The Great Man Theory - Barack Obama
70The Washington Post
- Michelle Obama warms up for campaign trail
The next challenge for the first lady is a six-state fund-raising swing beginning with an event for Sen. Russell Feingold in Wisconsin on Oct. 13
Author Unknown
A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She
lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him,
"Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour
ago, but I don't know where I am."
The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air
balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea
level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees,
49.09 minutes west longitude.
"She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be an Obama Democrat."
"I am," replied the man. "How did you know?"
"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is
technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and
I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."
The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Republican."
"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"
"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you
are going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air.
You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve
your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met,
but somehow, now it's my fault."
Heroes Shape History
I enjoy reading about President Obama from the perspective of professors, peers, scholars, friends, world figures because it helps ground the opinion I have formed of Obama the man.
Excerpted from the November 2008 Harvard Law Bulletin
- Artur Davis Harvard Law School class ‘93 still vividly recalls how much Obama inspired him with a speech he gave during orientation week on striving for excellence and mastery. Davis, now a United States Congressman from Alabama, insists he left that speech by Obama convinced he’d just heard a future Supreme Court justice—or president.
- "He's very unusual, in the sense that other students who might have something approximating his degree of insight are very intimidating to other students or inconsiderate and thoughtless," said Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor. "He's able to build upon what other students say and see what's valuable in their comments without belittling them."
Many Americans, me included, were immediately attracted to his calm demeanor, his eloquence, his humor, and his charisma. A natural born leader without the swagger or ego of other men in power, Barack Obama appeared like a demi-god rising out of the ashes of the political ruins of his demagogue predecessors (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld).
- Noun 1. demigod - a person with great powers and abilities superman, Ubermensch leader - a person who rules or guides or inspires others
- Noun 1. demagog - a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular passions and prejudices demagogue, rabble-rouser pol, political leader, politico, politician - a person active in party politics
Barack Obama rose above the din of the political campaigning to give hope for change and share a vision for our country and a world lost in the muck and mire of the previous administration.
I share Carlyle's belief in The Great Man Theory and believe President Barack Obama is this generations' Great Man.
Hirsch, E.D. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (Third Edition)
-
"The Great Man Theory is associated most often with 19th-century commentator and historian Thomas Carlyle, who commented that "The history of the world is but the biography of great men," reflecting his belief that heroes shape history through both their personal attributes and divine inspiration."
I truly believe, President Barack Obama will be written in history books as one of the greatest presidents and world leaders.
July 18th - Albany Park 2010 Voter Canvass Kickoff
The weather saw us coming again, just like Andersonville's canvass, with a downpour and a few thunder grumblings with the intent of intimidating us, but we would have nothing of it. Taking a few more minutes to chat, we waited out the wanna-be storm taking time to get to know our canvass team; Steve, Rory, Vince, Beth, Terrie, Diana and myself.
Before we could order another round of Double Chocolaty Chip Frappuccinos, the clouds parted, the sky turned an azure blue welcoming us with 90 degrees (feels like 96 degrees with humidity) temps as we stepped out of our air-conditioned haven in Starbucks, clipboards and commitment cards in hand.
The heat was brutal requiring an extra layer of staunch, allegiance to the cause of mid-term election Voter turnout. As beads of sweat cycled down our foreheads, chins and dripped from the soaked ends of our hair, we looked ever the "force of devotees" to the political process. No one could question our commitment to President Obama and our November 2010 candidates... we were an powerful alliance for the democratic faithful we encountered.
And I truly believe the unfaithful were more than a bit intimidated because no one challenged our support of President Obama and November's democratic candidates except to say "no thanx".
The experience was exhilirating, enlightening and successful as we met so many wonderful people on the streets of Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood, all with political stories to share, rants about tea-partiers, a willingness to listen, and a steadfast loyalty to support our President.
Thank you Terrie and Diana for organizing this event and Beth for being my partner... our thanks to Starbucks for hosting us and keeping us cool before and after the canvassing.
Onward to the next event because "yes, we can"...
June 5th - Andersonville 2010 Voter Canvass Kickoff
This morning's canvass kickoff event in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood was fantastic and a great success. The morning was cloudy, rainy and not very accommodating for canvassing, but our spirits were not dampened.
We met for about 20 minutes in Chicago's Coffehouse on Broadway and just as Faustina and I stepped out the door the clouds parted and the sun peaked through... my remarks, "if we finish the next 3 hours without the promised thunderstorms, our Man is really good."
We walked through our neighborhoods without so much as a raindrop failling on our heads. I know I was impressed, but I have been on a non-stop impressed train since the first words I heard spoken by Obama. Listening to Barack Obama is like reading the great American novel... it's moving, heartfelt, a poetic masterpiece of the english language, a spiritual, up-lifting experience. I will never tire of listening to our new President.
President Obama - June 2, 2010 Pittsburgh
"We have not feared our future; we have shaped it. America does not stand still; we move forward."
Stay engaged and informed... volunteer and participate... own your future!
Organizing for America
- Organizing For America Headquarters Blog
They say they want to take America backwhat they really mean is they want to take America backward, and were not going to let them do it
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CommentsLoading...
With all due respect Springboard, me and my delusional Obama supporter friends will just have to make sure that doesn't happen. Fortunately, your saying so doesn't make it so... I stand by my President.
Heroes do shape history... we need more of them!
I can certainly respect that. The poll numbers, however, currently shows that if an election were held today, Obama would not be reelected. Only time will tell, and there's still a bit of that left. Whatever happens, I can only hope it serves the country well.
Springboard, you are a gentleman and a scholar thank you for your respectful comment.
The only thing I can say is that I really do hope that President Obama helps to bring the world out of the state it is in at the moment. If he can do only a fraction of it then he will be a great president.
The world needs peace and I pray for that.
Obama has made some huge mistakes, I will give it that. However his intents on most things was honorable, just that he went about it the wrong way. The only big concerns currently with him is the whole Obama Dictatorship, with the now control over the majority of the Finance Sector, Auto industry, the ability to freeze the stocks, the ability to shut down the internet for up to 4 months without approval etc.
I would have to say Bush still will be known as one of the worst presidents we've had. Obama is right up there with Bush according to "statistical polls" however his intents at least wasn't focused around money like Bush.
KK
Another one, Sorry.
Barrack Obama did nothing but pander for presidential votes as a Senator, and now twenty months into his term government is made bigger, and the private sector keeps losing companies, jobs and benefits. If you are not a government worker than I don't understand what your world looks like.
I am not a democrat or a republican but I can see that the democrats cause the country more damage than the republicans. This makes them the lesser of two evils.
In California decades of democrat controlled state legislature and federal representation have grounded the economy. Year after year they have failed to pass a balanced budget, or even one on time. Currently they are 63 days passed due on this years budget, with a 19.1 billion dollar deficit.
The federal government deficit is in the trillions and increasing everyday.
sorry ~:{
Hello OD, to suggest the blame for an unbalanced budget is the fault of a single party is a bit short-sighted... it took more than a few years of Bush and Republican deregulation to send the economy into a worldwide plummet into the economic black hole, we are currently digging our way out of...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Recovery Act: How Obama's Stimulus Is Changing America
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599201368300
The stimulus has cut taxes for 95% of working Americans, bailed out every state, hustled record amounts of unemployment benefits and other aid to struggling families and funded more than 100,000 projects to upgrade roads, subways, schools, airports, military bases and much more.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Companies add 67K workers, but jobless rate rises
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599201368300
Companies added a net total of 67,000 new jobs last month and both July and June's private-sector job figures were upwardly revised, the Labor Department said Friday.
Scott Brown, an economist at Raymond James, said he sees no sign of the country slipping back into recession.
"You're still seeing broad-based job gains. It's not strong, but it's positive," Brown said.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Exactly... positive, instead of swiping at President Obama... why not be positive and work with him instead of against him.
Imagine what we could accomplish as a UNITED States of America!
Hi KKalmes,
I thought I'd stroll over and take a look at some of your hubs. This one about Obama particularly grabbed my attention. I enjoyed reading your thoughts on your current president and also took in some of the interesting comments left by your readers.
I must admit that I absolutely loathe the dirty mud-slinging side of politics but I do find it a really absorbing subject which is fundamental to our way of life.
This is my position with regards to Obama:
We all know about Bush and his two terms and the impact that he left upon the US and the rest of the world.
After Bush, there was a dire need for a fresh change in US leadership and when Obama rose to the forefront, it was not surprising that many saw him as the inspiration for setting the US back on course to regain the confidence of US citizens and the rest of the world.
Obama is an extremely gifted and eloquent speaker blessed with charisma. His speeches rouse and inspire people and that what's makes him special. But what makes him really unique is that he's the first coloured US President to ever be elected to office. This makes his drawing power even more far-reaching than just US soil. It gives hope to the underdogs like those in developing nations of the third world.
He is African by descent, with Kenyan heritage, if I can rightly remember. I love the underdog and I love Africa and it is my sincere hope that after his term (s) in office that he can say that hand on heart that he did his best for everyone to make the world a safer and more peaceful place without us having to lose more of our freedom and liberties.
I'm going to leave you with some food for thought. I'm sure you've probably heard of, if not already read the recent book by Naomi Klein, 'The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.' If you haven't then I'd thoroughly recommend you do.
There are many important ideas and points that the book raises but the point I'd like to share with you is the connection between that book and Obama.
Klein writes about Milton Friedman, the highly influential economist whose mission was to see the US use its political and if necessary military influence, to develop free markets throughout the world which would benefit America and especially its corporate fat cats.
Friedman was a professor at the University of Chicago where he taught his ideas. His department became a hot-bed of activity for developing and spreading his theory of free-markets. The consequences of his Machiavellian ideas were disastrous; and chaos ensued politically and economically, wherever Friedman's indoctrinated disciples were sent to - to work as economic advisors to governments.
Now this is the tenuous connection: Obama was a professor of law at the University of Chicago for more than ten years. My question is: Is it possible that some of Friedman's extremely radical ideas have been of some influence in developing Obama's thinking? This is where I now admit, I cannot go any further with this connection because I am not current with the day to day politics of the US.
I hope that my observation of a weak connection between Friedman's extremely radical ideas and the possible influence upon Obama is, for the sake of the US and for the rest of us, proven wrong; and that is why as much as I am happy to see Obama as president, I will, to be fair to him and the Democratic party, reserve final judgement on his performance, until after he has left office.
I am an idealist who has seen and experienced his fair share of dishonesty and deceit in this world, but I am still a fair and patient person who believes that people should be given time and not judged too hastily. Tough times allow us to see a person's true character behind all the facade and fancy grand-standing. I hope and pray like many others, that for the sake of your country and the rest of the world that Obama is that knight in shining armour and not a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Food for thought.
Hello Rich, how kind of you to stop and comment... I appreciate your thoughts.
If I could comfort all of America simply with my convictions about the sincerity and honesty of the honorable man who is our president it would be done.
Our country has learned to find deceit, collusion, and sinister conspiracy inside the hearts of every good man and woman since the Kennedy's were assasinated, Reverend King was shot, Nixon deep-throated his own country, Carter had lust in his heart, Reagan trumpeted star wars, Clinton did not have sex with that woman, Bush / Cheney / Rumsfeldt / Rove / convinced the world of WMD's.
We could go on and on... couldn't we?
Or we could trust our instincts and not the rhetoric of Fox Noise collectively, the Tea-Partiers truculence and belligerence, the utter nonsense of Palin / Angle / Bachmann / Brewer / Pawlenty / Boehner / et al...
Trust our hearts, our open minds, our sense of fair play and sound judgment.
He doesn't need to be a fairy tale Knight in Shining Armour... he just needs to be who I know him to be Barrack Hussein Obama, the man who is President.
hahahahahahaha
Hello PM, appreciate the laugh, beats deathless prose any time.
thanx for the read and the commentary...
KK
I would really like to understand your thought process and your value system, but your hubs and your comments don't give me anything to work with.
I mention the conditions that decade after decade of Democratic Controlled State Legislature in California and how California is 19 billion dollars in a budget deficit. Your response is that I am delusional.
That is hardly an appropriate response to my statements.
California has for many years been late by several months in passing a state budget much less one that is balanced.
A big reason for this might deficit is the state worker pensions and they keep adding up each year. Like the US Government the size of the workforce is obese and ineffective to the needs of the people.
I ask you to read further into my hubs on these issues, and like the one on restructuring Congress, you offer no insight into the ideas in these hubs.
It seems like you have blind faith in the left.
President Obama is just one step above Jimmy Carter, the worst president in recent times.
He also bashed George W Bush, and you complain about people bashing Obama. Is there a double standard here?
~:{
Hello OD, I think you have confused me with someone else... when did I suggest you were delusional and when did we discuss California... my recollection is never... unless you are also Springboard?
Jimmy Carter can't possibly be the worst president ever... unless we aren't including any republican presidents in this classification.
It seems OD that you only listen to what you are saying and thinking and no one (in particular, me) can get a thought in edge-wise.
I am not disappointed that you don't credit me for writing hubs of substance and insight... because they aren't your insights or your substance... I just consider the source... and move on... no offense meant!
KK, no disrespect but everyone or source you mentioned referring to Obama is all leftist material or comes from logical leftist biased sides! Do us the honor of reading Crimes Against Liberty by David Limbaugh, two years in the making and 18000 notes! Then get back to us!
Hello AR, missed you... was just thinking about you last night and thought I'd look you up to say "hi!". thanx for stopping by and I will check out your reading material suggestion... good to know you're still as right-biased as ever... absolutely, no disrespect intended or taken.
Is this true folks? Obama proposes euthanasia for the "too sick"! The video refers to Nazi Germany and their program of euthanasia. We helped Germany "get started on the "War Against the Weak" which is a book by the same name. But why would a Democrat propose a program that is clearly RIGHT WING fascism whacko? This is BUSINESS. But can someone explain this?:
Hello Micky, it is hard to fathom the minds that can contrive such bullshit and the pathology it requires to believe in it. These people get up every morning and go to bed every night knowing they are perpetrating an incredulous lie upon their listeners and they do it with a straight face.
It is unexplainable and because the guy is wearing a suit and has given some credentials that sound credible, many of the "right-wing, fascist-whackos" will use him as their factual source and perpetuate the lie he is pandering... and I will be the blind-loon that can't accept the crap he is espousing.
thanx for the visit... must admit I wish I hadn't watched this video though, I just upchucked my breakfast.
Very interesting selection of quotes. I've enjoyed reading your thoughts on him. :)
Hello TT, thanx for stopping by glad to have a new friend.
NRDC Press Releases
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CHICAGO (May 23, 2012) – The controversy over air pollution permits awarded by the State of Indiana to expand BP’s refinery in Whiting has come to an end with a precedent-setting settlement that will cut emissions from the highly-polluting tar sands oil project and provide stronger air quality protections for Northwest Indiana and Chicago residents. - 4 days ago
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WASHINGTON (May 23, 2012) -- Three Natural Resources Defense Council experts are scheduled to testify Thursday at a public hearing here convened by the Environmental Protection Agency on its proposed rule to limit to industrial carbon pollution from new power plants. - 4 days ago
Kkalmes Hubs
- A Working America Needs Leaders with Heart and a Soul Not Sold to the Money Devils
"All public service is a trust, given in faith and accepted in honor. - 9 months ago
- The Political Time-Out Chair - Republicans Push Tax Cuts for Wealthy
Newsflash: Unless you are already wealthy, the heir apparent to wealth, marrying into wealth, or on the verge of becoming the next cyber-genius, or the next top Hollywood earner... - 18 months ago
- Dear President Barack Obama
The highest praise I can think to share with you is the fact that I am proud to be an American with President Barack Obama as my president. - 20 months ago
- The Political Time-Out Chair - Democrats with Attitude
And if it isn't bad enough that people do not value honor or self-respect as currency to measure a life well-spent... - 20 months ago
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Choose from a wide range of cool-to-own DVD sets, including one featuring four "Batman" movies, a Sandra Bullock collection, and more. Offer ends 11/27/10. - 19 months ago
Kkalmes - A Life Extra Ordinary
- A Life Extra Ordinary - Chapter 1, Page 5
Moving to the city was a bold move for Kathryn after a life-time of living in the burbs and rural areas of northern Illinois. What made her even think of such a dramatic change and at her age? - 23 months ago
- A Life Extra Ordinary - Chapter 2, Page 12
Moving to the city was a bold move for Kathryn after a life-time of living in the burbs and rural areas of northern Illinois. What made her even think of such a dramatic change and at her age? - 19 months ago
- A Life Extra Ordinary - Chapter 2, Page 11
Moving to the city was a bold move for Kathryn after a life-time of living in the burbs and rural areas of northern Illinois. What made her even think of such a dramatic change and at her age? - 19 months ago
Springboard Level 5 Commenter 23 months ago
With all due respect, I think you are delusional. And I'm not in any way denegrating your take. It is clear by the numbers and the sentiment that President Obama will be a one term president, and I think will replace Carter as one of the worst presidents we've had in our generation.