a wolf angel is not a good angel

Even the CBC is talking about the primaries today. Which is understandable, what with them being all important and groundbreaking. But I am sick of listening to, for instance, electoral officers in California whining that they need to count the ballots! By hand! It might take them hours! California has about the same number of people as Canada, over much less area. So I do not believe that it might take them days to count all the ballots, unless they are idiots about planning for this non-surprise primary.

They were also talking about how Obama just isn’t able to make the witty retort in a debate. It’s just not a talent he has. Which is a load of crap. Yes, certainly it’s easier for some people to do the quotable phrase, and some subjects lend themselves to it more than others. But it’s a skill, a learnable one, especially if you’re as intelligent as Obama clearly is. It may not be a skill he thinks is worth learning, or it may be useful to him to be able to claim that he can’t do the witty remarks, he can only do the long, well-thought out speeches.

What amazed me was the credulity – or feigned credulity – of the hosts. “Why yes! Obama is just not able to come up with bon mots! Absolutely! Nor can any of the speechwriters he has, nor are there any speechwriters capable of coming up with them who are willing to work on the Obama campaign.”

It’s a skill, like charm, not an inborn talent. It requires practice. This is something which a radio interview host ought to know, because it’s a skill they use, too.

Things are a lot easier once you realize they’re practiced skills. He’s not charming, he is actively charming you. Charm as a verb. It’s great to have that ability, and it’s clear some people have it more easily than others, but it’s something people can choose to do or not, and it’s something I am wary of, because it’s so often used cleverly, to mask something else. (Usually, but not always, to mask obnoxious levels of self-interest.)

I, of course, am effortlessly charming, and clever, and am never hiding a hidden agenda. Vote for me! I won’t bother to do much, which means I won’t do anything wrong.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 12:19 pm and is filed under lunacy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.