Posted by
Noam D. Gear on Monday, May 25, 2009 6:45:30 AM
Being known as a Straw-Man artist is very dangerous thing for a Straw-Man artist.
Obama's only skill is rhretoric. After that, he is a bungling theoretician, and a blinking noobie.
If he allows the glossy veneer of his rhetoric to be chipped, the world will begin to see the plywood that makes up the other 95% of him. People will easily see that Obama is actually a bungling theoretician, and that he has no clue what he is doing, and that he is in WAY over his head.
I predict that:
- Obama will move very decisively to nip this budding reputation for faulty reasoning.
- Axelrod will plant a pre-designed question into a press conference.
- Obama will appear to provide a Straw Man, but it won't be.
- A reporter will point out the apparent Straw-Man
- Obama will boldly and sternly rebuke the premise of the question and express annoyance that this is "another example" of somebody thinking they caught him in a Straw-Man Argument.
Look for a phony exchange with a reporter that goes something like this:
Reporter: President Obama could you describe why you think it best to continue on with further bailouts of GM, and why the government should get involved with GMAC?
Obama: Well, some have said that we should avoid this action with GMAC, but I say that we cannot deal effectively with the trouble in the automotive sector without dealing with each kind of trouble in the automotive sector. GM had problems in its credit business that were just as serious as the problems with health care costs. And so, I am not interested in curing half of this patient. We need to cure the whole patient.
Reporter: But, Mr. President, nobody is really arguing against you in that manner. Might that not be a little bit of a straw man argument you are using?
Obama: Absolutely not! And, frankly, these people who don’t hear the criticisms that I do should check their facts. You should know that _____________, the Republican from ____________ made this criticism of me while he was eating dinner alone with his wife. If you were a better reporter, you would have known that before confronting me with this Straw-Man baloney. Seriously people…we have some work to do here.
Poof…just like that…Obama will slay yet another Straw Man, and will quash his critics, and cow reporters into never noticing his Straw Men again.
Actually, the exchange will have the bonus in making Obama look like he has command of factual background knowledge superior to that of the "journalists" before him. The gullible tots of the WHPC will adore him more than ever after he does this to them.
Mark it down. Predicted on the morning of Memorial Day, 2009.