I feel sorry for Obama who now feels compelled to show anger at BP.
He is bowing to the media’s rule that democratic leaders should be expected to show their fitness to govern by a public display of feeling which they, the media, regarded as an infallible token of genuineness.
As the business of journalism is increasingly the trafficking in these feelings, it is the existence of the feelings, and their sincerity, and not any action that might or might not arise out of them is what matters.
Bill Clinton understood this when he used to say: "I worked harder than I ever worked in my life. . ." to [fill in blank with something that Clinton couldn’t or wouldn’t do, but that some people expected him to do]. For the media, that was all right then. The main thing was that he wanted to do it. If the chief task of the head of state is not actually to do anything but only to show that he shares fully and passionately in the sorrows and the joys of people in the news, Clinton may yet go down in history as our greatest president.
The problem Obama faces is that (like Jimmy Carter) no one fears him, because he talks loudly but carries a very small stick.
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I feel sorry for Obama who now feels compelled to show anger at BP.
He is bowing to the media’s rule that democratic leaders should be expected to show their fitness to govern by a public display of feeling which they, the media, regarded as an infallible token of genuineness.
As the business of journalism is increasingly the trafficking in these feelings, it is the existence of the feelings, and their sincerity, and not any action that might or might not arise out of them is what matters.
Bill Clinton understood this when he used to say: "I worked harder than I ever worked in my life.
. ." to [fill in blank with something that Clinton couldn’t or wouldn’t do, but that some people expected him to do]. For the media, that was all right then. The main thing was that he wanted to do it. If the chief task of the head of state is not actually to do anything but only to show that he shares fully and passionately in the sorrows and the joys of people in the news, Clinton may yet go down in
history as our greatest president.
The problem Obama faces is that (like Jimmy Carter) no one fears him, because he talks loudly but carries a very small stick.
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