Tony Norman
There's no denying that our president is a little on the wonky side. Correction: President Obama is a lot on the wonky side. If his first primetime press conference last night is any indication of how he intends to talk to the American people about the issues of the day, then we're going to have to bring our "A-game" just to listen to the guy. There's different kinds of wonky when it comes to Democrats. Bill Clinton was wonky, but in an aw-shucks kinda' way. He would throw in an analogy about a pig in the middle of one of his superb explanations just to remind you that he always had his mind on what the Republicans were doing. Hillary Clinton has a wonky side that feels more like rote memorization because of her flat delivery, though there is little doubt that she has mastered everything that comes out of her mouth. John Edwards was wonky about poverty and healthcare, but in a "come up to my apartment so I can show you some of my art prints" kind of way. President Obama brings a moral imperative to his wonkiness. He's a cool character who knows how to stay on message, think on his feet, sift through data, answer questions on multiple levels, make distinctions, embrace nuance and remind you in an oh, so subtle way that if he isn't the smartest guy in the room, then the smartest guy in the room is working for him.
I thought Barack Obama's first press conference as President was a masterful performance, but not necessarily one for the ages. It was sort of like his Inauguration speech -- it did what it had to do. It showed that he deserved to be there and that he could afford to be as tedious as he needed to be because the times are serious and that the time for entertaining the Washington press corps is over. He came before the press and the American people last night with one mission: sell the Stimulus Package. Yes, his answers about the economy's dire straits were repetitive to a point, but he obviously figures that it may be necessary to belabor the obvious when Republicans are arguing in some quarters that a more "sensible stimulus package" would consist of 60 percent tax cuts and maybe 40 percent spending on infrastructure and job creation.
Earlier in the day, I re-watched Oliver Stone's "W," so maybe Mr. Obama benefited from the contrast. Josh Brolin perfectly embodies George W. Bush's lack of intellectual heft, especially during press conferences where he was reduced to repeating nonsensical bromides, catch phrases and cliches in an attempt to mollify the anxieties of the American people. Barack Obama is taking us in another direction. He's not given to the comfortable, pithy soundbite for the evening news and cable networks. I think he considers the willingness to go along with that a distortion of our politics. He's shockingly old school in his belief that Americans can follow his logic and way of thinking from premise to conclusion. As MSNBC's Chris Matthews commented in his analysis after the press conference, it is a marvelous thing to observe how a president's mind works.
In other words, a wonky, way too loquacious president is a nice problem to have after eight years of taciturn b.s., fake populism and anti-intellectualism as a Washington-sanctioned art form.
Posted
Feb 10 2009, 11:21 AM
by
Tony Norman