Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Michael Gerson: When it takes two snobs to tango

SO TODAY THE Beacon Journal's commentary page carries a column by Michael
Gerson that's prominently displayed with the headline: Barack Obama,what a snob.
Well, I guess that's OK for an op-ed piece from the Washington Post columnist, even for a guy who became a pundit after being President Bush's speechwriter for five years.

But then I came across this paragraph in Gerson's slam at Obama:
There have been several recent attempts to explain Obama's worldview as the result of his post-colonial father or his early socialist mentors - Gnostic attempts to produce the hidden key that unlocks the man.
If he had written such a high-falutin' paragraph in one of Bush's speeches, he'd be spending the remainder of his own highbrow life translating Sanskrit.






7 comments:

joe Hill said...

Gerson's opinion piece is not even original. He only continues the narrative previously established by Dinesh D'Souza in Forbes magazine. The article "How Obama thinks" is so outrageous that it triggered a very prompt response by the Columbia journalism school and its flagship publication. What is troubling is not the discredited claims made by D'Souza/Gerson but the fact that the "urinal" chose to publish such drivel. Is editorial staff composed of closet "birthers"? Their behavior does suggest that.

Elena LaVictoire said...

Most of those words my 7th grader would know. "Gnostic" might give him trouble, but my high school senior would know that. "Post-colonial" might require a peek in the dictionary or a Google search. Other than that I'm not sure what was so "high falutin" about it!

Mencken said...

Elena, I challenge you to read Gerson's statement to your kid and have him explain to you what Gerson meant.

I've read it 6 times and all I'm getting is the "post-colonial father" and "socialist" keywords meant to reassure the faithful such as yourself, that yes indeed, Obama is a Marxist.

Any claimed intent beyond getting you riled up is disingenuous.

joe Hill said...

Mencken,

Well done! You can see the severe limitations of homeschooling if Elena's son would need a dictionary to comprehend/understand a simple term as post-colonial. Her 7th grader would indeed know the term "gnostic". Identification and criticism of perceived heretics is the core of the most severe form of religious authoritarianism.

FoxNewsFan84 said...

Did any of you even read the article? It had nothing to do with socialism or anti-colonialism. Instead, Gerson called out President Obama for having a condescending attitude towards Americans. That attitude first became evident back when he made his infamous "bitter gunclinger comments" about rural Americans. But now Obama is implying that anyone who disagrees with him on the issues is acting irrationally out of fear or is simply misinformed. This kind of arrogant belief that some people are just too dumb to know what is best for them seems to be very prevalent among the left.

Grumpy Abe said...

By the way, I believe Gerson referred to post-colonialism, which is quite different from the word that you referenced. You've been hanging around the Fox in America's chicken coop too long.

Mencken said...

"arrogant belief that some people are just too dumb to know what is best for them"

FNF84, that by your own admission and moniker, you prefer a certain media outlet, a certain filter or slant on the news. Rather than forming your own opinion, you just regurgitate Fox talking points here.

FNF84, Fox is a joke, and sadly you're the punch line.