I seriously wasn’t sure at first if Ben Stein was joking or not when he acknowledged on The O’Reilly Factor tonight that President Obama is smart but not “in the same league of presidential genius as Nixon.” But Stein was not kidding.
The discussion was mostly about Stein’s prediction that riots are coming to the U.S. because “every single problem we see in Greece is coming our way,” and we'll have severe cuts in social spending if Mitt Romney wins the election. However, Stein predicted President Obama will be re-elected, and it wasn’t clear to me if Stein thought that lessened the likelihood of riots or not.
Later, at about 4:30 into the discussion, O’Reilly asked, “Barack Obama’s a smart man. You would say that, right? He’s a smart man?”
“No, I wouldn’t say that,” Stein replied.
O’Reilly, sounding surprised, said, “You wouldn’t even say he’s a smart man, huh?”
Stein backtracked with the following shocker of a sentence: “I would say he’s a smart man… I mean, he’s not in the same league of presidential genius as Nixon, for example, but he’s smarter than the average bear.”
Memo to Stein: Most would say that not being “in the same league of presidential genius as Nixon” is a good thing. Only on Fox would that be a drawback.
Was Nixon really smart? Not really. And if he was “Genius” it would be Corrupt Evil Genius at best. Remember when he backtracked on free markets and said “Now I am a Keynesian” and wrecked the US economy? I do.
“Mr. President, I’m sorry to inform you that we’ve just discovered that someone has written ‘Nixon Sucks’ in the snow….while urinating!”
“What’s the big deal? A lot of people don’t like me!” replied the president.
“Well, sir….it’s in Pat’s handwriting!”
Mr. I’m Not a Crook, also picked Spiro Agnew as his VP. Not exactly a way to be a candidate to qualify for a Rhodes Scholarship. If Stein said evil, then no asterisk would be needed.
The issue is that Stein is trying to say that Nixon was some kind of genius when it came to understanding the presidency – and while Nixon was wily and at times quite effective, he was no genius. If he had been, he never would have been forced from the White House in disgrace.
But on another topic, I found the Dick Morris talk more interesting. Even when pushed by O’Reilly, Morris stuck to his guns that he thinks that Romney will win the election in a landslide. (And it sounds like Hannity is drinking this Kool-Aid too, as he was saying that he thought the presidential campaign would be over very soon since Romney was so far ahead…) O’Reilly actually told Morris “If this doesn’t go the way you’re saying, you’ll be finished. You’ll be lucky to get a job in Topeka. You’re really out on a limb.” Morris, pushed into the corner, chose to double down and insist on a historic defeat for Obama. One wonders if O’Reilly will remember this discussion on the day after the election…
Yo, Ben . . . if Tricky Dick was so smart, why did he
- need you to write his speeches
- get caught {without authorization} bombing Cambodia and Laos, and
- not remember to turn off the tape machine when discussing both the authorization and cover-up of the Watergate break-in
Hmm??
Ben, please — go back to doing what you do best: hosting second-rate game shows, hawking eye drops, and writing columns for “Playboy” . . .
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