Having received nearly 53 percent of the popular vote -- better than Ronald Reagan's 50.7 percent in 1980 -- Barack Obama won 100 percent of the presidency, and almost that much of the nation's leadership expectations now that the public, which really should diversify its investments, invests such extravagant hopes in presidents.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
I'm not George F. Will, exhibit #19,837
I could type my fingers to the bone, and then down to the first knuckle after that, and never turn a sentence this clever:
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2 comments:
Oh, yes. Literary and elegant compared to Brian Tiemann:
"Just remember: when Obama is president, everyone will have jobs, the stock market will rise for four straight years, and there won't be any more hurricanes.... Usually a candidate only has to worry about people holding him to account for his own empty campaign promises. This time, the whole world is signing checks no mortal man's presidency can cash."
-from blog Peeve Farm
And in another comparison to Will, P.J. O'Rourke comes across as positively turgid:
"We treat the president of the United States with awe. We impute to him remarkable powers. We divine things by his smallest gestures. We believe he has the capacity to destroy the very earth, and - by vigorous perusal of sound economic policy - to make the land fruitful and all our endeavors prosperous. We beseech him for aid and comfort in our every distress and believe him capable of granting any boon or favor.
The type is recognizable to even a casual student of mythology. The president is not an ordinary politician trying to conduct the affairs of state as best he can. He is a divine priest-king. And we Americans worship our state avatar devoutly. That is, we do until he shows any sign of weakness, and disability, as it were. Sir James Frazer, in The Golden Bough, said: "Primitive peoples... believe that their safety and even that of the world is bound up with the life of one of these god-men... Naturally, therefore, they take the utmost care of his life... But no amount of care and precaution will prevent the man-god from growing old and feeble... There is only one way of averting these dangers. The man-god must be killed." Thus in our brief national history we have shot four of our presidents, worried five of them to death, impeached one and hounded another out of office. And when all else fails, we hold an election and assassinate their character."
-P.J. O'Rourke, Parliament of Whores
The only quote I've been able to think of that's as literary -though far more general- is this:
"After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true."
--Spock in 'Amok Time', Star Trek TOS
"Parliament of Whores" was probably the most influential book of my teenage years.
Thank goodness John knows this is a private note to him and would never publish it.
Wait, what?
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