QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:  After a year in office, Barack Obama is still an enigma.  Jennifer Rubin, at Contentions, has an excellent take on what makes Obama tick, or whine, or whatever it is that he does:

Obama is getting flack from his own party for lacking the common touch, failing to connect with ordinary voters, and struggling to identify with Middle America. The mainstream media is baffled because, they say, he came from a middle-class background. What’s the problem? They are stumped.

Much of the problem is that his background isn’t so much middle class as it is academic. A large chunk of his adult life has been spent attending, teaching in, and living in close proximity to elite universities. The intellectual bent (e.g., disdainful of American exceptionalism, ignorant of the workings of free-market capitalism, infatuated with the public sector) and the posture (e.g., remote, condescending) of liberal academics are evident in Obama’s persona and governing style. And his saturation in Left-leaning elite schools certainly explain much of what ails him.

And...

The media was mesmerized by an elite-credentialed author and law professor who seemed so very cool and so intellectually compatible with themselves. But the Harvard Law Review and Con Law 101 don’t prepare one for the presidency. Indeed, it turns out that those who are attracted to such endeavors may lack the stuff of successful presidents — common sense, appreciation for the private enterprise, toleration of criticism, attention to the bottom line, etc. Next time, maybe we should look for someone who fits less well into the Ivy League and more comfortably into the private sector and Middle America. The better presidents, after all, can hire academics — and learn when to ignore them when their advice proves impractical or downright foolish.

COMMENT:  I've always loved first-class academics.  But it always struck me that the best teachers, and scholars, are always the first to tell you what they don't know.  One of my mentors, Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois, a distinguished professor of economics (and a Marine hero) constantly stressed to me the limits of academic research. 

I recall traveling with Senator Douglas through Rockford, Illinois, in 1960.  I looked around and made a typical, sneering University of Chicago undergraduate comment about "the kind of people who live here."   Mr. Douglas corrected me.  "Bill," he said, "let me teach you something:  Never underestimate the wisdom of a small town."  I've always remembered that, and remembered that it came from a revered professor. 

One problem in this administration is that it has contempt for the very people it serves.  And the media shares that contempt.  You see it in the handling of health care.  You see it in the president's pathetic apologies to foreign nations.  The people of this country are developing a certain dislike for Mr. Obama, and he thoroughly deserves it.  He should stop underestimating the wisdom of a small town.

February 14, 2010