Aboard White House Enterprise, is Obama Mr Spock?

I'm not American, but I'm still impressed (negatively) by the lack of comments on this article.

I thinks there are light years (to stay in science terms) between George "the ChimpFace" Bush and Obama.

Would certainly like to meet the later someday :).

Obama’s protracted and public decision-making process on what to do about Afghanistan caused some critics to say the president was too deliberate, in a way too Spock-like. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and other conservatives faulted Obama for “dithering.”

Well, time spent in thought by people like Cheney and Palin is definitely time wasted.

Maybe the lack of comments is because this article is kind of silly! Star Trek? Really? Haha.

This article is very hard to find on the site. That is the problem.

I would say Bush was more of a Wesley Crusher/ Riker cross.

Obama is Spockish, but there are better parallels. He has a lot more in common J. LaForge than just skin color. Jordy is kind of hetero... but kind of asexual if you know what I mean. Extremely competent. Maybe too pragmatic. Always willing to compromise, and often abused by aliens.

Certainly Obama is knowledgeable and competent, but I would take a more Picard-esque personality any day.

Poor Biden is a redshirt.

What an idiotic article.

We finally have a president who makes decisions based on real information and with attention to detail. And what is the response? The peanut gallery start trying to fit him into Star Trek figures. For what? Don't you have anything substantial to focus your attention on?

"The nerds are happy." !?!?! What?!!? Don't you mean intelligent people are happy? People who care to have a leader who can actually think for himself.

Right wingers think Obama is a communist trying to ruin their redneck paradise where people live happily without health care basking in the pride of their toothless children.

The democrats are fuddled because Obama has the realism to recognize that we can't just walk away from Afghanistan without paying severe consequences down stream.

What we all need to be doing is taking a much longer view of things and working towards solutions that make sense today and several years down the road. And that requires having someone with a braid driving the process. This is where President Obama really shines.

This star trek with Spokobama knows how take next generation of Americans into greatest debt in U.S history. With over 10% unemployment and stimulus to nowhere, this enterprise will be the choking point for the fans in year to come. Allegedly speaking, it will not take many more light years at all.

Obama’s protracted and public decision-making process on what to do about Afghanistan caused some critics to say the president was too deliberate

Nonsense. I think a recent New Yorker article summed it up best:

"The President has come under heavy criticism for taking the time to ponder the imponderables. “The urgent necessity,” a respected Washington columnist wrote the other day, “is to make a decision—whether or not it is right.” Really? Does the columnist suppose that a country unable to find the patience for weeks (even months) of thinking could summon the stamina for years (even decades) of killing and dying?"

I think Obama presents himself well. A politician. Nothing more. Science, reason and law are all related. Are the facts of Science up to the majority vote? Neither are inalienable rights and the moral order. Logic as always seen it this way, from the Chinese and Greek thinkers to the present. Hope Obama does as well. However, his voting record in the Senate is said to have been ... Let us pray that he and his team understands the enormous responsibility they have under...

Obama has turned out to be the most naive president the U.S. has ever had (oh, and a narcissist to boot). I guess this is what we're down to now -- comparing Barry to Star Trek characters. But Barry and logic (and facts) are not really friends...

Something I really need to know is what are the differences between George "the ChimpFace" Bush and Barack "the ChimpFace" Obama?

5SpeedRacer5: I would say Bush was more of a Wesley Crusher/ Riker cross.

Really? I though he was more like one of the hotheaded useless extras on the old show that get themselves and other crewmen killed; only Bush did not have the decency to die in the first few minutes.

I can't really see the Obama/Spock comparison myself as yet, but it has potential I guess.

what a lame article

Classy comment, Wayne. The difference is that only Bush makes facial expressions that resemble a chimp's.

basking in the pride of their toothless children.

absolutely best line ever

"Really? I though he was more like one of the hotheaded useless extras on the old show that get themselves and other crewmen killed; only Bush did not have the decency to die in the first few minutes."

Like I said, a cross between Wesley Crusher and Riker. Riker went on being a stuffed shirt season after season, full of himself and pushing others around. Wes Crusher did not know what he was doing.. kind of hanging around looking for a mentor until he went off on one inept crusade or another. All along, he kept sponging off of the goodwill his mother had earned among the crew. Even Picard was a friend of his dad. Talk about nepotism. He eventually left when his popularity went through the floor.

I think I nailed it, actually.

Let me add Cheney as Borg, anyone want to top that? McCain as Ferengi?

Sorry to be sticking to STTNG, but TOS has too many two-dimensional characters to be very interesting.

Just for fun, let me add that Gene Roddenberry more than once referred to JT Kirk as a Kennedy figure.

This is controversial, but Jimmy Carter had a job on a nuclear sub very similar to Scotty's, which might explain some of his problems with leadership... can you imagine Scotty as Captain of the Enterprise? I mean, things might move along ok, but in a pinch, you would want Picard or Kirk.

I think that the five Star Trek shows were reasonably popular because they showed a much more ideal milieu than what we have shuffle around in. In the real world, we are stuck with very fallible people who have more difficult problems to deal with.

How about Putin as Khan?

Its sad to see giants of the cinema, like Leonard Nemoy, being pressed into service by David Axelrod or whoever did this. We liberals have the majority in both houses. We dont need nerdly comparisons of our president to characters who havnt been on tv for 30 years. If anything, Obama needs to be more like Kirk and just start kicking @ss!!!!

Obama is more like the stow away scientist on "Lost In Space"...

It's just a fluff piece, folks. No need to read vast Left-wing conspiracies into it.

Live long and prosper?

Putin as Khan. Interesting. He got the best lines. But the actor that played Mr. Spock is of Russian/Jewish ancestry. Also, Mr. Nimoy, as he is called, could remember his lines better. No need for the telepromter.

Dewaashita:

Indeed. The following is common knowledge, but lifted from Wikipedia.

"In the mid-1960s, actor Leonard Nimoy, who was raised in a traditional Jewish home, used a single-handed version of this gesture to create the Vulcan Hand Salute for his character, Mr. Spock, on Star Trek." --Birkhat kohanim--

Poor Nimoy wanted to be bigger and influence more people. Eventually he realized he had become as much of an icon as he ever could have been.

The more I think about this Obama as Spock thing, the more strained and stupid it seems. The author does not know Obama or Trek. The piece panders to underlying feelings on the part of many that Obama is "an outsider, alien" or not one of us. The science text is just thrown in as cover. Obama is not trained in science in the least. He is a lawyer.

5SpeedRacer5, on the Spock comparison, et al. The sands are shifting in alot of different directions. Uncomfortably, all at once. Perhaps the author subconciously realizes this and is going for a metaphor that works on several different levels. Like the discoveries and sudden dangers each episode would have the characters facing. Or perhaps, I am imagining that there is something there. :)

I will agree with you on one thing in particular. Poor L. Nemoy. The actor deserved far better than he got.

Firstly, I should point out that I am politically apathetic, believing that politicians in general are just a small step above the primeval slime. Secondly, I should say that, nevertheless, I am glad that Obama is President, especially when compared to GW, whose Star Trek personification was the Borg, basically a mindless automaton who implemented policy in response to the whinings of the far-right wing of the US political spectrum.

Coming back to Obama, however, I am not a happy camper in terms of the decisions he has made regarding Afghanistan. As a former soldier, although I personally believe that the US should be more aggressive in solving the Afghan problem once and for all, I do recognize that as a leader, Obama is more than entitled to make whatever decision he likes. What upsets me, however, is the time he has taken to make such decisions. Indeed, at a point in time whether decisions are correct or not becomes irrelevant with it becoming more important to act for actions sake. Having sat on his hands for so long, the thing that concerns me now is that US forces on the ground have lost any initiative they might have had. Moreover, this "shall we go or shall we stay" dilemma serious screws with the minds of people. Considering this, I would ask that Obama in the future act promptly, because no matter what you do you cannot please all of the people all of the time.

5SpeedRacer5

Obama is Spockish, but there are better parallels. He has a lot more in common J. LaForge than just skin color. Jordy is kind of hetero... but kind of asexual if you know what I mean. Extremely competent. Maybe too pragmatic. Always willing to compromise, and often abused by aliens.

LOL! Spot on! Who knows, maybe Obama's got a thing for hollographic romance as well...