House of Eratosthenes

(a) Suppose Mr. Obama is a legal bastard? Which is to say his mother and father weren’t married when he was born… wouldn’t YOU want to preserve your dead mother’s dignity? Especially in America, where one can easily imagine the hue and cry about a “love child” occupying the White House. This is NOT beyond the pale.

(b) To continue to give the Lunatic Fringe enough rope to hang themselves, as if they haven’t done so already. But this approach, if it is indeed the case, is simply clever politics. And it seems to be working.

I think (b) is far more likely than (a), myself. But I can also produce a (c): When you’ve got a brand new pretty shiny 24k gold hammer, everything you see looks like a nail. Barack Obama’s hammer is that He can convince people something is true by making them feel awkward and teetering on the brink of ostracism if they dare to believe the opposite, or simply harbor doubts. It is His chosen method for selling things, and He is exceptionally good at it.

I believe what we’re seeing with regard to the long form birth certificate, is His oh-so-tried-n-true brandishing of the big 24k gold hammer, as a means of proving something that’s really true. This illustrates the depths to which He has sunk in becoming a master of bullshit-sales; He just can’t help Himself. It’s a lot like the Clintons lying about things in such a way that they’re bound to get caught, and in the meantime provide no discernible benefit to them or to any of their friends even if someone should be deceived by the lie — “I was named after Edmund Hillary,” as just one example.

I don’t think Obama is capable of using what the rest of us understand to be inferential logic. He’d have done it by now. I mean, by that, “I’m thinking of a prime number between 270 and 280 that does not end in 7; what is it?” Process of elimination, if-this-then-that. It isn’t that it’s beyond His intellectual capacity; He seems like a bright enough guy. The issue is that it is not part of the world in which He lives. He’s a socialist. All thinking, in that universe, is social. It’s all “I have to show my faith in X because I will be shunned if people think my faith is in not-X.”

The political benefit from the teapot-tempest that ensues from His keeping the long form under lock and key, is just an afterthought. His primary motive is that on His home turf, this is how you “prove” things and there is no other way to do it: By stigmatizing the opposite. We are discussing an individual possessing a dizzying and breathtaking lack of understanding or concern about what is & is not true. And not only is He our President, but He is also in great company. Quite a few of our countrymen are sufficiently divorced from reality that, if they were struggling with the everyday tasks and exigencies that were a natural part of life a century and a half ago, they wouldn’t make it.

Thanks for the link. But I’ll stick with (b), although (a) ain’t beyond the pale, as I said. I don’t think your option (c) flies… probably because I tend to be more charitable about motives… anyone’s motives… than you. It’s that “Cui bono” thing… and I can see no earthly benefit to anyone in option (c), let alone The One. “Because” ain’t a reason, no matter who sez it, or how often. Obama is definitely smart enough to realize that despite his considerable hubris.

I notice you declined to post excerpts from my alcohol-fueled asshat rant… 😉
- bpenni | 08/09/2009 @ 11:29
There seems to be considerable discussion about whether 0bama is smart. My own opinion is that he seems so often to be quite taken aback by people’s reactions to his ideas that he couldn’t be really smart. I will grant that he is clever in the sense of being able to see opportunities to advance himself.
- vvp39 | 08/09/2009 @ 11:47
vvp39 | 08/09/2009 @ 11:47

I’m with you, pal. “He’s so smart” has as much resonance as “He’s such a brilliant speaker” applied to a one-note wonder with a tin ear.

Sly? Yup. Conniving? Yup.

Smart? Nobody who continually drones the same Leftist tropes he learned in college (and with no apparent sense of their deadly dullness) could possibly be characterized as “smart.”

Damn. I just exhibited a perfect use of parentheses in the expression of an aside. Morgan’s gonna call me a girl.
- rob | 08/09/2009 @ 13:27
Morgan’s gonna call me a girl.

Heh. And you know he WILL. 😉

I would remind all y’all that one should never underestimate one’s opponent. That’s the quickest way to lose… be it a football game, a war, or an ideological argument. Just sayin’.
- bpenni | 08/09/2009 @ 14:56

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Sunday, August 9th, 2009