Monday, December 11, 2017

George & Michelle


I am really enjoying Obama's "The Audacity of Hope."

NYTimes book reviewer Michio Kakutani is quoted on the back of my copy:
"[Obama] is that rare politician who can actually write - and write movingly and genuinely about himself... [He] strives in these pages to ground his policy thinking in simple common sense... while articulating these ideas in level-headed, nonpartisan prose."
And it's absolutely true. He writes very well.

And bonus, I think I've discovered the first time that George W. Bush took note of Michelle Obama:
"Obama!" the President [Bush] said, shaking my hand. "Come here and meet Laura. Laura, you remember Obama. We saw him on TV during election night. Beautiful family. And that wife of yours - that's one impressive lady."
In the age of Trump it's easy to feel friendly towards Bush, especially when you see photos of him with Michelle Obama. It's hard to believe now that we all once thought he'd go down in history as the worst president ever.

But he was pretty awful. I think his lowest point was the infamous White House Correspondent's dinner joke about looking for weapons of mass destruction. He was re-elected after that. I couldn't believe it. Some Bush hater made this video about it. The point still stands about the wanton awful destruction of the Iraq war.

But if Trump makes George Bush look good, he makes Obama look like a god. Or as I said last year: hyperion to a satyr.