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: