You will be the worst write

Obama as Mandarin seems a good deal more accurate than Obama as Socialist. Doesn't have the same ring to it, though.

Of course, he's also a special kind of Mandarin. A very modern kind. He's technocratic. That is, he believes that all the crucial political questions have been answered once and for all and all that's left for us to do now is haggle over policy. Political rule is now merely a matter of techne - we're still perfecting it, of course, but give the best minds long enough and they will have our governance down to a science. Or, rather, a (social) engineering problem. Pay no attention to all the failures well out in front of the curtain.

His Mandarin, technocratic view I think explains his typical dismissive attitude towards "the other side." It is typical of the modern Liberal to regard the Conservative as at best an unenlightened chap who will change his mind once he comes to all the "right" answers on political questions that the Liberal has already internalized.

The proclamation that "the debate is over" during health care is one of the best exemplars of this view; for the more visually inclined, consider his look of mild condescension in the video where Rep. Paul Ryan spells out the ideological divide between Democrats and Republicans. Ryan describes (correctly, and with only a hint of partisanship) the different sides of a fundamental philosophical division. Obama listens as mild as any Mandarin to the gabble of the unelect.

It's classic projection, of course, that Liberals constantly accuse Conservatives of being closed-minded. I think ol' Harvard man Harvey Mansfield said it best when he said the Conservative knows there will always be a Left in one form or another, while the Liberal imagines he will one day inherit the earth. Which philosophy seems to you to be the more "closed"?

A chilling concept. But each new crisis reveals a little more of the man. I guess we keep on watching and questioning.

Thanks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE

Just in case you somehow missed this.

On this, the 69th anniversary of the now third deadliest day in American history, I'll pause to remember the past both long ago and recent and think of your words in light of the future. Thank you.

My Aunt Edna's birthday was also 12/7. She served in the WACs.