Ron Hart on Obama's Secret Weapon: Manners!

Columnist Ron Hart looks at President Obama's actions in office and on vacation and writes:

If we have been reminded of anything with the ascension of Barack Obama, it is that manners and style can take a person a long way in this world. We have also learned that it is not imperative to understand a complex matter in order to defend it, which explains his universal health care debacle. As the German writer von Goethe said, "When ideas fail, words come in very handy."

More here.

Comments

[Tulpa]

To be a Martha's Vineyard Democrat, you have to be far removed from the indignity of actually being productive and making money yourself. You must also espouse the liberal imperative for alternative wind power - except when you can see the windmills from your own private beach house.

Too soon!

[Tulpa]

Oh, and fuck Obama for the event in that picture. You want to bow to a ruthless dictator, do it in private.

[R C Dean]

Perhaps the worst thing about the whole bowing-to-the-Saudi thing was that came in the middle of a whole series of protocol gaffes that slighted our actual allies and friends - the British.

[P Brooks]

To Whom it May Concern:

Ron Hart has been placed on my Steve Chapman Memorial "Do Not Read" list.

That is all.

Love, et c,

[Hugh Akston]

"When ideas fail, words come in very handy."

This really is the difference between Obama and his predecessor. Neither one had a virgin's clue in a harem what he's doing. But one of them know how to use a teleprompter at least.

[kinnath]

I'm looking forward to President Max Headroom.

[John teebone]

ROTFL, aint it the truth! LOL

Riff
http://www.online-privacy.es.tc

[Kim Jon Il]

I would stop my nuke program if Obama would only ask "pretty prease."

[aelhues]

Hugh, I disagree, GWB had at least an inkling of what to do, but he let the elitists influence him more and more as time passed. O went in with a vision of utopia, no clue about real governing, and experience with the freedom to lie, cheat and steal as a method to get what he wanted, all wrapped in a pleasant liberal elitist wrapper. However, as a firm opponent to utopia, I will oppose every attempt to reach it.

[Rimfax]

Did I miss something or is this the content-free hit piece that it appears to be?

[Patrick]

Is Ron Hart a secret democrat trying to get folks to hate libertarians? What kind of libertarian misses the genteel, benevolent ways of the "old money" class, and thinks "new money" is trashy? Foghorn Leghorn?

Hart writes: "I fear we have departed from a society where the genteel moneyed set once held sway. This traditional role has been usurped by corporate lobbyists, fast-money hedge fund pirates, actors (who often confuse being famous with being important) and corrupt political hacks who have inserted themselves into the epicenter of modern society. Maybe this upward mobility is for the best, but I am not sure."

Of course, you could also include entrepreneurs and small business owners in this trashy "new money" category.

Does Hart you really fear the departure of old money? What about noblesse oblige of the Carnegie era? Or the divine responsibility of kings?

So, Hart's problem with Martha's Vineyard isn't that it's an elitist, WASPy enclave -- but that it's not elitist enough. Weird.

[JB]

But Obama doesn't like German writers. He prefers those that write in Austrian.

[JB]

Did I miss something or is this the content-free hit piece that it appears to be?

Did I miss something or is this the content-free cocksucker President and presidency that it appears to be?

[Enyap]

"Hugh, I disagree, GWB had at least an inkling of what to do"

Really the guy who campaign as a compassionate conservative

[Ratdog]

"The same suave demeanor that charmed Sarkozy of France served Obama well when he invited a Boston cop to the White House for a kegger."

Say what?

Mr. Hart, the incident you refer to was hardly a "kegger," in fact with Bush on the wagon it is necessary to roll all the way back to Clinton for a White House kegger. Not that I oppose White House keggers, they were actually one of the few things Clinton did I agree with. Well, those and the White House wet t-shirt contests and female nude jello wrestling.

[Jim Treacher]

Perhaps the worst thing about the whole bowing-to-the-Saudi thing was that came in the middle of a whole series of protocol gaffes that slighted our actual allies and friends - the British.

I thought the worst thing was the way Robert Gibbs told us to ignore the evidence of our own eyes. But yeah, that part sucked too.

[Rimfax]

JB,

Thanks, I'll take that as a "Yes."

[Tulpa]

This article was extremely sharp-tongued, but pretty much spot-on in my opinion. As one who hates the Obama administration and everything it stands for with an unquenchable hatred, I enjoyed reading it, but I wouldn't try to convince people on the other side with that sort of approach.

Of course, you could also include entrepreneurs and small business owners in this trashy "new money" category.

No, he's talking about the idle rich.

And make no mistake, there is a hierarchy wherein social rankings are based entirely on one's degree of idleness and chronological distance from the person who actually made the family fortune. To be a Martha's Vineyard Democrat, you have to be far removed from the indignity of actually being productive and making money yourself.

None of the people he describes as "trashy" are actually involved in creating wealth, rather they leach off the wealth-creation of others.

[Tulpa]

Did I miss something or is this the content-free hit piece that it appears to be?

Yes, it's called a "rant". I'm sorry if you weren't sufficiently edified.

[Gayle]

Hart writes well and is a budding PJ O'Rourke.

Some of this is just damn funny, especially about "shovel ready" projects.

Great stuff.