01 July 2008

No there there

It is remarkable that now two savvy guys like Krugman and Brooks can’t figure out what Obama is. And neither seems to be playing coy to make a rhetorical point — they really don’t know.
But maybe that’s no accident. Obama has told us there is no there, there. In his book he wrote: “I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.” So perhaps searching for Obama’s “core” is a fool’s errand. He is glib and clever and seized upon a clever formulation (Agent of Change) to attract young and idealistic people longing for meaning. But perhaps that is all there is.

Read the whole thing.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No there there... or how about Chance from the Peter Sellers movie Being There, or how about Zelig. There are others about nobodies who become reknowned, despite having no substance. I think Obama fits into that category.