Come for the Politics, Stay for the Pathologies



Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Half Tiger, Half Paper. We Got the Wrong Half

Rumor has it that the first Halfrican- American president is going to play golf with the first Chigro-American Masters winner on the Vineyards this week. Not exactly a match up, on more than one level. In a normal world, I would argue that Barack Obama’s achievement has greatly eclipsed that of a mere golf champ. But it’s not that simple. Arriving is sometimes not as important as the method of transport.

Tiger Woods was obviously born with an aptitude. Not necessarily for golf, but for focus. He achieved greatness by the same path many before him followed: the hard work of study, practice, discipline and sacrifice in pursuit of a goal. His mother and father provided encouragement, direction and support for their son. But the motivation and drive came from within.

Barack? Not so much, by what few accounts we have. Suffice it to say he didn’t share Tiger’s supportive family environment.

Was he a hard working college student? I doubt it, or we would have seen the high grades, brilliant papers, theses and perhaps at least one of the insightful articles that he wrote while editor of the Harvard Law Review. But with records and lips sealed, we’ve got nothing, and are left to assume there is nothing to write home about.

Disciplined? Probably not that much. Otherwise, he probably wouldn’t have had to cop to having “messed around with drugs” when he was younger (What drugs? How young? We’ll never know because the MSM was never curious). He would have quit smoking well in advance of his historic presidential run. And we would not have to be watching his increasingly obvious displays of irritation and inane off-the-cuff comments to the media and regular people at town halls. Any one who’s ever been in the hot seat knows this sort of behavior is the opposite of discipline.

Sacrificed, hard working young professional? Let’s see, he left a big time law firm where he was an associate to join a grass roots community organizing operation. First, if your goal is a high ranking public office, you’re black, you want to meet the right people, and you live in Chicago, which route would you bet on? If you’re pursing your self-interest, it’s hard to classify it as “sacrifice.” Secondly, do you have any idea the hours a young associate in a large law firm is required to put in? It’s grueling and not all are willing to pay the toll.

Yes, he did ostensibly write two autobiographies (an unusual avocation for an unassuming community organizer), but having read the only publically available article written by young Barrack , well let’s just say he must have had the hardest working editor in America. I promise you he did not write them unassisted.

And yet, he did win the Presidency of the United States. It does give one pause.

Let’s see, how did that happen again? Who assisted the “Won?”

ACORN and the infamous get out the “vote” grass roots movement that made the original Daley Machine look like amateurs in their ability to raise the dead.

Nearly every union of any size, from teachers to the UAW, contributed mega-bucks to the Barry Bandwagon of Hope and Change.

A Main Stream Media that exhibited all of the probing journalistic torque of a house organ - and who is still wee-weeing all over themselves in the presence of the “Anointed Won.”

A left wing coalition of the Democratic machine – able to raise more money than Donald Trump - who picked the dark horse candidate they found most malleable.

Hollywood narcissists who swooned over a man they recognized as one of their own, and propped him up with the glamorous veneer that provides the artifice of a superstar. Not to mention the money available from the enormously wealthy, reliably left wing entertainment-plex.

And last but not least, corporations that continued their escalation of a tit for tat existence involving big campaign donations in exchange for access to the halls of Congress via their lobbyists; hence buying legal access to influence in everything from legislation to the awarding of lucrative contracts.

And there are plenty of others as well, such as the money aggregators used to end-run campaign financing laws.

So Obama has won the most powerful elected position in the world by standing on the shoulders of giants. Tiger Woods had his mother and, especially, his father.

To whom would you prefer to be beholden?