Emotionless, calculating, hesitant, distant and afflicted with an arrogant sense of superiority are the qualities some have said make Obama very 'Spock-Like'.
Now a new reference to him in the same light has been printed. Of course Leonard Nimoy thinks this is a compliment, but I'm not so sure. Remember, the ship didn't fly and the voyage was just a dream without the humans who made it happen.
He shows a fascination with science, an all-too deliberate decision-making demeanor, an adherence to logic and some pretty, ahem, prominent ears.
They all add up to a quite logical conclusion, at least for "Star Trek" fans: Barack Obama is Washington's Mr. Spock, the chief science officer for the ship of state.
"I guess it's somewhat unusual for a politician to be so precise, logical, in his thought process," actor Leonard Nimoy, who has portrayed Spock for more than 40 years, told The Associated Press in an e-mail interview. "The comparison to Spock is, in my opinion, a compliment to him and to the character."
Until now.
Obama's Spock-like qualities have started to cause him political problems in real world Washington. Critics see him as too technocratic, too deliberative, too lacking in emotion.
Obama's protracted decision-making on a new war strategy in Afghanistan, for example, prompted criticisms that he's too deliberate. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and other conservatives faulted Obama for "dithering."
While it's the slow decision making that has conservatives upset, especially when it comes to national security, it's the science content of the presidential agenda that have the geeks insisting he's gone where no nerd has gone before.
I just KNEW he wasn't born in America. Be careful, though, he told Maureen Dowd he's sensitive about his ears.
Posted by: Bigg Johnson | December 02, 2009 at 01:47 PM