ characters into the fabric of his persona, with the effect of buying unearned merit badges and stitching them onto his Boy Scout sash. The success of his campaign, with its emphasis on an unspecific black box of genius plans, shows just how restless the electorate has become. Were Obama to have run against a candidate with even a modest amount of inspiration, one who could communicate a clear vision for the future, we would have had to wait at least four more years to experience the catharsis of swearing in our first African-American president.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Clavos
Obama was helped enormously in his campaign by the frenzy of adulation propagated by the media.
Now that he is residing at 1600 Pennsylvania, we can only hope that (with apologies to Gertrude Stein) there is some there, there.
2 - Glenn Contrarian
Bryan -
In last month's Popular Science was a comment by the editor. He noted that he was listening to a conversation where Obama brought up the reworking of our national power grid...which, according to the editor, is one of the most important things we can do for our country's infrastructure - the one we presently have is very inefficient. He also noted that Obama's the only political candidate of any party that has said such a thing, and summarized his editorial by effectively saying that it will be nice to have a president who has a clue about science and innovation.
Which sorta obviates the error of the theme of your article.
Apparently you would have preferred to have a president who didn't use the internet and didn't care to learn how to use it...and a vice president who didn't know that Africa was a continent, and didn't know what countries are in North America.
3 - zingzing
"For his part, Obama may be remembered as the politician who is to American politics what Andy Warhol was to American culture â€" a borrower of iconic ideas and imagery, but in truth, a creator of nothing truly original; a manufacturer only of symbols."
ahh, but warhol was more than that. he manipulated common images to comment on them and to expand their meanings. he also had his fingers in multiple cultural pies--film, music, visual art, the social scene, fashion, journalism--and manipulated them all, becoming the pop puppet master of his time. culture bent its ear to his mouth whenever he so desired, and he drove it to and from wherever he wanted to.
he did create something original: himself, and in controlling everything else to the degree that he did, he created a certain section of american culture. it's the symbols that were unoriginal. what he did with them was totally original.
so you've got it all backwards. obama may be manipulating the images of older politicians, but he's doing so in, as you must admit, a masterful way. maybe he does embody all those different philosophies and ideas. maybe he is all good things to all people. isn't that what a politician is supposed to be/do?
we've yet to see what he really will become. that's why we have the traditional 100 day honeymoon. he's already reversing a couple of different bush-era mistakes. we'll see what else he has up his sleeve.
as for technology and innovation, i hope he does push the idea of american ingenuity. i hope he gives money to science and other forms of exploration. i hope by this time next year, we're funding massive amounts of stem cell research. i hope we figure out a way to truly compete with chinese manufacturing.
he certainly doesn't need to just step back and watch america work. he needs to push it forward. that's what presidents do.
4 - Bryan Myrick
Glenn,
Shortly after taking office in 2001, President Bush commissioned the Vice President to study the state of the nation's energy system. The report that was produced called for (among other things) a need to modernize the nation's energy grid. This is a matter of public record.
Even editors of highly circulated magazines can get their facts wrong when blinded by the President Obama's "genius."
Your comment about my desire for a tech-dumb president is an odd swipe that doesn't really have anything to do with my piece, but I would challenge you to subject Joe Biden to a pop quiz on modern technology. He might do well on a geoggraphy test. His years in the Senate he has been on enough taxpayer-funded junkets to fill his world map with little red pins.
5 - Baronius
Good article. Very interesting Warhol comparison. Like Clavos, I hope for the best. The fact that Obama phoned it in doesn't mean that he has no substance, only that the election was easily winnable.
Bryan, what do you think is the cause of this lack of creativity? I suspect the decline in American education, or the equating of education with ability.
6 - zingzing
bryan: "Shortly after taking office in 2001, President Bush commissioned the Vice President to study the state of the nation's energy system."
and then they did nothing about it? ahh, the bush administration... such is life. twice.
7 - Bryan Myrick
Baronius,
I am going to leave the causes of the brain drain to another piece. I don't think I could hold readers attention through a 2,500-word article. I think it has to be examined to what degree our education system is causal. In many ways, I think societies that value creativity quite simply make a choice to embrace it in all forms.
8 - Cindy D
What "free market"?
9 - Glenn Contrarian
zing - The Bush administration certainly DID do something about it - Cheney held ONE meeting with energy conservationists...and then held something like FORTY meetings with Big Oil execs - and declared all the transcripts of those meetings 'classified'.
Bryan - Bush commissioned the report...but he did NOT determine its content. He had little to do with the compilation of the report, and I strongly doubt he really followed up on any constructive measures to conserve energy...unless there was a suggestion that said, "Drill, baby, drill!" Maybe he did follow up on some suggestions for energy conservation...I haven't seen any proof of such, but of course I could be wrong.
And I see the old conservative presumption - "If an editor said something nice about Obama, well, you know how even editors get things wrong sometimes." WHO is more conversant with science both domestically and internationally - you? Or the editor? WHO has a greater stake in having a scientifically-conversant president - you? Or the editor?
I do so wish that y'all would start checking facts before making your assumptions....
10 - Cindy D
Ayn Rand, she was almost as smart as L.Ron Hubbard, wasn't she?
11 - El Bicho
Aside from Warhol, you appear to miss the mark on television as well. Television offers plenty of creative shows like Lost, 24, The Office, and if you look at cable, the options are much more plentiful. If all you can find is reality and CSI, you aren't really looking. You make some good points, but give the reader pause due to some inaccurate opinions.
12 - Clavos
From Merriam-Webster Online:
Main Entry:
ob·vi·ate
Function:
transitive verb
Inflected Form(s):
ob·vi·at·ed; ob·vi·at·ing
Etymology:
Late Latin obviatus, past participle of obviare to meet, withstand, from Latin obviam
Date:
1598
: to anticipate and prevent (as a situation) or make unnecessary (as an action)
13 - Bryan Myrick
Glenn,
Maybe you missed it, but my piece wasn't about energy policy and I never misrepresented any facts. Your comment stated that my premise was flawed because an editor stated, in your words, "He also noted that Obama's the only political candidate of any party that has said such a thing" [alluding to the need for overhauling the power grid]. The editor's statement is wrong. The reports findings were converted into policy directives that never went anywhere because the energy industry itself was resistant to making investments to upgrade their proprietary networks and when the Democrats took over control of Congress all attempts to clear regulatory hurdles were stiff-armed.
I'm not questioning the editor's science or challenging the notion that the grid needs to be improved. You're way off base with your comments. The thrust of your point was to bring up one small item, and use it to demonstrate that a man saw some evidence of creative thinking in Obama because he talked about the need to fix the grid. The editor was wrong in saying that Obama was the only one to talk about the need for it.
From a speech delivered by President Bush on June 15, 2005 to the 16th Annual Energy Effiency Forum:
14 - Bryan Myrick
El Bicho,
Opinions, by definition, are neither acccurate or inaccurate.
My opinion is that television, while an efficient means of communicating messages, represents a vapid, valueless wasteland that provides an illusion of societal involvement to millions of people in the United States. That doesn't mean that everything on television is unoriginal, and I didn't argue that was the case. It just means that an apple tree growing in the desert does not an orchard make.
15 - Cindy D
That would be "neither/nor".
16 - Cindy D
(hopes Clav isn't in some sort of grammar union)
17 - Bryan Myrick
You have to be kidding.
18 - Cindy D
I could be. What is the "free market"?
19 - Cindy D
I wasn't kidding about that.
20 - Bryan Myrick
Cindy D,
You're going to have to be more specific. Are asking the question in a sarcastic rhetorical tone? Or do you really not know what is meant when people refer to the free market?
21 - Cindy D
Bryan,
I was asking what you mean when you say "free market" in your article.
22 - Mark Eden
I left my free market with my ruby slippers.
23 - Glenn Contrarian
Clavos - thank you. I really do appreciate the correction. (note to self - learn English!)
Bryan - I think I can safely say that was written for Bush by his energy secretary...and I notice that the FIRST time the second-generation power grid came up was back in 2001. Has ANY progress been made on it? Perhaps there has been, but the comments of the Popular Science editor would make it seem that such is not the case.
So if there's been NO progress made since they knew about it back in '01...then someone was talking the talk (at least to your satisfaction), but they were not walking the walk.
Sorta like - "bin Laden, dead or alive"
and - "I'll fire anybody in my administration who leaked info about Valerie Plame"
Oh, and "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended" (under the banner 'Mission Accomplished' (on MY ship, dammit!)).
But I could be wrong about Bush - I might just be misunderestimating him....
P.S. Next time y'all nominate a Republican for president, will you please, PLEASE make sure it's someone who has a clue?
24 - Bryan Myrick
The free market is a term commonly used to describe an economic system in goods, services capital and labor are freely exchanged, meaning business and consumers make their own decisions about how to conduct commerce, not a central authority as would exist in a socialist or communist system. Prices are determined by forces of supply and demand.
Does that help?
25 - Bryan Myrick
Glenn,
My brother was on the Lincoln on that cruise as well, caught the third wire with his Viking every day, even when the dust storms were blowing out into the Gulf and taking visibility down to almost nil. His sqaudron commander had the stick in the Viking that President Bush flew in on (yes, the reports of him actually taking the stick are true) and neither him nor my brother took away the same animosity about the war effort that you seem to have. So I guess these things aren't universal; they're just opinion.
You're losing significant ground in fencing with me on these small points, and you keep shifting to one side or another whenever I respond. I am just going to leave it this way...
If President Obama's term in office will be judged by his supporters only in terms of whether he does better than President Bush (by your estimation), and you feel that Bush was an abject failure, aren't you setting the bar a little low?