Here’s an interesting article on PJ Media by Roger Simon, titled “Which Former President Does Barack Obama Most Resemble?”
The conventional wisdom, especially on the right, is that of all past presidents Barack Obama most closely resembles Jimmy Carter. Both men, after all, presided over parlous economic times and chose ultra-typical liberal solutions that did not work, apparently worsening the situation and leading to, in Carter’s own term, national “malaise.” Both men also had to deal with serious challenges from Iran and did so, to say the least, ineffectually.
I think that at one point, Carteresque was a best-case scenario. We’re well past that, into uncharted territory. Without spoiling the article too much, Simon has another recent president in mind.
My personal opinion is that if one were compelled to choose only one former president and limit the choices to numbers 1 through 43, the choice would be #28 Woodrow Wilson. Wilson gave us not only the Fed, but ultimately the UN. He was an academic who thought much more highly of himself and his knowledge than was warranted. He thought that our Federal system of government was highly flawed and favored a parliamentary government because our system of checks and balances impeded progress and made things too complicated. Wilson believed that he was selected by God to be president.
That’s if I had to choose only one. If one were to choose attributes of various presidents to create an Obama-like Frankenpresident, whole new vista open up: Nixon’s paranoia, LBJ & FDR’s free-spending socialist ways, Carter’s general ineptitude especially as it related to the Middle East, Buchanan’s indifference to how current events were shaping up to a complete disaster for the country in the very near future, Clinton’s willingness to evade the truth, Wilson’s unwarranted high opinion of himself.
I can’t think of a single actual good quality of Obama relative to any former president. His supposed eloquence is nothing more that high school speech class public speaking lessons on steroids and without a teleprompter is simply painful to listen to. His “cool” is simply manufactured or bestowed on him by sycophants.
What do you all think? Let’s hear your thoughts for both single person and multiperson.