Oct
28
I feel bad for Iowahawk and Scrappleface
October 28, 2009 | 5 Comments
Because when you have idiots like Rocco Landesman, chair of the NEA, who needs parody?
This is the first president that actually writes his own books since Teddy Roosevelt and arguably the first to write them really well since Lincoln. If you accept the premise, and I do, that the United States is the most powerful country in the world, then Barack Obama is the most powerful writer since Julius Caesar. That has to be good for American artists.
Wow, that’s all sorts of stupid. We’ll just gloss over the possibility that Obama did not, in fact, write his two books – which were self indulgent “auto”biographies both written before the guy even turned 50. Also, we’ll just skip over the fact that Lincoln never wrote a book, and TR was in fact a good writer. Evidently Landesman never heard of Woodrow Wilson, the only Ph. D to ascend to the presidency (for now). I think he might have penned a couple of books. Oh, and then there was that Winston Churchill fella. No, he wasn’t a US president, but I seem to recall that he had something to do with World War II. Yeah, he wrote a few books – a few dozen actually, all fairly well written, and several of which are universally acclaimed works of history.
But let’s grant Landesman his premise – that Obama is the writer with the most political power in 2,000 years. What exactly is he really saying? Scott Johnson ponders:
Landesman compares Obama favorably with Julius Caesar as “a powerful writer.” Landesman is not referring to Obama’s skills as a writer, but rather to the power he holds by virtue of his office. Some might think that the literary comparison sells Obama short. Caesar was something of a self-promoter and propagandist in his writing.
Yet Landesman knows Obama is like Caesar, somehow — a friend asks, is it in the transformation of a republic into an empire with a divine ruler? Perhaps if Landesman had his wits about him, he would note instead that Obama is the most powerful speaker since the other JC.
Scott also adds a few presidential authors that Landesman ignored – including one particularly interesting omission, at least from a Democratic party hack perspective. At least he acknowledges that JFK didn’t write Profiles in Courage, so he’s got that going for him. Which is nice.
Comments
5 Comments so far
While his ignorance of presidential writing history is noteworthy. Much worse is his whining that we aren’t wasting enough money on the NEA. We should not spend one cent of monies confiscated from tax payers on the arts or anything else that is not constitutionally defensible. There I wiped out the deficit right there. Read and follow the Constitution and a lot of things would get better.
Eisenhower’s Crusade in Europe wasn’t bad. Reagan’s “Where’s the Rest of Me” was interesting. Hoover wrote a book on mining engineering which was considered the definitive authority on the subject for a number of years. The finest presidential author in my opinion is Grant who wrote his superb military autobiography, with its haunting “Let us have peace.” ending, while he was dying from cancer.
The fact he goes back to Julius Caesar for the last combination of great power and great writing also underlines he doesn’t know much about classics: Julius Caesar is definitely not seen as one of the great classical stylists. Indeed, the main reason he continues to be read so much is that his rather did-rather-well-if-I-do-say-so-myself accounts of the Gallic Wars and Civil Wars are written in such simple and accessible Latin that they make a good first stop for Latin students. However, old Julius was neither a Virgil or a Cicero when it comes to style.
True, and the the Commentaries are mainly read in translation because they are our main source for the Gallic and Civil wars, not to mention the only extensive reports we have for a Roman general while on campaign.
If you’re strictly considering which author exercises the greatest political power, then Barack Obama is the most powerful writer since Hitler.