Nostalgic for smart leadership

I miss Barack Obama as president for so many reasons, but it was only today that a couple posts I cam across helped me realize the main thing that I miss: at his core, he is a writer.

A writer has to be a thinker and a good writer needs to care not just about language but about the content. A good writer knows that there is power for good and evil in the words and in the evidence shared in the writing.

I want to add that I miss the man's sheer intelligence (and he still has it, though he doesn't have the platform to share it like he once did), but Americans aren't fans of "smart people." We like the Common Man. Joe Biden is a common man. Donald Trump masquerades as a common man. Many senators and representatives spend a lot of time hiding their Ivy League educations from voters and invest even more time pretending that they share experiences with most voters. 

In reality, they are almost all part of the elite and few do their own grocery shopping or pump their own gas. A majority seem to be educated but not very smart (my take).

A former Obama speechwriter was struggling with the text for a speech at a memorial for Martin Luther King, Jr., and asked the president for some help. That advice: “Read James Baldwin when you’re stuck. Listen to John Coltrane when you’re not.”

At first glance, the speechwriter thought this was not helpful. But he thought some more and saw the point. Baldwin is angry and pointed and dense. Coltrane is free-flowing and intuitive. It was a mystical metaphor that demanded the listener do most of the work, but the very thought that Obama could offer this advice off the cuff is what I miss.

Some further conversation brought this from Obama: “It’s the notes you don’t play,” he said, sitting back in his chair. “It’s the silences. That’s what made him [Coltrane] so good. Silences can say more than noise can. I need a speech with some pauses, and some quiet moments, because they say something too. You feel me?”

I know there are evil smart people. I know that there are all sorts of wisdom, all sorts of "smarts."

But I prefer to be led by smart people.

Come back, Mr. Obama. A nation turns to you.