Autumn
06-19-2009, 08:15 AM
I read this piece in Harper's and thought it was very well done, and thought provoking. I actually knew a lot less about Herbert Hoover than I thought I did. Please note that Harper's is a rather liberal leaning magazine, and thus the author is speaking to that audience. Obviously if you are not that audience you are not going to agree with most of his assumptions.
It's still an interesting read for anyone, I think, but not those who can't get past that.
The Tease:
Obama’s failure would be unthinkable. And yet the best indications now are that he will fail, because he will be unable—indeed he will refuse—to seize the radical moment at hand.
Every instinct the president has honed, every voice he hears in Washington, every inclination of our political culture urges incrementalism, urges deliberation, if any significant change is to be brought about. The trouble is that we are at one of those rare moments in history when the radical becomes pragmatic, when deliberation and compromise foster disaster. The question is not what can be done but what must be done.
Obama has frequently been compared with Franklin Roosevelt. So far, though, he most resembles the other president who had to confront that crisis, Herbert Hoover.
The link:
hxxp://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/07/0082562
It's still an interesting read for anyone, I think, but not those who can't get past that.
The Tease:
Obama’s failure would be unthinkable. And yet the best indications now are that he will fail, because he will be unable—indeed he will refuse—to seize the radical moment at hand.
Every instinct the president has honed, every voice he hears in Washington, every inclination of our political culture urges incrementalism, urges deliberation, if any significant change is to be brought about. The trouble is that we are at one of those rare moments in history when the radical becomes pragmatic, when deliberation and compromise foster disaster. The question is not what can be done but what must be done.
Obama has frequently been compared with Franklin Roosevelt. So far, though, he most resembles the other president who had to confront that crisis, Herbert Hoover.
The link:
hxxp://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/07/0082562