Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

[walrus]

Re: Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

How do you know that Kepler's met him?

I just assume, he used to wax poetic about him on a regular basis

 

[pirate]

Re: Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

One of the recent criticisms of the SEC and CFTC is that they have far too many lawyers, and too few people trained in finance and mathematics to properly monitor companies and instruments. A similar remark was made to me by one of our lobbyists of congressional staffers when Dodd-Frank was rearing its very ugly head. Smart people, but not where it counts.

The idea that all smart people understand everything is concerning. I'm 'smart' according to Dave Barry, but I wouldn't be the guy debating physics with an expert.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

The idea that all smart people understand everything is concerning. I'm 'smart' according to Dave Barry, but I wouldn't be the guy debating physics with an expert.

This is called the Shockley Effect, after the guy who helped invent the transistor (genius) then decided he was also an expert in eugenics and racial intelligence (idiocy). There's unfortunately no guarantee that intelligent people are any better than average people in recognizing their weaknesses -- that's not intelligence, but pride, hubris, or parochialism.

Nobody is educated in or understands everything (or even a significant fraction of everything). For that matter, education highly correlates with intelligence only where opportunity is equal, and that's often not the case (not only the Middle East, but Middle America has large swathes where education is unavailable, not stressed or even looked down on).

 

[Kepler]

Re: Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

How do you know that Kepler's met him?

I've never met him. My wife worked with him on the Hill. FWIW, her reaction was (paraphrased) "completely Harvard: smart, but not MIT smart, slick but still not able to hide how pleased he is with himself, and possessed of the soulless eyes of infinite ambition."

So, basically, every senior staffer in DC plus enough charisma to be his own front man. Newt with a little more class.

 

[Red Cloud]

Re: Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

I just assume, he used to wax poetic about him on a regular basis

I dunno, there are a ton of people who haven't met the President and yet still verbally fellate him on a regular basis.

 

[busterman62]

Re: Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

I've never met him. My wife worked with him on the Hill. FWIW, her reaction was (paraphrased) "completely Harvard: smart, but not MIT smart, slick but still not able to hide how pleased he is with himself, and possessed of the soulless eyes of infinite ambition."

It appears that your wife is both smart and has common sense. Or maybe she's not an idiot. Bright and sensible? Whatever. A very astute assessment on her part.

 

[ScottM]

Re: Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

I've never met him. My wife worked with him on the Hill. FWIW, her reaction was (paraphrased) "completely Harvard: smart, but not MIT smart, slick but still not able to hide how pleased he is with himself, and possessed of the soulless eyes of infinite ambition."

I'm not sure that would look very good in a campaign ad ...

 

[huskyfan]

Re: Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

I've never met him. My wife worked with him on the Hill. FWIW, her reaction was (paraphrased) "completely Harvard: smart, but not MIT smart, slick but still not able to hide how pleased he is with himself, and possessed of the soulless eyes of infinite ambition."

So, basically, every senior staffer in DC plus enough charisma to be his own front man. Newt with a little more class.

and you still voted for him??!!?

 

[Kepler]

Re: Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

and you still voted for him??!!?

She worked with the other guy, too.

 

[Tundra]

Re: Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

The idea that all smart people understand everything is concerning. I'm 'smart' according to Dave Barry, but I wouldn't be the guy debating physics with an expert.

Uh but are you money smart. stock smart. bond trader smart. hedge fund smart. Bill Gates smart. Buffet smart. or Goldman Sach ceo smart.

 

[pirate]

Re: Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

This is called the Shockley Effect, after the guy who helped invent the transistor (genius) then decided he was also an expert in eugenics and racial intelligence (idiocy). There's unfortunately no guarantee that intelligent people are any better than average people in recognizing their weaknesses -- that's not intelligence, but pride, hubris, or parochialism.

Nobody is educated in or understands everything (or even a significant fraction of everything). For that matter, education highly correlates with intelligence only where opportunity is equal, and that's often not the case (not only the Middle East, but Middle America has large swathes where education is unavailable, not stressed or even looked down on).

Which is why I don't think that just being a smart person makes a senator or a staffer capable of handling what gets presented to the specific committees...so, maybe we agree with each other. (although, I did call them idiots, which I think is true but I can't prove )

I was trying to point out that they might have been the top 1% as you said, and that is probably better than them being the bottom 1% but, when it comes to making policy for the entire country, it might be a good idea to have people who 'get' the subject not people who scored well on the verbal section of the SAT's.

Maybe the reason the CBO can't get estimates right and Congress keeps believing their mistakes is that the estimators and staffers weren't math/business majors...one easy way to tell...look at the walls, it will be easy to tell if they were art majors.

 

[Bob Gray]

Re: Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

Which is why I don't think that just being a smart person makes a senator or a staffer capable of handling what gets presented to the specific committees...so, maybe we agree with each other. (although, I did call them idiots, which I think is true but I can't prove )

I was trying to point out that they might have been the top 1% as you said, and that is probably better than them being the bottom 1% but, when it comes to making policy for the entire country, it might be a good idea to have people who 'get' the subject not people who scored well on the verbal section of the SAT's.

Maybe the reason the CBO can't get estimates right and Congress keeps believing their mistakes is that the estimators and staffers weren't math/business majors...one easy way to tell...look at the walls, it will be easy to tell if they were art majors.

The reason the CBO can't get estimates right is that by law they are required to use the assumptions they are given by the congressmen who put forward a given bill. So, like on health care, they had to use various unrealistic assumptions given them by the supporters of the healthcare bill to make it look more financially sound than it was. The CBO is not an independent body that can make their best economic analysis as they see fit.

 

[WeWantMore]

Re: Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

Cover of Time magazine this week:
http://img.timeinc.net/time/daily/2010/1007/time_cover_0809.jpg

(warning, kind of graphic)

 

[pirate]

Re: Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

The reason the CBO can't get estimates right is that by law they are required to use the assumptions they are given by the congressmen who put forward a given bill. So, like on health care, they had to use various unrealistic assumptions given them by the supporters of the healthcare bill to make it look more financially sound than it was. The CBO is not an independent body that can make their best economic analysis as they see fit.

Bob it is my understanding that the CBO then takes those various estimates and may develop trends and/or fill in blanks before producing the final numbers. Those numbers are then 'previewed' by the interested parties and miraculously come out just where they need to ... I'm painfully aware that they start with flawed info from the staffers who have already made up their mind what the answer needs to be based on a directive from a senior person in their party. Money, jobs, laws etc. are all spent/produced out of the same system.

Anywhere else it would be a crime. In DC it is just another day at the office.

 

[huskyfan]

Re: Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

She worked with the other guy, too.

what was her read on him?

 

[amherstblackbear]

Re: Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

The idea that all smart people understand everything is concerning.

True, but so is the "posty" disavowal of all expertise that, strangely, finds a home in the minds of so many on the right.

/William Buckley

 

[Red Cloud]

Re: Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

True, but so is the "posty" disavowal of all expertise that, strangely, finds a home in the minds of so many on the right.

/William Buckley

It's pushback. If you don't even know me and yet aren't willing to trust me, I'm a lot less likely to trust you whether I know you or not.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

what was her read on him?

(Paraphrasing again): extremely moody, from avuncular to petulant in seconds. Intense and often bullying to people around him, especially those in secondary positions. Extremely loyal to his friends, who are on both sides of the aisle. More knowledgeable than he lets on. Very short.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

I was trying to point out that they might have been the top 1% as you said, and that is probably better than them being the bottom 1% but, when it comes to making policy for the entire country, it might be a good idea to have people who 'get' the subject not people who scored well on the verbal section of the SAT's.

That is how it is made, though. No policy gets made without the equivalent of a million pages of amicus briefs from every conceivable interested and expert party. The division of labor is roughly:

think tanks: write draft language

staffers: horse trade with their counterparts and make the sausage come out the other end

members: provide political cover (if in support), attempt sabotage (if against) or sell their vote to build up favors from colleagues and bribes, er, contributions from lobbyists (if they don't care).


The "scored highest on the SATs" part is really all about networking -- "You were at Georgetown Law? Huh, I was at Georgetown Law. Let's have dinner and talk about the appropriations bill." It's contacts and Rolodexes, because at the end of the day legislative deals get made just like any other business deal -- informally over drinks with people you have something to talk about with. "How a bill becomes a law" is governed by the same dynamic that controls who sits together in high school.

The bar scene in "In the Loop" (and the hangover scene the next day) is the most accurate portrayal of how Washington works I've ever seen.

 

[WeWantMore]

Re: Obama XIII: It's all Bush's fault.

(Paraphrasing again): extremely moody, from avuncular to petulant in seconds. Intense and often bullying to people around him, especially those in secondary positions. Extremely loyal to his friends, who are on both sides of the aisle. More knowledgeable than he lets on. Very short.

Well, that's good. Because if the 2008 campaign taught us anything, we are all John McCain's friends.