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Obama: fool or knave?

The New Neo Posted on by

As Obama goes from weakness to weakness instead of strength to strength, the question keeps popping up: is he fool or knave? In other words: is he merely ignorant and incompetent, or is his course of action cleverly and intentionally designed to weaken this country, undermine its economy, and grow his own power?

For a while, “fool” was the leader. But the “knave” camp has been building for quite some time now.

Of course, the two attributes are not mutually exclusive. It’s a big tent; there’s room for both.

And if you want to be philosophical about it, that may not be such a bad thing. If we must have a knave as president, he may as well be a fool as well. That way he’s more likely to be unsuccessful at accomplishing his goals.

Comments

Obama: fool or knave? — 48 Comments

  4. Readers here know where I stand; knave it is.

    We have our own silver-tongued Saruman, who wants nothing more than the destruction of the America he hates, because of what it has “done to him”–an abandoned and perhaps abused child–see the CV of the mentor of his teen age years, Frank Marshall Davis, neither black nor white–but hating especially the white side, by family teaching and attitude a “Red diaper baby,” a sometimes Jakarta street urchin, yet a child of some privilege–at his “typical white person” grandmother’s expense, a well-indoctrinated student of Marxism and Islam, with a whole tutorial staff of radical, terrorist, Communist, Muslim friends and associates, the beneficiary of affirmative action and political correctness, student of amoral Communist agitator Saul Alinsky, a member in good standing of the ultra corrupt Chicago political machine, and a front man for the Far Left and who–George Soros perhaps?

  6. I have come down on the side of foolish knave for awhile now.

    Maybe it is just wishful thinking because I do believe his ineptitude is our salvation. Whatever his motives may be, this is becoming apparent, and in many quarters, scorn is slowly replacing worship.

    I note with particular satisfaction his loss of support among “independents”. Of course his hard core remains steadfast. I expect that at sometime in the future there will be a serious confrontation between the Obamaphiles and the rest of the country. What form will it take? That is the big question.

  7. Consider that everything about Obama seems designed to keep us guessing as to his true nature and purpose. That includes the question posed by neo – is he the incompetent fool, or the clever strategic thinker with malice in his heart? How can we tell?

    Here are my thoughts: if we look at the results of his actions in total we see an extraordinary continuity. Obama leaves behind destruction wherever he goes. Of our economy, our institutions, our traditions, our reputation, etc. I contend that no fool on earth can boast such a consistency of result. That can come only from careful deliberation. But, if it suits his purpose, he’s happy to play the fool. So, I think we have a knave. And an extraordinary one at that.

  8. If we must have a knave as president, he may as well be a fool as well. That way he’s more likely to be unsuccessful at accomplishing his goals.

    Including any ambitions Obama might have, and which many here believe he has, to become America’s first tyrant.

    Never.

    It makes no sense that a man who has parlayed an overwhelming amount of good will, poll numbers, large majorities in both Houses of Congress, a cult-like following, and veritable control of most of America’s media, into a year of one failure after another, could engineer something never before achieved in the United States.

    Never.

  9. Obama is a tried and true liberal. In the end he is evil for all the reasons that liberals are evil. Liberals never look back so they never clean up their own messes. Nor do they own up to them. If the liberal plan resulted in a mess it was not the liberal’s plan that caused the mess. Rather it was lousy execution. So, in this regard Obama is a knave in the same mold as all liberals.

    Liberals believe that they are so much smarter and better than we poor benighted conservatives that they cannot control themselves in getting to work, like Santa’s little elves, immediately in making the world the better place they dream they want it to be. They do not understand that the benighted might have another picture of the world and their ability to live without all the unwanted help. Nor do they have the slightest common sense.

    I also think that Obama believes that Bush was and is evil, in every way that Obama is not. Obama is good. He has solutions for all the world’s problems; solutions that have been discussed in college classrooms for years and years. Now, finally, is the time to put them into effect.

    The fact that Obama’s solutions don’t work merely means he is not working hard enough. He will double down on getting his programs into place and will ultimately reach the same stage as Jimmah Carter. Malaise. He will not listen to his opponents because he put other true believers in the White House and they will neither understand nor communicate the opposition’s views. There is no adult in this White House. They are eagerly playing with dynamite and don’t much care whether it explodes or who is injured.

    Every one of those immature putzes in the White House that have Obama’s ear knows that the way to create jobs is to reduce taxes and curtail regulations on small businesses. This is not rocket science. So, every day that they pursue their liberal agenda and more and more people are thrown out of work is a way to measure the evil of their agenda. THEY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING AND CAN’T OR WON’T STOP, EVEN AS THEY PLAY WITH STIMULUS PACKAGES THAT THEY KNOW WILL NOT CREATE ANYTHING OTHER THAN GOVERNMENT JOBS.

    They are all knaves. They are all fools. Obama will soon become a laughing stock even to Democrats, as he shows the world his impotence.

  10. It’s interesting that Rasmussen’s approval rating for Obama has now stood at -14 for three days. It’s only gone that low once before, during the summer health care brouhaha, and that was for just one day. Fool or knave? Whichever side is right, it does seem that more people are asking this question — and that’s an excellent thing.

  11. Highlander:

    Extraordinary he may be, but he’s still an amateur… and his incompetence is remarkable, given what we were led to believe about him during the campaign.

    Remember when he dared Bibi Netanyahu to defy him, and Netanyahu forced him to back down? Remember when he pushed hard enough against Fox News that even the journalists in his pocket rebelled? How about when he decided that bringing the Olympics to Chicago was important enough for a personal appeal… which the Europeans were only too glad to reject out of hand?

    These are obvious failures, and obvious examples of incompetence, in my opinion. If you like, we could add his repeated overtures to unallied (and openly hostile) nations; not one of these overtures has yet gotten President Obama anything at all. Or we could add his promise to publish results of his Stimulus (and his failure to even find people competent at cooking the books correctly).

    There’s plenty more where this came from… and all of it combines to make our President look not only incompetent, but foolish… and silly.

    I don’t know what the man’s motives are. (He’s worked very hard indeed to keep us all in the dark about that.) I am starting to get a very good idea of the limits of his competence. He’s in way over his head.

    The man’s political epitaph may yet be a comment he made, when he’d been President less than two months: “I like being President. And it turns out I’m pretty good at it.”

    (By the way, I have been unable to find a link to that quote. Has it been removed from archives somehow? Or am I misremembering it?)

    respectfully,
    Daniel in Brookline

  12. Fool or knave?
    1) Trying to destroy democracy in Honduras-knave
    2) Trying to achieve peace in the Middle East by bashing Israel-fool and knave, mainly fool
    3) Cairo speech-fool and knave
    4) Obama care-fool and knave, mainly knave
    5) trashing relations with the Czech R. and Poland-fool
    6) medal of freedom for Mary Robinson-knave
    7) lecturing other states on their wrong behavior-big fool
    8)groveling in Arab for love and respect-super big fool

    Perhaps what Lincoln said of General Fremont also accurately describes the Obama “the damndest scoundrel that ever lived, but in the infinite mercy of Providence he was also the damndest fool”.

  13. Number 8 should read:
    ” 8) Groveling in the world in order to get love and respect-super big fool”

  14. I think there is overwhelming evidence he’s a knave, even if some of his plans don’t all come to fruition–he’s got so many different attacks against freedom, democracy and the capitalist system in play–coming at us from different angles and originating from different centers–that if even half or a quarter of them are successful, he wins.

    But no matter if he is a fool or knave or a combination of both, the damage will have been done either way.

  15. I did it again, ok here goes for another try. No. 8 should read “groveling in the ARAB WORLD in order to get love and respect”.

    Life is hard when your ADD.

  16. I believe he may be neither fool nor knave in the meaning that these words are usually given. He is a typical Progressive who seeks to implement Progressive policies, policies that are fundamentally foolish to begin with. Is Obama a socialist? Of course he is — he’s a Progressive. Does he disdain patriotism and pride in America’s accomplishments, in America’s enormous significance in history? Of course he does — he’s a Progressive.

    Many folks other than dedicated Progressives passively accept the surface Progressive doctrines, they could do little else considering that our entire society is immersed in this propaganda, but sometimes recoil from them when attempts are made to put them into practice — at which time the weaknesses, contradictions and destructiveness of those policies may become obvious, even to folks who have a casual, received(from the MSM) attitude toward politics and issues.

    In addition, Obama possesses an indecisive personality and the need to make practical decisions in the face of impractical expectations from his Lefty base produces a kind of paralysis.

    Within his id’s comfort zone doing nothing(dithering) when faced with competing and contradictory issues is probably the best path. Take Afghanistan: Inaction and ineffective half-measures will produce their own result and make the decision for him. Gitmo, Iran, the Palestinian/Israeli quagmire — my guess is that all will be dithered.

    Exceptions might occur if he throws up his hands and surrenders his authority to subordinates and/or Congressional Democrats. This is what I suspect happened with the KSM trial in NYC. Holder has testified that Obama had no part in the decision. This may be the truth instead of an attempt to shield Obama from political fallout, shocking in that such a significant decision would suffer from such near pathological detachment from an American President.

  18. Knave. Consider: Any candidate who spends years taking preemptive actions to clean up his image and “disappear” his negative vital information before the election is a knave.

    And please, let us stop calling them “liberal.” They are Leftists, we are liberals.

  19. But no matter if he is a fool or knave or a combination of both, the damage will have been done either way.

    If Obama is too foolish to accomplish his plans, he will do less damage.

    If Obama’s foolishness becomes generally recognized, his allies desert him, and he will do less damage.

    If Obama fails and is deserted, voters won’t vote for Obama, his projects, and his colleagues.

    It matters how much of a fool Obama is.

  20. Well said Huxley, but the crux is, as you said “If Obama’s foolishness becomes generally recognized”. That means that a significant portion of the 53% will have to regain consciousness. We can only hope, pray and wonder.

    BTW loved your defense of Darwin.

  21. The man’s political epitaph may yet be a comment he made, when he’d been President less than two months: “I like being President. And it turns out I’m pretty good at it.”

    (By the way, I have been unable to find a link to that quote. Has it been removed from archives somehow? Or am I misremembering it?)

    respectfully,
    Daniel in Brookline.

    You’re not misremembering it; I recall it too.

    A search on Google, then on Yahoo turned up nine items each, ALL from various blogs. The same on Ask got a lot more, but still mostly blogs, and a lot of unrelated stuff (as if it was NOT handling it as a search for that specific phrase.

    I’m guessing you are referring to official news sources, and NOTHING seemed to turn up from any of them.

    Yeah, I suppose we’re paranoid thinking the MSM would stoop to covering things up. BUT, are we paranoid enough? 🙁

    Bottom line, I truly believe it HAS been removed from many news archives somehow. The degree to which they are in bed with him is simply mind-boggling; they don’t even have the decency to pretend otherwise.

    The more audacious they are at that, the more many simply refuse to see what is in front of them. (I think neo has said that very thing on occasion.)

    –

  22. ahem–you make a very good point about preemption indeed.

    huxley–Even if Obama is a somewhat ineffective fool, if either “Heath Care Reform” or “Cap and Trade” becomes law–but especially if Health Care Reform becomes law–it will permanently and, essentially irrevocably, give the government such power, change the balance between the government and the governed, and so greatly diminish our scope for self-determination and free action, that personal freedom and democracy as we have known them will have been destroyed, fool or not.

  24. Knave or fool? We’ve been down this road lots of times already.

    You know it wasn’t so long ago that I could wake up in the morning with a bright, uplifting feeling in my soul. Now, it’s just a black, sinking feeling and it gets worse each day as Obama does another foolish / knavish thing. Is there no end to this? What an incredible mistake our country made!

  25. Paul in Houston–I, too, have noticed that a lot of things the Left would not like more widely known have been “disappeared,” scrubbed, after the fact, from various Web sources–Wiki bios altered, embarrassing videos taken down for supposed “copyright violations,” etc.

    So, I would not in the least doubt that there has been a concerted and ongoing effort at “scrubbing” by the Left’s collective “Ministry of Truth”–a “conspiracy of shared values”–because, as in Orwell’s “1984,” they know that “he who controls the Past controls the Future.”

  26. Follow up to Daniel in Brookline’s query about quotes being purged from archives…

    I wonder if this one will meet the same fate, and people a few months hence will search in vain for Obama’s recent comment at Fort Hood:

    “You guys make a pretty good photo op.”–

    –

  27. Daniel in Brookline,

    You make some excellent points for Obama as fool. And you could well be right. Or he could be playing the fool, as I said. I think it interesting though that, fool or knave, all his actions serve the same purpose – that of de-constructing the U.S. as it now exists – or at least as it existed before he got his hands on it.

    Many of the acts you attribute to Obama as fool have the effect of sowing confusion, anger, and resentment by pitting one group of Americans against another. Or one country against another for that matter. Again, it conveniently serves a consistent purpose.

    Every day we wake to find some new outrage committed or planned by this administration. I don’t know about you but, my head is on a swivel. Could it all be by design? Could some of it be mere noise and mis-direction? I don’t pretend to know with any degree of certainty. Let me just suggest that we risk looking the wrong way at a critical moment if we are too dismissive of a man with a hidden agenda and the power to implement it.

  28. Another category has occurred to me: Pacific eel. Check out the Moray eel at Wiki: it is slimy, hides itself, cooperates with Groupers (groupies?) to hunt, and can be vicious.

  30. “Of course, the two attributes are not mutually exclusive. It’s a big tent; there’s room for both.”

    Properly understood, a fool *is* a knave.

    Being unable (due to one’s mental limitations) to understand something (and therefore being prone to making poor decisions) is not foolishness; that’s stupidity, and it can’t be helped.

    Lacking some knowledge which is necessary for making a wise or proper decision is not foolishness; that’s ignorance, and it can be corrected.

    Refusing to know some knowledge which is necessary for making a wise or proper decision, or knowing it but making the unwise or improper decision anyway, is what foolishness is.

    Foolishness is deliberate, and thus it is morally wicked.

  32. “Yeah, I suppose we’re paranoid thinking the MSM would stoop to covering things up. BUT, are we paranoid enough?”

    I recall a some comments Clinton made (they were broadcast and I heard them with my own ears), which I’ve never been able to find written references to.

    One was made (as I recall it) before he was elected, or at least before be assumed office, in which he said “during my reign [blah, blah, blah].”

    American Presidents do not “reign!”

    Another was made during the HillaryCare fiasco, herein Bill was praising Hill for her “strength,” which he said he so admired (and which, apparently, meant we were supposed to give her free pass). He spoke about witnessing her “strength” when she “giving birth to her child” — think about the wording he used.

  34. # KBK Says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 2:51 pm

    Earliest ref I can find to O’s quote is on Malkin on 13 Mar. Then neo picked up on it. Maybe made up?.

    With this guy, you don’t have to make anything up. The more unbelievable it may sound, the more likely it’s true.

    One hears it, and then almost refuses to credit what he’s just heard, thinking “NOBODY could possibly be that arrogant and conceited.” Then, later, he will say or do something else to confirm that, “Yes! He Can!!!”

    That particular quote was in an interview that I’m trying to remember who with.

    What’s happened to it has now convinced me to save copies of such gems in the future.

    –

  35. BO-zo is incompetent, corrupt AND arrogant. To adapt Dean Wormer, it’s no way to go through life. And it’s certainly no way to run a govt.

  37. Sometimes the Praetorian Guard picks their own emperor.

    Grimmy: What Praetorian Guard do you see that would pick Obama and could make it stick?

    One can debate Obama’s fool/knave quotient endlessly, but unless the Cylons attack, there is no way Obama is going to be the first American tyrant.

  38. by the way.
    a while back i put up informatino as to famous fools of courts.

    they are anything but stupid, so perhaps another choice may be in order. like natural fool which unlike the liscenced variety is what the definition says.

    look up Will sommers, Muckle John., George Buchanan, and especially Archibald Armstrong…

    and Jeffrey Hudson kind of fits the jester in the cask of amantillado…

  39. In literature, the jester is symbolic of common sense and of honesty, notably in King Lear, the court jester is a character used for insight and advice on the part of the monarch, taking advantage of his license to mock and speak freely to dispense frank observations and highlight the folly of his monarch. This presents a clashing irony as a “greater” man could dispense the same advice and find himself being detained in the dungeons or even executed. Only as the lowliest member of the court can the jester be the monarch’s most useful adviser.

  42. A bit OT, but I just saw at Instapundit that VDH has a book coming out next month: How the Obama Administration Threatens Our National Security. Use Neo’s link and put it in your shopping cart.

  43. I like many have pondered the nature of the faux Christian President of the United States.

    In fact on a Shawn Hannity radio show the other day he noted that he was of the view that President Obama did not see evil in Muslim terrorism. I gave further thought to it when I remembered reading an article where the discussion was on whether or not it was pragmatic to attack the President personally as opposed to his policies.

    Here is my take.

    I think that the President is by nature amoral. By nature he does not know the difference between good and evil so in making decisions he merely falls on the side that his narcissistic personality finds benefits him personally. He is indifferent to making decisions right or wrong just as long as he can get away with it and stay within the law.

    This amoral nature is compounded by a personality nurtured by his mother, by liberal, left wing influences (including those who were/are quite evil) and also by the immoral, corrupt Chicago Way which finished off the final product called Barrack Obama. He is therefore an immoral ideologue.

    In other words we have an individual who does not know the difference between right or wrong, who is capable of falling on any side of a story depending on how it furthers his ambitions and who has been nurtured and molded by the corruption of liberalism and the Chicago Way. It is a sorry and unfortunate stew for the American people.

    This personality crosses over into the perfect snake oil salesman because he has become a master of hiding his cold personality which is something he learnt traversing the world as a biracial individual who also had tinges of the Third World influences in his development. He has no reservations about throwing anyone under the bus who does not advance his ambitions. He keeps certain levels of communication to nods and winks so not to get himself complicit in certain decision-making to protect himself.

    Phenomenal politician but a classic snake oil salesman playing with and destroying the most exceptional nation placed on God’s Earth — sorry Allah’s Earth.

  44. If he’s a knave, he isn’t a brilliant one. Or else Obamacare would be a done deal by now. And the main debate would be cap and trade, at this point.

  45. Very interesting analysis Joseph10. Someday someone is going to write a critical psychobiography of dear leader. I suspect they will conclude, as most of us have, that O does not identify himself as part of the US, but as its natural master.
    We always come back to the same old question; what will it take for the public to catch on?

  46. Don said: “If he’s a knave, he isn’t a brilliant one. Or else Obamacare would be a done deal by now. And the main debate would be cap and trade, at this point.”

    Unless Obama care is the distractor for Copenhagen…….

  48. Pingback:The Lethargic Philosopher » Blog Archive » Is he or isn’t he?

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