He’s more likable than Bush. He’s more articulate than Bush. But when it comes to essentials, Obama’s not a hell of a lot different.
Check out Kevin Carson’s latest C4SS editorial.
He’s more likable than Bush. He’s more articulate than Bush. But when it comes to essentials, Obama’s not a hell of a lot different.
Check out Kevin Carson’s latest C4SS editorial.
He’s better on abortion….
True.
Is he really more likable than Bush? Didn’t Bush get elected for being likable?
I suppose Bush was likable by some standards, but he never struck me as so.
Of course by the time he was running for President I’d already heard him mockingly imitate the pleas of the woman he was about to have executed in Texas, so I already suspected he might have the odd character flaw.
No doubt both Bush and Obama have severe character flaws, but Obama’s arrogance is more immediately obvious to me than Bush’s meanness. That’s not to say it isn’t there.
I suspect there are times when you could have an entire (short) conversation with Bush without noticing much wrong, but not in Obama’s case.
I dunno, I think I can imagine having a conversation with Obama, and I have a much harder time imagining myself having a conversation with Bush.
I should clarify; by “conversation” I don’t think I mean much more than small talk. Any *serious* conversation with either of them would probably drive me nuts.
But now I’m curious as to what you’d discuss with him!
Thanks, Roderick.
My opinion on Bush’s likability is pretty close to Jonathan Chait’s:
“He reminds me of a certain type I knew in high school–the kid who was given a fancy sports car for his sixteenth birthday and believed that he had somehow earned it. I hate the way he walks–shoulders flexed, elbows spalyed out from his sides like a teenage boy feigning machismo. I hate the way he talks–blustery self assurance masked by a pseudo populist twang. I even hate the things that everybody seems to like about him. I hate his lame-nickname- bestowing–a way to establish one’s social superiority beneath a veneer of chuminess (does anybody give their boss a nickname without their consent?) And, while most people who meet Bush claim to like him, I suspect that, if I got to know him persoanlly, I would hate him even more.”
No argument here. But a lot of that would seem to apply to Obama as well. Wasn’t there an actual study recently concluding that most politicians are narcissists?
“He’s more likable than Bush. He’s more articulate than Bush.” Equals: He’s more dangerous than Bush.
Absolutely correct Sheldon!