Showing posts with label substance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label substance. Show all posts

Friday, November 23, 2018

Jamokes


If you think President Trump is dismissive of world leaders, watch President Obama call the G-20 leaders, his US Senate colleagues, his Illinois Senate colleges and the local Chicago aldermen  "jamokes"  (clumsy ineffectual doofuses) ... The American Mirror Story and Video.

I realize it is rather futile to point out that, had Trump been so disparaging of such peers, he would be keel-hauled by the media (even FOX).

I think that the world is now obsessed with style and could give not a twit for substance anymore. Perhaps we are all ... except the chosen one ... jamokes?

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Presidential Ratings, FDR yo DJT


Inspired by my precious distinction between rating Trump by his style versus his substance (what good gets done), I have gone back and rated all presidents in my lifetime by these metrics ... see below:

                 Substance            Style
FDR                6                       8
HST                 7                      4
DDE                8                       6
JFK                  4                     10
RMN                8                       3
GHF                 5                       3
JEC                  2                        5
RWR                9                        9
GHWB             6                       7
WJC                 6                        2
GHB                 4                       4
BHO                 1                       8
DJT                   9                       2

We Americans seem to be quite enamored with style versus substance ... which explains a lot of Trump's "Resistance" problems ... and much of Obama's piss-poor performance legacy.

Obvious Truth #5


Donald Trump's growing popularity is a very rare example of the victory of substance over style. -- Anon.

Wednesday, April 04, 2018

Another Contrast


I have previously enjoyed comparing President Trump with his predecessor, Obama --- style vs. substance, process vs. politics, etc. Now I have another idea about how to draw this contrast and why Trump has generated so much anxiety and animosity among his opposition. This time the contrast has to do with visibility. Because of his continuous tweeting, President Trump is very much an open book regarding his positions and direction ... very likely why his base is so attracted to him.

In contrast,  a lot of President Obama's "fundamental change" was accomplished behind the bureaucratic curtain ... in the deep state. Yes, Obama did communicate well with his TelePrompter ... but it was mostly in his own kind of code. Much of his real intent was not on the surface. In fact, he also put forward much purposeful mendacity like Obamacare ... whereas, much of Trump's "lying" is indicative of his round-about decision process. It is an iterative process involving a series of zeroing in on his final policy. This process can be upsetting to those who don't believe that Trump's heart is right ... particularly when the media fans the foams of these anxieties.

To summarize in just a few words: Trump is up front with a nationalist populist agenda whereas Obama was folksily opaque with a globalist new-world-order objective.