I wonder why a Yale professor of English, David Bromwich, would put his fastidious critique of our “fastidious” president in the oh, so chic London Review of Books. It certainly isn’t to convince voters.
Still, the truth is that I agree with some of his 4500 word essay. And the rest? Well, it is instructive to read. And paradigmatic of the left’s new antagonism to Barack Obama. Which is an expression of its shock that, as candidate for president, he was reckless with his promises, cynical, and intoxicated by his own words. I don’t think that he lied exactly. The problem was that the smart ex-editor of the Harvard Law Review and lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School didn’t really grasp politics or, for that matter, the language of politics.
The irony is that he still appears convinced by his rhetoric which his audiences no longer believe.