(Do we agonize? Maybe the law school class is some sort of theater of agonizing over whatever it is we're talking about as we do what we can't do — or we'd be lying/putting ourselves out of work — just tell the students what the answer is.)
But when I click on the link I get to this Ruth Marcus column which begins: "No doubt: Barack Obama has what it takes to be a terrific law student. It’s less clear those are the ingredients of a successful president." So... not even a law professor. A law student. I guess the WaPo couldn't bring itself to tease us with "The U.S. needs a leader, not a law student."
Marcus tells us that a "terrific law student" analyzes everything "in a dispassionate, balanced way" without necessarily really taking much of a position, which is what, she says, Obama did in his speech last week at the National Defense University. "Barack Obama... the Agonizer" is at least way better than "George W. Bush... the Decider," because Obama must be better than Bush, because Bush was terrible. Bush was so not terrific. Bush, Marcus tells us, "decided too precipitously and agonized too little." But Obama is just too thoughtful.
Marcus compares Obama's speech to "scribbling exam answers in a blue book." She calls him "ever the A-plus student," even as she looks ready to give him a C- as he calls Guantanamo "this legacy problem" that ought to be "resolved, consistent with our commitment to the rule of law."
This answer doesn’t even pass the law student test. How, exactly? That the solution is elusive does not justify this blatant dodge.The lawprof in me wants to say that if Obama's speech is the text to be understood, Marcus is the one who's not a terrific student. Her writing rests on the presumption that the words of his speech are the same words that run through his head as he thinks about the various problems and the words that he speaks in private. I say "her writing" because I'm not deluded enough to think that the words in the Washington Post are the words inside Marcus's head. She's arguing to him and his advisers that he needs to do something different and he's not getting away with the seemingly dispassionate, balanced analysis. She'd like to manipulate his mind.
And Obama, in his speech, was attempting to manipulate our minds. The performance in the Theater of Agonizing is for a purpose. We can try to discern his purpose — perhaps to get us to trust in his caretaking and to be patient while he continues to do the things that need to be done and not to look too closely at the incoherencies and possible illegalities. This is what leaders do.
Posts
89 comments:
When I hear "leader", words like "Duce" and "Fuhrer come to mind. It's always seemed to me we don't need a leader as much as we need a lot more people willing to get behind and push.
As for lawprof, well, we know he wasn't one of those.
"This is what leaders do."
No it isn't
She calls him "ever the A-plus student
Does she have his transcript to back up that claim? I didn't think so.
Hilarious column by Marcus.
The most hilarious aspect of this whole thing is that obama continued and expanded on just about every single Bush foreign policy/war policy that he and Marcus deride.
LOL
Except obama "agonizes" over it.
Whereas Bush just "Decider-ed" it.
But they end up in the same place.
Except obama is better.
'cuz shut up racist!
IIB: "Does she have his transcript to back up that claim? I didn't think so."
Actual accomplishments are not relevant when deciding what awards and accolades to be accorded "The One".
This is what leaders do.
Not sure why you give him credit on being a leader on anything. He is a politician from Chicago, no more, no less and add, diffident, circumspect, indecisive, and prone to skulduggery, all of which reduces to being incompetent at execution. What is the name of the branch of the govt he heads, again?
The "A student" part is the most amusing. Does anyone think that his grades would be concealed if that were true ?
Breaking: On pro-democrat hack MSN News-- important information for the low information voters:
Zack Galfinkkinkis shaves his trademark beard.
No word on Obama scandals. Journalism is dead in America.
He's losing the base, time to do a Ladies Home Journal piece with Michelle followed by the talk show circuit, maybe a college comedy tour.
How about a Spring Break lecture/rap/speech?
"The "A student" part is the most amusing. Does anyone think that his grades would be concealed if that were true ?"
My first draft of this post included: Cue to Obama-haters to say where is that transcript.
But Obama's transcripts might very well have good grades in them. Can't be giving the Black guy bad grades, after all.
What I think those transcripts more likely show is that he misrepresented himself as a foreign-born student, to get scholarships and such.
THAT'S why they cannot stand the light of day.
"Does she have his transcript to back up that claim? I didn't think so."
Kerry was Bush's intellectual superior back in 2004, but only up until Kerry's Yale transcripts were released.
This is typical early second term presidential hand-wringing. Enjoy it while you can. The economy is quickly improving; Democrats will do just fine in the mid-terms; and the country will be rid of wingbat Michelle Bachmann.
All is good.
Well, except for Obama haters.
Now go buy some toilet paper through the Amazon portal you Althouse Hillbillies!
"Where is that transcript?"
It's still a good question. It still has no answer. It ought to be re-asked.
You don't have to be an Obama-hater to wonder what grades he received. I, for one, don't think that he's all that smart, but in his favor, there doesn't seem to be a lot of intelligence in the profession of law professor.
He is definitely a leader. Millions follow him like he is a great one. That's not his fault. In fact he has done absolutely nothing to earn it, yet they follow and defend and believe. Barack Obama is not the problem. It's the empty-headed fan boys and girls, and worse yet the educated people who deliberate over the evidence and analyze the options, and still make the stupid decision. Who is really more lame, the well educated who come to the same dumb conclusion or the mindless who get there faster with less agonizing?
Indecisiveness has certainly been a common theme throughout his Presidency, especially in regards to foreign policy. To this day a lot of his acolytes claim that this was because he was "thoughtful", mulling over the various possibilities in a given situation. But, as I've said before, I believe this comes from him being a problem-pointer-outer not a problem-solver. He's an agitator, a community organizer. He can never been seen as governing, since that would mean he'd have to be held accountable.
My first draft of this post included: Cue to Obama-haters to say where is that transcript.
I assume you took that out when you realized that this would be the first thing said by any reasonable commenter.
Right?
A leader makes decisions. He's a decider. That's his job. Eisenhower looked at the weather reports and decided to launch the D-Day invasion with all the uncertainty involved. He didn't agonize for months. He looked, he considered, and he said "Go!". There was no guarantee. But he knew his job was to make the call. And he knew to take responsibility if it failed. The buck wouldn't stop with a couple of guys in the planning department.
They used to call Mario Cuomo the "Hamlet on the Hudson" which was pretty funny, I thought at the time.
As a certified true Obama hater, with regard to his transcripts, really, what difference at this point does it make?
Really.
He is what he is and anyone with open eyes can see it.
A con man.
Con man gonna con.
Liars gotta lie.
He is what he is.
which implicates a stereotype about law professors.
To me, a humble layman, implicates conveys suspicions of wrongdoing, somehow. Implies would not have the same nuance in that context.
I enjoy your implication of law professor stereotypes, however.
Michael K wrote:
The "A student" part is the most amusing. Does anyone think that his grades would be concealed if that were true ?
Obama graduated cum laude from Harvard Law.
I think that Obama possibly got grades at Columbia, and certainly at Occidental, that did not merit admission to Harvard Law.
I also think that, while at HL, he knew some very, very, good law students, he knew he wasn't in their league, and so he went into politics. The law firm he worked for in Chicago was basically an arm of the government.
Do we agonize?
Glenn Reynolds: agonize not so much
Althouse: agonize much
" Cue to Obama-haters to say where is that transcript."
It is a bit crazy to be curious about the actual facts when talking about Obama.
The important thing is that:
"Obama's gonna lead 'em.
We're gonna change it.
And rearrange it.
We're gonna change the world."
Barack Obama is not the problem. It's the empty-headed fan boys and girls, and worse yet the educated people who deliberate over the evidence and analyze the options, and still make the stupid decision.
LoInfo MoFos
Ann Althouse said...
The "A student" part is the most amusing. Does anyone think that his grades would be concealed if that were true ?
My first draft of this post included: Cue to Obama-haters to say where is that transcript.
OK, Mrs Obama Fan, can you tell us what his grades were?
Jay Retread said...
This is typical early second term presidential hand-wringing. Enjoy it while you can. The economy is quickly improving;
Of course, it is.
That's why conditions are building for another housing bubble to burst.
That's why all the smart money is getting out of the markets.
Democrats will do just fine in the mid-terms;
That's why a lot of old pros among the Demos are getting nervous about holding onto the Senate.
and the country will be rid of wingbat Michelle Bachmann.
No, she'll still be here. A lot of people still like her and listen to what she says.
She'll be just that much more effective.
All is good.
As Chip Diller told us.
For God's sake, get some talking points you can back up.
while he continues to do the things that need to be done and not to look too closely at the incoherencies and possible illegalities
Hmmph. That sounds like an insanity defense for a trial in the Senate under construction.
Wouldn't it be great if Obama's incoherencies simply became the MO?
"I declare the official language of America to be Swedish!"
Yep, I don't believe Obama's "I agonize over every tough decision I must make!" pose for one second. He's a bullshitter through and through, a liar since before he became President.
This is typical early second term presidential hand-wringing
Heh.
Obama is indecisive because he's afraid. Through his whole life the best things came to him when he just waited for them. He sees no advantage to taking extra responsibility for what will happen on it's own. His history has taught him that if it turns out good, he will get the credit, and if it doesn't he needs to be as clean as possible so others can absolve him. Can't say I blame him. That's what we do for him.
I, too, am a certifiable Obama hater.
Not because of his grades, whatever they may be.
Not because of his birth certificate, as real as it is.
Not because he's half black, half white. Really, who gives a shit what his racial composition is?
Not because he father was a Muslim. Really, who gives a shit what religion his father was?
Not because his mother was an alienated, ex-patriot leftist activist who saw fit to raise her son outside of the US.
Not because he was a "community organizer," who made money with a made up job teaching people to protest, sit in and shake down local governments and businesses for goodies they didn't earn.
Not because he was a bogus "law professor" when we all know he was not.
Not because he's a bogus "Christian" attending an anti-American, anti-Caucasian church teaching hatred and intolerance.
No, I hate Obama because his values are seriously out of alignment with the values that made America prosperous and powerful.
I hate Obama because his overweening hubris informed him he was qualified to run for president when, as any reasonable person can see, he was (and remains) the least experienced man to ever run and win the presidency.
Most of all, I hate Obama for inspiring all of his idiot voters (yes, Every. Single. Last. One. Of. Them) to vote for the most narcissistic, least qualified candidate ever with political values seriously out of alignment with America's foundational values, for the purpose of fostering greater dependency on public services and transfer payments.
I'd love it if one pof these over-educated, over-compensated shitheads just said what they meant instead of trying to trick everyone into eating their broccoli.
It's like "The Life of Brian" except that the Prez didn't speak up and say "I'm not a leader. You shouldn't follow me. I don't know where I'm going."
He demonizes his opponents, by name, and his acolytes behave accordingly. It's a horrible quality in a President.
All is good.
Except that we're still two million jobs short of where we were when the last Recession started, and over four million FULL time jobs short of where we were back then. We're still in the midst of the worst recover (by far) we've seen since the nation started keeping decent records, median wages continue to fall, and so forth and so on.
But other than that, great job!
That is interesting. Althouse is a world class hairsplitter, word deconstructer, and yes, I think she is also an agonizer. She almost never goes with her gut.
>> Do we agonize?
The hard truth, prof? Yeah, that's kind of your stock in trade.
Every law school class I attended (not elite but top-25) was about the tangent, the tortured hypothetical, or the logical extreme. However, any student who foolishly paid attention to the hours of blathering about theory and potentialities was solidy beaten down by the test at the end of the semester about boring old black-letter law.
The best advice I ever got was to ignore the pontificating and the warnings about how commercial outlines were "cheating yourself." Instead, learn to issue-spot the black-letter law issues and present them in a clear IRAC manner. That turned a bottom-half student after the first semester into an honors graduate.
I hate Obama because of Death Panels. I'm getting old, I don't want to die yet!
What Tim said.
Great quote from Insta this morning;
"Socialism never works as a policy, but thanks to human traits of envy and gullibility, it’s often successful as a con."
>> My first draft of this post included: Cue to Obama-haters to say where is that transcript.
Seriously, prof, where is ANYTHING? He was on law review, but didn't write anything. He has never litigated anything, so I can't read his professional work. And no, we don't know how well he did in school, so why grant him any degree of acclaim? Anyone else has to earn it, but there's no evidence that this guy ever did his homework.
When he was in the US Senate, the subcommittee he chaired never met, either.
This guy runs nothing but his mouth.
Law professors do not usually so consistently rely on the idiocy of the audience, as Obama does.
I don't know that I'm an Obama hater. But having watched him waffle around on this and that, it's hard to say that what he is doing "IS" what leaders do.
Why would anyone say Bush didn't agonize over (at the very least) his decision to go with the surge? Everyone was pressuring him to follow the recommendation of the Baker commission (or whatever it was called) and get out.
He took time and met with Petraeus and took full responsibility as commander in chief to try to fix the failing was that had started with so much bipartisan support.
Obama wanted to pull out then, only saying we shouldn't be held back by imaging a parade of horribles if we left. He was the one who didn't want to agonize then.
Bush made a brave decision then, and nothing about the way he did it made it seems breezy and thoughtless.
She calls him "ever the A-plus student,"
Laugh out loud funny.
Nothing about Obama indicates he was "ever the A-plus student"
Even Larry Tribe says Obama didn't have to do the same work the other students did. So he was a privileged law student, more than an A+ student.
It would be nice to know how good a student Barry was. If only he'd released his transcripts like other candidates. Nothing to hide. Nothing.
Yes, certainly there can be a grade higher than A + for this special man of special accomplishment and vision. There have been other A + students, but this is the Obama. We need something more gooder than A + for The Lightworker.
JRH, esq. said...
He has never litigated anything, so I can't read his professional work
to be fair he did squeeze a large lawsuit settlement out of Citibank under the CRA for not making enough subprime loans.
"...we're still two million jobs short of where we were when the last Recession started, and over four million FULL time jobs short of where we were back then. We're still in the midst of the worst recover (by far) we've seen since the nation started keeping decent records, median wages continue to fall, and so forth and so on.
"But other than that, great job!"
You don't understand--and I'm not being ironic or snarky--it is not the President's job or one of his priorities to try to remedy our catastrophic unemployment rates or woeful employment prospects in this country, campaign rhetoric being only that, a con to gull the marks; it's his job to insure that Wall Street does well and that conditions are such to insure the big banks and transglobal corporations (who are titularly "American" corporations) continue to reap huge profits. He works for the elites. The position of POTUS is one of a concierge or Man Friday for the 1%.
The conditions on the ground for American working people is not his or their concern at all.
Ann,
You are a law professor and you of all people should know what is and is not a professor.
As several people have pointed out, Obama has never been a law professor. He has been an adjunct instructor (lecturer? teacher?) in a law school. That does not make him a "professor".
Yet, with your "lawprof" tag and easy acceptance of articles calling him a professor you let others get away with it.
You should not be doing this.
John Henry
I think a lot of gays and ladies still find him dreamy, which is why he was elected and reelected and is why he will never want of a job. It sucks, but that's just the way some women are.
Seeing his college transcripts is pretty low on my priority list except that I'd like to see WHICH courses he took. I'm guessing there was a preponderance of a certain kind of narrow, ethnically-based study.
He's been crap as a President. If he got A+ in everything it wouldn't change that.
"Do we agonize?"
q.e.d.
… trust in his caretaking and to be patient while he continues to do the things that need to be done and not to look too closely at the incoherencies and possible illegalities. This is what leaders do.
I think a correction is in order. The above is what incompetent "leaders" without experience in earning a living or heading a business, who are the thoughtless and ungrateful beneficiary of reverse discrimination(affirmative action) every step in their rise to power, who were created and inculcated in a VERY corrupt local political environment(Chicago, Illinois), whose every move, legal or illegal, is promoted and protected by most of the equally corrupt media, who are elected by guilty-feeling, well-meaning useful idiots … do.
Agonize.
When Bush said that being President was hard work, that's what he was talking about. I think they both agonize, and it's hard work, but I don't think they agonize in the same way.
John wrote: Yet, with your "lawprof" tag and easy acceptance of articles calling him a professor you let others get away with it.
You should not be doing this.
Perhaps Althouse gives him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps she thinks that he could have been a professor but, like Patti Smith, he chose to walk away from the path.
He works for the elites. The position of POTUS is one of a concierge or Man Friday for the 1%.
I understand that perfectly well. But the President and his minions make the opposite case every day. Which makes them evil dissemblers.
kcom said...
A leader makes decisions. He's a decider. That's his job. Eisenhower looked at the weather reports and decided to launch the D-Day invasion with all the uncertainty involved.
1. notice how they make fun of the "Decider", but the MSM would never make a joke about say a sign that says, "The Buck Stops here" or somebody who wrote a book about people that actually made politically unpopular decisions, call it, "Profiles in Courage". Those are Liberal Icons, not some dumb Texan (with better grades than either of his opponents)
2. I expect you know this, but Eisenhower wrote two statements for D-Day, the success one gave all the credit to the troops. the failure one took all the blame for the Decider.
3. WTF, The POTUS is the DECIDER
4. Bush did lots of agonizing. That's why he held private meetings with all the Gold Star families. Given that more troops have died in the 4 years of Obama's A-Stan war than Bush's year A-Stan war, why don't we hear about Obamas meetings with Gold Star moms and war widows?
Do we agonize?
I've seen you aganize over words and phrasology more than anyone I know, and gayness. Instapundit - not so much.
"But the President and his minions make the opposite case every day. Which makes them evil dissemblers."
Yes.
Great minds ...
I really need to get a neck brace, I thought "consensus" was the way to run things?
Is it fair to say that he probably agonized more over his March Madness bracket than he did after 5 p.m. on 9/11/2012?
Does Harvard Law have a core curriculum that everybody have to take, or can you float on through with electives like "critical race theory"?
The only reference I've seen on his grades was in the NYT story about his selection as President of the Harvard Law Review.
Until the 1970's the editors were picked on the basis of grades, and the president of the Law Review was the student with the highest academic rank.
That system came under attack in the 1970's and was replaced by a program in which about half the editors are chosen for their grades and the other half are chosen by fellow students after a special writing competition. The new system, disputed when it began, was meant to help insure that minority students became editors of The Law Review.
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/06/us/first-black-elected-to-head-harvard-s-law-review.html
"And Obama, in his speech, was attempting to manipulate our minds."
That is only possible if you listened to his speech. Few did. The small cross-section that even heard about it did so in second-hand fashion, through snippets and characterizations.
I think O is approaching the point in his presidency when even those who like him don't pay much attention to what he has to say. His cheering squad in the media, Ruth Marcus being part of it, would still like him to have an impact, but the shrill tone in even their commentary suggests a fading hope for change. At this stage of his presidency, the areas in which O can realistically expect to have a strong impact are sharply reduced -- mostly appointments, with a lot of heavy breathing among lefty Dems about the SCOTUS and (faute de mieux) the DC Circuit. Foreign affairs would normally be another, but O is too wedded to leading from behind on that front.
It's where Bush ended up after Katrina and the Iraqi war, but despite his problems, the Decider was a more focused and determined fellow.
I expect you know this, but Eisenhower wrote two statements for D-Day, the success one gave all the credit to the troops. the failure one took all the blame for the Decider.
That just shows what an idiot Eisenhower was. If he had been a true leader (such as a former President of the Harvard Law Review) he would have known that in the event of failure he was to say he had nothing at all to do with the planning of the invasion, as the planning staff was a completely independent agency, and that further, he was unavailable when the invasion actually took place. That last would be related by a spokesman months later, of course.*
* God, I hope people realize this is snark.
Actually, I'm afraid that my last comment is in fact the reality of the day.
The idea that Obama was ever a good student anywhere he went is a joke. He was enabled if anything, falling as he does somewhere between the tabula rasa and Chauncey Gardener.
Barack Agonistes, anyone?
G Joubert said...
The idea that Obama was ever a good student anywhere he went is a joke. He was enabled if anything, falling as he does somewhere between the tabula rasa and Chauncey Gardener.
He just might be the most brilliant president we ever had.
Not a good president, just a brilliant one.
He grew up learning to game the system. You don't get all the way through law school by being bad at gaming the system.
He then wound up in Chicago. Chicago is the grad school of gaming the system.
he learned so well he wound up in politics.
And the most brilliant accomplishment to date is corrupting our national government to a degree that would make old Rich Daley blush and then convincing everyone that he had nothing to do with it.
Brilliant.
No Icepick,
The right way to do it is to:
1. Call for an independent investigation of the staff planning failures, and name Bedell Smith (his Chief of Staff) to run it.
2. Refuse to comment, because there is an "ongoing investigation" and "we need to wait until all the facts are in"
3. Blame the Marines for failing to provide adequately trained troops.
4. Blame The French for the lack of a successful uprising
5. Blame the Russians for their delayed Spring offensive
6. Blame Patton, for failing to deploy First Army Group at Calais beach in time
7. When called on the carpet by Marshall, angrily assert, "at this point, what difference does it make"
Hagar said...
Does Harvard Law have a core curriculum that everybody have to take, or can you float on through with electives like "critical race theory"?
At this point I suspect that the classes like "critical race theory" are the core curriculum.
We need a pitcher, not a belly itcher.
Not really, just had to get that out of my system.
Now, where is the evidence that Obama "has what it takes to be a terrific law student," the premise, much less anything supporting the agonizing ass- kissing that flows from that premise? Nowhere to be found.
One thing we do know: Ruth Marcus has not analyzed everything in a dispassionate, balanced way without necessarily taking a position. She's for O.
Always a good tactic when dealing with known liars: take what they say and imagine the opposite. Obama is a pitcher, not a belly itcher. He does not analyze, much less agonize over, anything. His mission is clear and always has been. The agony is in the con. And who gets sacrificed for it.
Our hostess remarks, "My first draft of this post included: Cue to Obama-haters to say where is that transcript."
I don't know about others, but every time I applied for a job after college the potential employer wanted to see my transcript. Did that mean that they hated me?
Cue to Obama-haters to say where is that transcript.
What is it with you guys and the word-hate?
Hate implies some sort of emotional attachment.
I assure you I have none.
I see our president as more of a tragi-comic figure that a great mass of my fellow citizens have endowed with a sort of magical quality. Where none exists.
Unknown sez:
...every time I applied for a job after college the potential employer wanted to see my transcript.
Does the hostess give grades? Surely she evaluates her students. Surely it's a reflection of effort and scholarship. We do, in fact, make judgement based on ones grades. Is it hate? Good question?
Gitmo - the legacy problem that must be resolved in a favorable manner for his legacy, unlike that last guy.
Marcus tells us that a "terrific law student" analyzes everything "in a dispassionate, balanced way" - well, this is a compliment to the whole left-o-sphere isn't it? They keep telling us bitter clingers that they are pragmatic, unhindered by ideology and religion, only caring about 'what works'. Except in BHO's case, it is demonstrably not true, for example, witness the passion following the defeat of their 'common sense background checks' that wouldn't have worked to stop an Adam Lanza type situation.
"trust in his caretaking and to be patient while he continues to do the things that need to be done and not to look too closely at the incoherencies and possible illegalities. This is what leaders do."
Which Soviet or Latin American socialist country's propaganda was this line lifted from?
Don't look too closely at the possible illegalities? I bet Nixon would have loved to have Marcus writing stories about him when he was POTUS
"What is it with you guys and the word-hate?"
They do readily roll it out there. The hate.
Excuse me, H8. It's how political gays feel about str8s.
The Law of Fault Finding:
1. Projection of Fault
Whatever they blame you for,
Assume that's what they're doing.
2. Misdirection of Fault
Whatever they blame themselves for,
Assume the opposite.
The country has been hoodwinked by a slick talking Affirmatron about whom we know precious little other than his execrable performance in office. The history books will some day pull his pants down unlike the human belt and suspenders provided by the lick spittle MSM. Oh, and have a nice day!
Since we really have No Idea what kind of "student" Barack was, this is a lot of silliness.
How about some transcripts (undoctored, if you please)?
But based on what I have seen, my guess was he skated a lot.
One of my kids was in an academically gifted class in junior high school. He had a project that he did a crappy job on and the teacher actually called me and was agonizing (there's that word ;- ) ) over what to do and how to grade him. He was, after all, "so smart."
I said "Give him an F."
Really.
I did have a discussion with him some time after that and told him he could take no credit for his brain which was a result of God and genetics, but he was going to be responsible for (and graded on) what he did with it.
Sure wish we would have some accountability in Washington.
To think that I know more about what's going on than Barack Obama because I don't even wait for the "newspaper", I read the internet is quite unsettling.
He was a guest lecturer.
Why does wanting to see the President's records qualify one as a hater?
How educated does one have to be to bury any curiosity about a leader's past?
Does the hostess give grades?
To us?
God. I hope not.
I think we're mostly here for her entertainment.
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