They're Reading My Mind With Microwaves Again!

Which past leader does Barack Obama most closely resemble? His admirers, not all of them liberals, used to compare him to Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.

Well, Obama announced his candidacy in Lincoln's hometown two days before Abe's birthday, and he did expand the size and scope of government. But no one seriously compares him with Lincoln or FDR anymore.

Conservative critics have taken to comparing him, as you might imagine, to Jimmy Carter. The more cruel among them, like The Weekly Standard's Jay Cost, say the comparison is not to Obama's advantage.

But there is another comparison I think more appropriate for a president who, according to one of his foreign-policy staffers, prefers to "lead from behind." The man I have in mind is Chauncey Gardiner, the character played by Peter Sellers in the 1979 movie "Being There."

The Entire commentary can be read here.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_michael_barone/like_chauncey_gardiner_obama_is_profoundly_aloof


The comparisons between Brack and Chauncey were originally made here.
http://obotomy.blogspot.com/2010/01/too-early-for-shrouding-but.html

Too Early For The Shrouding But...

What play, movie, book or legend most parallels the Obama Administration? It's too soon to tell. It might turn out to be "Wag the Dog" or "Dr. Strangelove" before it's all over. But if the administration ended today, it might most closely resemble Kosinski's "Being There."

"Being There" is the story of a mentally challenged gardener who speaks in simple literalisms. He is coincidentally launched onto the national stage and everyone misreads him as a genius. He is seen as the possible savior for the party and the country.

Could Obama be the real life Chauncy Gardner? "Hope and Change. Hope and Change. Hope and Change." Brilliant! Only a Columbia grad could elocute so grandly. Hah! Surely you mean only a Harvard Law alumnus could orate so bombastically. Sirs, we can agree with our subject's refinement, but only a disciple of Alinsky could affect such a common touch. Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant!

Besides the parallels, what title could be better suited for the legislator who loved to vote "present" and who would evolve into the dithering White House Hamlet?
"Being There."