I am not a trekkie, but I watched some episodes of Star Trek back in the 60’s and I did see a movie, but I can’t remember which one. With all the hubbub over the new Star Trek movie, there are some folks comparing President Obama to Spock, referring to him as the “cerebral” President. Though I have problems referring to the President as brilliant, I can accept cerebral. I can see Obama as Spock, a man driven by his intellectual convictions, devoid of a human heart – a machine.
But is a Spock the kind of guy that you want to be a leader of a nation?
Here is a spockish moment for Obama:
“I was struck by an article that I was reading the other day talking about the fact that the British during World War II, when London was being bombed to smithereens [and] had 200 or so detainees. And Churchill said, ‘We don’t torture, Churchill understood, you start taking shortcuts, and over time, that corrodes what’s best in a people.”
I am not sure if it can get anymore creepier than this. Here is Obama in his element – as a Spock: he uses Churchill as an example of letting men, women and children die around him – but will not waterboard an enemy combatant to do anything about it. (Of course Obama was wrong about Churchill anyway. Someone needs to study their history).
Obama as Spock, a man who is cerebral but without a heart – will be perfectly content in letting Americans die around him as they are being bombed to smithereens. He will be perfectly content with his intellectual argument that he is right.
But if Obama is Spock, then Bush is Captain Kirk. Kirk understood his role as a leader and protector, and was willing not only to lay his life on the line, but pushed the envelope of what was considered acceptable in order to achieve victory over the enemy.
In the aftermath of 9/11, with over 3,000 dead, President Bush was unwilling to let anymore Americans die from acts of terrorism. He pushed the limits of legality, but remained legal; he pushed definitions, but remained within them.
He understood that the issue wasn’t torture, the issue was if waterboarding a terrorist to save lives was torture. With Constitutional lawyers in hand, it was determined that waterboarding was acceptable and lives were saved.
To waterboard or not to waterboard isn’t the question. The real question is this: who makes a better leader and president – Spock or Captain Kirk?
More articles:
Leadership: If Barack Obama is Spock, Sarah Palin is Kirk by Leigh Scott
‘The Dowd Conundrum’ by Bill Whittle
Bidenrrhea of the mouth By Michelle Malkin
‘Beam me up Barack’: Obama as Vulcan? – Breitbart.com
Oh my: Jim Webb flip-flops, now opposes closing Guantanamo – Hot Air
A Conversation with Barack Obama – Newsweek
The Ten Commandments in the Worlds of ‘Star Trek’
‘Star Trek’: Abrams Makes Optimism Cool Again
by S.T. Karnick
Filed under: Barack Obama, CIA interrogations | Tagged: Barack Obama, Captian Kirk, Churchill, George Bush, Spock, waterboarding
You. Nail. Head.
I loved Star Trek. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, the story line was ALWAYS about the fight between good and evil, how good MUST prevail, and how, sometimes, one must use violence as a means to an end. One of my favorite lines is that their phaser (lazer gun) was a “defensive weapon.” In other words, speak softly and carry a big stick in order to PROTECT yourself.
I have always thought that too much education is dangerous–you expect your enemies to be on the same level as you…we sane Americans know that terrorists would gladly lop off the head of obamatard as well as Bush. Obama is so sure of his position that he cannot comprehend anyone thinking any other way. He and his administration’s “group think” is going to get innocent Americans killed.
I’m not sure it’s too much education that’s the problem, but rather the desire to stay in the safe environment of the classroom and being afraid to act in the real world. When you think about it, Obama has spent most of his life/career isolated from having to make any hard decisions. He was way too inexperienced to take the office of President and nothing he has done since he’s been in has convinced me otherwise. The comparisons between him and Spock are interesting for that reason. If you watch the new movie, Spock’s biggest flaw is a failure to act. It may look like he’s over-thinking the situation, but really, he’s looking for someone else to tell him what to do. I see Obama as that kind of guy.
for those of us who are trekkies, this is a GREAT analogy! LOL. I agree. Also for those who love ST, and understand the properties of Kirk, Kobiashi Maru. (the unwinnable test that Kirk changed to make it winnable) Spockbamma would NEVER do something like that.
rock on, Jim! This one is a keeper.
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Obama as Spock? LMAO the comaprison to V’Las would be more appropriate.
Ok, but I’m afraid I’d have to label Obama the Evil Spock- from the mirror universe, the one with the beard- and that would make Bush out to be Emperor Tiberius, whom evil Spock was unable to assassinate until it was too late. Spock’s failure, in the mirror episodes from Deep Space 9, led directly to the downfall of the Empire of Earth- and the subsequent slavery of humanity by a coalition of Cardassians, Romulans, and Klingons. (China, India, and Africa, maybe?)
If Obama is spock and we are talking brain power. It is only as in the movie Spock died in were in which case Spock was brain dead as is Obama currently.
Any Obama fan who compares him to Spock has never watched the show. Spock was a brilliant Number 2 but an awful leader. They explore the issue in several of the original episodes… most notably THE GALLILEO SEVEN.
If I were a huge Obama fan, I would not be in such a rush to say he’d be the same kind of leader that Spock would be. Gene Roddenbery had some very specific ideas about that subject, and they weren’t exactly good.
Anyone familiar with the show knows that Spock never wanted command. He preferred his science duties. “As a teacher on a training mission, I am content to command the Enterprise,” he said in Star Trek II. “If we are to go on active duty, the senior office present must take command.” In case you missed the movie, that officer was George W. Bush, er, James T. Kirk.
Obama’s teleprompter= Spock.
Barack Obama without the teleprompter= Lt. Reginald Barkley
I take it back, Obama is more like a tribble. Just not cute, or as good at breading or as easy to get rid of but just as much a rodent or pest.
[...] second metaphor is borrowed. I certainly think the comparison of Obama to Spock and Bush to Kirk as accurate. There’s a [...]
[...] second metaphor is borrowed. I certainly think the comparison of Obama to Spock and Bush to Kirk as accurate. There’s a [...]
[...] second metaphor is borrowed. I certainly think the comparison of Obama to Spock and Bush to Kirk as accurate. There’s a [...]