Soccer Dad

Plato obama

The New York Times covers a book that claims In Writings of Obama, a Philosophy Is Unearthed (via memeorandum). The philosophy of the President as claimed by the book's author is one of "pragmatism." But more than that:

"He would have had to deny every word," Mr. Kloppenberg said with a smile. The reason, he explained, is his conclusion that President Obama is a true intellectual -- a word that is frequently considered an epithet among populists with a robust suspicion of Ivy League elites.

In New York City last week to give a standing-room-only lecture about his forthcoming intellectual biography, "Reading Obama: Dreams, Hopes, and the American Political Tradition," Mr. Kloppenberg explained that he sees Mr. Obama as a kind of philosopher president, a rare breed that can be found only a handful of times in American history.

"There's John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and John Quincy Adams, then Abraham Lincoln and in the 20th century just Woodrow Wilson," he said.

(Woodrow Wilson? Really?

Only someone suffering partisan amnesia could believe Bush has been a more "radical" president than, say, Woodrow Wilson, under whom antiwar dissidents were thrown in jail and beaten in the streets. Wilson was the first president to openly deride the Constitution, mocking the "Fourth of July sentiments" of those who cared too much about its meaning. Where Bush reaches out to American Muslims and illegal immigrants, Wilson demonized immigrants and "hyphenated Americans" with a venom unimaginable today. "I cannot say too often -- any man who carries a hyphen about with him carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this republic," Wilson said in 1919.

Is that a comparison Kloppenberg really wants to make?)

The idea that President Obama is some sort of noble philosopher king is absurd. Whether it's his "Ya think?"; his dismissal of opponents; or his base political instincts it's hard to think of him of as a philosopher, but rather as a political brawler.

Then we get to the end of the article and we have:

And despite Mr. Kloppenberg's focus on the president's intellectual evolution, most listeners wanted to talk about his political record.

"There seemed to be skepticism regarding whether Obama's intellectual background actually translated into policies that the mostly left-leaning audience could get behind," Mr. Hartman said. "Several audience members, myself included, probably view Obama the president as a centrist like Clinton rather than a progressive intellectual as painted by Kloppenberg."

Note what this quote does. It makes the President into a centrist! By the standards of Prof Kloppenberg's audience maybe he is. But using this quote is a way of showing that Kloppernberg's thesis is pretty normal, not extreme like his audience.

Ann Althouse has additional thoughts.