"Look, there’s a guy in office right now who is smarter than almost anyone you know, who’s nicer and who has more compassion than almost anyone you know. And he’s having an almost impossible time governing." - George Clooney
This is typical from a Hollywood socialist and of course there is absolutely nothing of substance to back up any one of those adjectives that he attributes to Obama nor does Clooney attempt to offer any.
Smart
The president may be in fact smarter than anyone Clooney knows but that is a far cry from those you or I may know personally or admire for their intellect from afar such as Thomas Sowell for instance. If one were to compare Obama to Sowell, Obama comes out dumber then the dimmest bulb of anyone you know.
I suppose if one wants to see unemployment remain at 9.1% or higher, the economy stagnant and shrinking and millions of more homes going into foreclosure they would see the president as being smart. Of course this line of thinking, if it can be called that, would include how the world sees us under Obama with even more countries hating the U.S. to and including our supposed allies. G.W. Bush was chastised (and also called dumb) by the left for the image of the U.S. around the globe, but as I remember our allies were still in our corner at that time.
Taking the above into account, smart is not an adjective I myself would attribute to Obama.
Nice
One has to wonder if Clooney is speaking again on a personal basis here in that he has met with Obama one would guess numerous times. On a personal level I would guess this to be an honest appraisal of Obama by Clooney.
I myself would not mind sitting down with Obama sharing a beer or two and 'shootin the shit' so-to-speak just as I would welcome the opportunity to do so with GW, although Bush would prefer a substitute beverage.
But honestly, I know plenty of nice people personally, all are of different backgrounds; White and Blue collar, Black and White, Male and Female, G.E.D. to College educated,,,etc. and there is not one I would recommend for the highest office in our Nation.
The point here is of course is that Clooney mentioning this is basically a ploy on "feelings" as in we can't make Obama a one-term president, he is too nice. Feelings do not translate into good policy, as a matter of fact, when "feelings" do make it into policy it turns out they are not very nice at all as we have all seen time and again in "unintended consequences".
Being nice is all fine and dandy but lets get back to sound policy based in reality and standing law rather than the ever murky realm of feelings.
Compassion
This word is bandied about so often that most do not understand the definition of it any longer, so let's revisit it shall we:
com·pas·sion [kuhm-pash-uhn] noun
1. a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.
Here again we see the word "feeling" with the addition of the wording "strong desire" which the latter is a product of the former.
This is not to say having compassion is wrong but I would argue that there are many existing private institution's such as Church's, Synagogues and Temples (1) that not only have the "strong desire to alleviate the suffering" but actually do just that based on Faith and from the charity given of free will by others.
Now government can help in this regard and that is by getting the hell out of the way, stop attacking God and return to welcoming His presence - quickly I might add - and lowering taxes so as to allow individuals to help even more so than they do now.
We the people of the United States are in fact the government so stated in the Constitution. We the people of the United States are collectively smart, nice and very compassionate so we do not need nor ever have needed elected representatives, no matter the office bestowed upon them, creating and signing laws to bend these qualities in any one direction other than what we as individuals choose to apply them.
As to the American people being collectively smart, this is not always evident as in 2006 and 2008 but we are known to make an honest effort to correct our mistakes.
In 2010 we corrected to a certain extent the 2006 mistake. Now we must continue on this honest pattern of reform and correct the 2008 blunder in 2012, we simply cannot afford to do otherwise.
