megimoo
08-17-2009, 08:10 AM
"At a dinner to celebrate Bill Clinton's first presidential victory [Rahm Emanuel] began to reel off the names of those who had 'crossed' him. He grabbed a steak knife and began plunging it into the table shouting "Dead! Dead! Dead!" after each name.
"When he was done the table looked like a lunar landscape," a witness relates. "It was like something out of The Godfather. But that's Rahm for you." Times of London
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snip
When it comes to politicians I feel a lot more dubious about fanaticism. Zealots always have blind spots. I don't mind total dedication in monks or in US Marines. But leaders are supposed to be mature, wise, and thoughtful. They are supposed to be open-minded about policy choices, so they can figure out the best ones to go for. That's what we elect them for.
..................................
The looming ObamaCare fiasco is a classic example of a public policy plan that has never been weighed against the alternatives. .............................
Even liberal economists are saying it. Any consistent reader of the Wall Street Journal knows more about healthcare options than the Obama administration's "experts" do. That's why ObamaCare fails so badly against choices that are more practical, far less expensive, and much more humane and respectful to all concerned. O-Care is simply not a result of a balanced, fair-minded assessment of human needs and costs.
....................................
On the contrary. It is a plan so single-minded, so monomaniacal, so disruptive, grandiose and blind to the alternatives that it is even now crashing in the minds of a shell-shocked public.
...........................................
This is the result of fanaticism, not balanced thinking. That seems to be President Obama's way. This White House defines a goal like Arab-Israeli Peace in the Middle East, or Health Care for All, and goes hell for leather, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead --
without ever pausing to think, or to listening to people who have spent decades dealing with these questions --
if they dissent from Obama orthodoxy. Any opposition is interpreted as bad faith rather than reasoned disagreement. Critics must be evil or racist. That is the state of mind of jihadis going on suicide missions. It is not how intelligent policy makers operate.
.............................................
And of course we have a Secretary of State who wrote her Wellesley thesis on on Saul Alinsky. She used an Alinsky quote for her title, in big capital letters:
THERE IS ONLY THE FIGHT
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/08/on_being_ruled_by_fanatics.html
"When he was done the table looked like a lunar landscape," a witness relates. "It was like something out of The Godfather. But that's Rahm for you." Times of London
..................................
snip
When it comes to politicians I feel a lot more dubious about fanaticism. Zealots always have blind spots. I don't mind total dedication in monks or in US Marines. But leaders are supposed to be mature, wise, and thoughtful. They are supposed to be open-minded about policy choices, so they can figure out the best ones to go for. That's what we elect them for.
..................................
The looming ObamaCare fiasco is a classic example of a public policy plan that has never been weighed against the alternatives. .............................
Even liberal economists are saying it. Any consistent reader of the Wall Street Journal knows more about healthcare options than the Obama administration's "experts" do. That's why ObamaCare fails so badly against choices that are more practical, far less expensive, and much more humane and respectful to all concerned. O-Care is simply not a result of a balanced, fair-minded assessment of human needs and costs.
....................................
On the contrary. It is a plan so single-minded, so monomaniacal, so disruptive, grandiose and blind to the alternatives that it is even now crashing in the minds of a shell-shocked public.
...........................................
This is the result of fanaticism, not balanced thinking. That seems to be President Obama's way. This White House defines a goal like Arab-Israeli Peace in the Middle East, or Health Care for All, and goes hell for leather, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead --
without ever pausing to think, or to listening to people who have spent decades dealing with these questions --
if they dissent from Obama orthodoxy. Any opposition is interpreted as bad faith rather than reasoned disagreement. Critics must be evil or racist. That is the state of mind of jihadis going on suicide missions. It is not how intelligent policy makers operate.
.............................................
And of course we have a Secretary of State who wrote her Wellesley thesis on on Saul Alinsky. She used an Alinsky quote for her title, in big capital letters:
THERE IS ONLY THE FIGHT
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/08/on_being_ruled_by_fanatics.html