Is Obama Smart?  It’s a question that more and more people are asking.  His devoted fans like to note that he made it through Columbia and Harvard—supposedly a stark contrast to Rick Perry’s less-than-stellar transcript from Texas A&M, though Obama’s refusal to release his own transcripts does blunt the comparison.

More to the point though, the evidence seems conflicting.  On the one hand, he ran a remarkable campaign in 2008.  He sensed what the American people needed to hear, and he emerged from nowhere to defeat vastly more qualified opponents.  On the other hand, his performance as President has been dismal.  Most Americans recognize that his policy preferences range from the irrelevant to the counterproductive, and leftists contend that he has been ineffectual in pursuit of their agenda.

So is Obama smart?  Yes.  Obama is a certain kind of smart.  Unfortunately, it’s the wrong kind.  President Obama is the sort of smart that our finest institutions recognize, promote, and reward.  There is no surer path to academic success than learning the orthodoxy of your field and the particular bent of your professor; explaining why only those blessed with suitable experience, training, and insight can comprehend the complex problem under consideration; and then parroting the professor’s previously articulated answers shortly before he or she reveals them to the class.  Mastery of this skill continues to pay dividends in the real world, most prominently among business consultants versed in telling corporate boards what they want to hear, and attorneys capable of tailoring their arguments to the predispositions of the judges before whom they appear.

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Thomas Paine. John Jay. Take a survey of current conservative/libertarian activists and you will probably find Paine’s numbers higher on the recognition scale. Everybody, it seems, likes to quote him. Even Ronald Reagan used Paine’s words when he said, “We have the power to begin the world anew.” Paine’s Common Sense was the catalyst as the American colonies reluctantly concluded that independence from Britain was necessary. His Crisis series of newspaper articles, begun at a low point in the American Revolution, are stirring. Even many of our poorly educated students probably can recall hearing these words somewhere: “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

Thomas Paine: Wordsmith

Yet this man who made such an impact on the early days of the Revolution was an utter failure in business back in England, was dismissed from his position as excise officer because of neglect of duty, and separated from his wife in 1774 just as he decided to emigrate to America. If not for Common Sense, in particular, his influence on the new nation would have been negligible. Some people are great with words and little else. Paine fit that mold.

When the American Revolution ended, he tried his hand at inventing, but being unsuccessful at that, he eventually traveled to France to take part in the Revolution stirring there. He became a French citizen, served in the Convention [legislature], though without distinction [he couldn't speak French], and ended up in prison when the Revolution took an even more radical turn. Only the intercession of the American ambassador James Monroe extricated Paine from that predicament.

He then wrote The Age of Reason, an attack upon Christianity that did not go over well with the American public. Upon returning to America in 1802, he was not well received because of his radical religious views. Poverty, poor health, and alcoholism dominated his final years; his funeral in 1809 was attended by six people.

The name John Jay is relegated to the dim recesses of this same time period, at least among those who have only a cursory knowledge of the beginnings of the United States. Those who have studied it in depth realize what a debt is owed this man.

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Today, in 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense.

THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

– Thomas Paine, The Crisis, December 23, 1776

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”

– Esther 4:14

These are interesting times. Under President Obama and the most liberal Congress since 1965, the United States government is expected to borrow a trillion dollars per year for the next decade while the size and power of our federal government will grow at the expense of our liberties. 

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