Add Christopher Buckley, effete Republican and son of National Review founder and conservative icon William F. Buckley, to the list:

I’ve read Obama’s books, and I have been struck by how good a writer he is. I would be tempted to vote for him on those grounds alone, because someone who writes that well also, I think, thinks clearly. Now, Mr. Obama is left-wing. I am not left-wing. But I am probably going to vote for him on the grounds of his thoughtfulness, my hope being that once he inherits this mess—and it’s going to be a mess: he inherits a country at war and in its worst financial crisis since 1929; are you really sure, Mr. Obama, you want this job?—that his instincts and his thoughtfulness will lead him toward creative, non-ideological solutions. If he comes in and simply adopts a standard left-wing agenda, raising taxes and increasing tariffs, then I think we’re going to be in very deep trouble.

This has been my thinking exactly… after eight years of a gut-level decider with little interest in real analysis or debate, shouldn’t we ignore our tendency to run from know-it-alls and, for once, elect the smartest guy in the room? That was the rationale of fictional President Jed Bartlet on “The West Wing,” and while it’s just a TV show, it really inspired hope in me when I saw it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUa9NFBTngM&feature=related[/youtube]

Come to think of it, Bartlet recently had a talk with Obama about the strategy for the rest of the campaign. It wasn’t much reported on, except by the Times’ Maureen Dowd (read it all here):

BARTLET Well, it seems to me your problem is a lot like the problem I had twice.

OBAMA Which was?

BARTLET A huge number of Americans thought I thought I was superior to them.

OBAMA And?

BARTLET I was.

OBAMA I mean, how did you overcome that?

BARTLET I won’t lie to you, being fictional was a big advantage.

OBAMA What do you mean?

BARTLET I’m a fictional president. You’re dreaming right now, Senator.

OBAMA I’m asleep?

BARTLET Yes, and you’re losing a ton of white women.

OBAMA Yes, sir.

BARTLET I mean tons.

OBAMA I understand.

BARTLET I didn’t even think there were that many white women.

OBAMA I see the numbers, sir. What do they want from me?

BARTLET I’ve been married to a white woman for 40 years and I still don’t know what she wants from me.

OBAMA How did you do it?

BARTLET Well, I say I’m sorry a lot.

PS: Sheen as Bartlet took a pretty cheap shot at Buchanan on the Emmys Sunday… surely Sorkin didn’t write that script.

Tags: Barack Obama, Christopher Buckley, Jed Bartlet, Obamacons

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