Ben Stein: "Obama's not very smart."
 

Obama's not very smart...

I actually respect the intellect of Ben Stein. I find him intelligent, humble, and self-aware.

"Smarter than the average bear," from him (were he speaking of me) I would accept as a compliment. That said, his fawning love of Nixon has always disturbed me.

Why?

1. Yes, Nixon got burnt on a bungled burglary he probably knew nothing about.
2. But he was 100% complicit in the attempted coverup and prior existing political scandal.

I'm not that sanguine with believing all high-level politicians have committed acts of trickery but it is likely. As for coverups -- and I am not a perfect man -- I can't think of a single time in my life I've covered something up (that I didn't do) when I was provably innocent and/or had any deniability.

Nixons issue? Deniability. Why? History. He was just plumb out of "I didn't know," even if he didn't.

It's like a hot girl, falling out of her bikini, walking by you at the pool. You buddy asks, "Man, wouldn't you like to hit that?" OF COURSE YOU WOULD. But what matters is that, even if readily available, you won't because it's who you are. (i.e., you've shown a history of not taking advantage of situations.)

Nixon had nowhere to go but denial that wouldn't be believed or coverup as he had already given the Checkers speech. To have achieved President after that was the most brilliant political thing he ever did.

Should he be unanimously buried? Likely not. Fawning adoration? NO WAY.

Zeke - Here's an interesting take on Nixon by Woodward and Bernstein 40 years after Watergate entitled Woodward and Bernstein: 40 years after Watergate, Nixon was far worse than we thought.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...0NV_story.html

Nixon was a paranoid, uncouth skank.

Agreed, but he was a smart skank. ;)

Pete

And a drunk. Very unusual behavior for someone raised in a Quaker household.

As far as Ben Stein goes he is a smart man, but every once in awhile he comes up with a zinger, like the Nixon comment. Another good one his comparison to Obama's rally at Invesco Field to Hitler's Nazi rallies at Nuremberg.

Economist? He has an undergraduate degree in economics. He is a lawyer, an actor, a writer, game show host, and was a college professor. His dad was a famous economist and an advisor on economic issues in the Nixon White House.

Ben Stein is anti-science and is a creationist.(intelligent design) Ben Stein endorsed Democrat Al Franken in the 2008 Minnesota Senate race, calling him an "impressive guy". That is pretty bizarre.

He had a really good game show though.

Put a bit more succinctly, he's a gadfly.

As a model, however, I can get that. As a moment in time, if you re-recorded each speaker with gibberish and just observed, they WOULD have seemed similar in many ways.

But lauding Nixon as a man taken over by circumstances or some other rationalization is just whitewashing with a big, shiny, thick coat of BS.

And if Daddy Joe's money had not bought the election(ya gotta love corrupt Illinois politics) you'd have had him instead of JFK!

There's a theory that the reason Tricky Dick didn't raise a stink about Joe Kennedy fixing Chicago for his son is that Nixon's people bough Downstate Illinois. If one was exposed the other one would have been too.

John

Quite possible as Illinois politics are some of the most, if not the most, corrupt in the country......

Ever been to Florida?:rolleyes:

Nope! Never really have wanted to go and have no plans of going.

Always preferred the west ;)

Dade county had more corruption than all of Illinois.

It's great if you like heat, humidity, hurricanes, bugs, gators and cranky old folks.;)

Fixed that for ya!:)

Somebody's gotta feed those gators. Might as well be those cranky old republickans.;).

Let's see, swap the hurricanes for tornado, remove the gators and you have many of the reasons I moved from Missouri three years ago.

See this is why I stay up here. Only the occasional tornado or minor earthquake, perhaps a vicious snowstorm. As a bonus you get to see politicians going to jail :D

Pete

You got nothing on the DC Government. The City Council is going to need to sign a few free agents as all the others are heading one-by-one to the hoosegow.

Perhaps a guillotine on the Mall? :)

Pete

Pierre L'enfant might've objected. :rolleyes:

.... or approved. :)

John

It would stay pretty busy. Do the criminal antics of the DC City Council and its current mayor get any coverage outside of this area?

Only when it's REALLY bad.

Pete

We hear a little but it's pretty well off the radar here. By the way, I just learned that Marion Barry serves on the City Council for Ward 8. Crazy!

John

He's still called "Mayor for Life," even as a Councilman. There is nothing he could do (obviously) and not get reelected in Ward 8. His latest thing is to rag on Asian convenience store owners.

Amazingly, he is probably less corrupt than at least half the Council.

Maybe because he is stoned half the time.

Here's my turd in the punchbowl in regards to D.C. politics. They should have statehood like everyone else. Why should the congress have hegemony over them? I don't see them as all that corrupt, they are just taking their cues from Congress who regards that town as their own private fiefdom.

Well, it's a way to get 3 more Democrats in Congress so I'm all for it!

John

Just heard an interview with DC Representative Elanor Norton who is a non-voting member of Congress.

She is a Democrat and is on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. She voted, of course, against the AG Holders contempt charge. Now that Boehner has brought it up for a vote on the floor of the House Norton can't vote. She can vote in committee, but not in the House.

Basically residents who live and are paying taxes in DC are taxed without representation. That is just on example of a big problem.

Agreed, time to move the capital to the center of the country (as it should be) and make D.C. part of one or all of the states around it (ie divide the territory).

While I agree completely with your sentiments with regard to Congressional representation for DC, it has nothing to do with the current level of corruption in the Council and by the Mayor. After very successful and clean governance by Anthony Williams and Adrian Fenty as mayors, they were perceived as too friendly to the white, wealthy residents of the western part of the city and replaced by Vincent Gray. It's been downhill since. Lots of convictions and indictments flying.