Opinion: Oh that Obama!
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Barack Obama isn’t even president yet, and he’s already committed his first ‘gaffe.’ At his proto-presidential news conference on Friday, Obama was asked which former presidents he had consulted about how to discharge his new duties. The puckish president-elect replied: ‘I have spoken to all of them who are living. I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about doing any séances.’ Later, Obama apologized to Nancy Reagan for the allusion to her practice of consulting astrologers (not mediums) in planning her husband’s schedule.
The apology may have been a political imperative, but I loved Obama’s original comment. It showed that he has a smartass streak, which high office tends to suppress. Only rarely do figures of the magnitude of Obama let their inner wisguy escape.
It happened a couple of times at the Senate confirmation of hearings of John G. Roberts as chief justice. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah (in the self-referential habit of senators) told Roberts: ‘I read an interesting book over the weekend, Cass Sunstein’s recent book published by Basic Books. Now, he discussed various philosophies with regard to judging. And I just would like to ask you this question: Some of the philosophies he discussed were whether a judge should be an originalist, a strict constructionist, a fundamentalist, perfectionist, a majoritarian or minimalist -- which of those categories do you fit in?’ Roberts replied: ‘I didn’t have a chance to read Professor Sunstein’s book. He writes a different one every week; it’s hard to keep up with him.’
Speaking of the Supreme Court, when I was covering the court, schoolkids on pilgrimage to the nation’s capital were often dragooned into watching oral arguments before the justices. At the end of one particulary soporific session, a group of junior high schoolers was taking a shortcut out of the courtoom through the press gallery. I asked their teacher if her students had enjoyed the argument. One boy piped up: ‘Yeah, I was riveted to my seat.’ Ah, I thought, a kindred spirit! At his age I also was a smartass. (It runs in the family.)
Life is tough for little smartasses -- or mavericks, as John McCain and Sarah Palin might describe them. McCain, by the way, fought smartassery with smartassery while campaigning in New Hampshire. When a high school student asked McCain if at 71 he was too old to be president, the candidate shot back: ‘Thanks for the question, you little jerk. You’re drafted.’’ That moment was the closest I came to supporting McCain.