The President has a Rooseveltian opportunity, columnist Frank Rich wrote this weekend. Teddy Roosevelt was on his mind: stand off against the Titans of Oil, Wall Street and mining, suggested Rich. The field is empty. But the fact is, Obama could don the mantle of two Roosevelts at once.
(For the full F Word, please check out the video!)
Good heavens, Ms. Flanders.
Yes, of course, the President has an opportunity to be a Roosevelt. And Antonin Scalia has an opportunity to be William O. Douglass. Dana Milbank could become the next I.F. Stone.
What should be obvious is that there is no rational basis for having any such expectations.
I have much too much respect for your intelligence to assume that you actually believe otherwise.
A cynic would attribute your perpetrating this nonsense as paying dues for moving up the media food chain-for being considered a member of good standing in the cult of “serious” journalistic professionals.
Your audience doesn’t want to become cynical.
Please don’t force us to be.
By John Halle on June 8th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
I disagree with the previous commenter. If I understood correctly you borrowed the comparison from Robert Reich and extended upon it — a creative application of an ancient literary device. What is important is the idea itself — spending BP’s money to clean up their mess while making a potentially very large dent in the unemployment numbers — and I think it’s a good one. So do my 19-year-old niece and 21-year-old nephew, by the way.
If such a device obscures or distracts from the message sure it may bring out the cynics, but I personally can’t see this particular objection being widely shared. I think the idea’s good enough it merits framing in a large number of different ways, i.e., with and without Roosevelts, I intend to do my part, and hope you will too.
By Richard F. on June 14th, 2010 at 5:00 pm