Orrin Judd links to Jodi Kantor’s “Competitor in Chief” piece in the Gray Lady…
As Election Day approaches, President Obama is sharing a few important things about himself. He has mentioned more than once in recent weeks that he cooks “a really mean chili.” He has impressive musical pitch, he told an Iowa audience. He is “a surprisingly good pool player,” he informed an interviewer — not to mention (though he does) a doodler of unusual skill.
All in all, he joked at a recent New York fund-raiser with several famous basketball players in attendance, “it is very rare that I come to an event where I’m like the fifth or sixth most interesting person.” […]
Even by the standards of the political world, Mr. Obama’s obsession with virtuosity and proving himself the best are remarkable, those close to him say. […]
But even those loyal to Mr. Obama say that his quest for excellence can bleed into cockiness and that he tends to overestimate his capabilities.
…With a devastating reply: “In other words, the only conceivable reason that his academic records are still secret is because he’s a mediocrity.” A comment that leads perfectly into Thomas Sowell’s newest essay: “Obama’s ‘Confident Ignorance’ At Root Of His Failure:”
Barack Obama is one of those people who is often wrong but never in doubt. When he burst upon the national political scene as a presidential candidate in 2008, even some conservatives were impressed by his confidence.
But confident ignorance is one of the most dangerous qualities in a leader of a nation.
If he has the rhetorical skills to inspire the same confidence in himself by others, then you have the ingredients for national disaster.
Read the whole thing.™
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