STEYN: Government as great provider

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By Mark Steyn

COMMENTARY:

Mr. Obama's strongest talent is not his speechifying, which, frankly, is a bit of a snoozeroo. In Europe, he left 'em wanting less pretty much every time (headline from Britain's Daily Telegraph: "Barack Obama really does go on a bit"). That uptilted chin combined with the left-right teleprompter neck swivel you can set your watch by makes him look like an emaciated Benito Mussolini umpiring an endless rally of high lobs on Centre Court at Wimbledon.

Each to his own, but I don't think those who routinely hail him as the greatest orator since Socrates actually sit through many of his speeches.

On the other hand, if you just caught a couple of minutes of last Wednesday's press conference, you would be impressed. When that groupie from the New York Times asked the president about what, during his first 100 days, "has surprised you the most ... enchanted you the most ... humbled you the most and troubled you the most," Mr. Obama made a point of getting out his pen, writing it down and repeating back the multiple categories: "Enchanted," he said. "Nice."

Indeed. Some enchanted evening, you may see a stranger, you may see a stranger across a crowded room, but then he scribbles down your multipart question to be sure he gets it right, and he looks so thoughtful, and suddenly he's not a stranger anymore, and the sound of his laughter will ring in your dreams.

The theater of thoughtfulness is critical to the president's success. He has the knack of appearing moderate while acting radical, which is a lethal skill. The thoughtful look suckered many of my more impressionable conservative comrades last fall, when David Brooks and Christopher Buckley were cranking out gushing paeans to Mr. Obama's "first-class temperament" - temperament being to the Obamacons what Nick Jonas' hair is to a Tiger Beat reporter.

But the drab reality is that the man they hail - Mr. Brooks and Mr. Buckley, I mean, not the Tiger Beat crowd - is a fantasy projection. There is no Barack Obama the Sober Centrist, although it might make a good holiday song:

. . .

And it is. But underneath the thoughtful look is a transformative domestic agenda that represents a huge annexation of American life by an ever more intrusive federal government. One cannot but admire the single-minded ruthlessness with which Mr. Obama is getting on with it, even as he hones his contemplative, unhurried moderate routine on prime-time press conferences.

On foreign affairs, the shtick is less effective but mainly because he's not so engaged by the issues: He has big plans for health care and federalized education and an eco-friendly, government-run automobile industry - and Iran's nuclear program just gets in the way. He would rather not think about it, and his multicontinental apology tours are his way of kicking the can down the road until that blessed day when America is just another sclerotic Euro-style social democracy and even your more excitable jihadi won't be able to jump up and down, chanting "Death to the Great Satan!" with a straight face.