SUBSCRIBE NOW WELCOME BACK. Do you want to continue reading where you left off? New Republic subscribers can pick up where they left off no matter which device they were previously using. SUBSCRIBE NOW

Go Home Tucker Carlson's Theory of Obama

THE PLANK DECEMBER 3, 2009

Tucker Carlson's Theory of Obama

BY LYDIA DEPILLIS

This afternoon, for no particular reason, I swung by a conference in downtown DC at which an association of conservative state legislators was presenting its annual journalism award to Tucker Carlson. Carlson, in turn, had a few thoughts on current events, including a theory for why Obama--as he claimed--has so drastically overreached in his domestic agenda.

Obama's problem is not that he's not smart, it's not that he's some kind of crazy Marxist. His problem is that he's never failed, actually. That's his problem. Because with failure comes wisdom.
And I don't mean just kind of failed, like 'Oh, i didn't live up to my expectations today.' Or 'I was rude to the Maitre d’!' I mean real, humiliating, public disgrace. I mean failure so profound that neighbors avert their gaze when you pull into their driveway.

It's only when you're smacked down, in the face, by life, and really put on your butt for a minute, in public, that you are forced to rethink what you're doing, and to ask yourself basic questions about your life and its trajectory, like what do I want at the end of this journey, am I doing the things I need to do to get there. Is it worth it? Are my priorities in order? Success prevents us from asking those questions. Because as long as you're kind of succeeding, success is self-justifying. What you're doing is obviously working. Why tamper with it? Go with the formula, it's Coca-Cola! And that's what Obama is. And that's not an attack on Obama, it's an observation, that I think gets to the root of why he's about to make a real mistake. I mean a real mistake. Because he doesn't know what it's like to be smacked around in the political arena. And I think you could imagine your powers to be a lot greater than they are, if you haven't had that experience.

Well, the first refutation of Carlson's theory that jumps to mind is Obama's failed campaign for U.S. House in 2000, which he lost by a 2-1 margin against Bobby Rush. Then there are his nights spent on the street after transferring from Occidental to Columbia. And then there's the year out of college when he couldn't find work doing anything he wanted to do. And then the fact that most of his community organizing campaigns didn’t really work out, as John Judis chronicled last year.
Anyone got any others? Or, perhaps, you think there's some truth in Carlson's theory?

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

Show all 10 comments

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

10 comments

Tucker's theory only works for NFL and NBA coaches where you're not a hot commodity until you've been fired at least three times. Can anybody tell me when Carlson, the preppy nerd-boy from hell, has ever suffered a serious public smack-down? If not, then he has no gravitas to be speaking on this topic.

- desertdog

December 3, 2009 at 7:02pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

desert- Dude wears a bow tie all the time. I guarantee he's been smacked down on his ass a few times, and not just metaphorically.

- ratnerstar

December 3, 2009 at 7:13pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

Good point, ratner. Any guy that's this dorky has to have been beaten up more than a few times.

- desertdog

December 3, 2009 at 7:15pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

Such a weird set of comments -- it's as if Obama, for him, is standing in for some smart guy in his past who smaked him down, and now it's [displaced] payback time. What I think TC misses is that with his odd family background, the missing father and the whole nine yards, Obama has negotiated some emotional chasms that just make smacking him around not very easy. He doesn't seem to have the fragile ego that a lot of pols hid under the tough-guy exterior.

- ironyroad

December 3, 2009 at 7:26pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

Will we ever have an end to media personalties, left and right, saying extreme things to fawning audiences, which comments are immediately reported to others of a different view, by other media personalities, whose own gotches are immediately reported to a favorable audience by the party of the first part? Times are tough for media people, on both sides, but one can wonder if there is any room, at present, for the bilious sceptic who dutifully reports that both sides of the spectrum are full of you know what.

- lsernoff

December 3, 2009 at 7:41pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

"It's only when you're smacked down, in the face, by life, and really put on your butt for a minute" um...desertdog, do you remember the time John Stewart publicly humiliated him on Tucker's own show, crossfire, and he did it in such a way that Tucker soon was let go from his gig, in fact the whole show got cancelled? Now that was an epic smackdown unlike few others, and I think Tucker is still smarting from it, so judged against that, no, Obama hasn't, not even close. Of course, it also shows that after that epic humiliation Tucker himself still hasn't learned anything (oh wait, he doesn't wear a bow tie anymore, so that is something) so his theory is pretty shot to hell. by the way, the whole setting must have been cheesy as hell, bunch of fat, old white guys, in way to expensive suits presenting an award to a man who looks like he is perpetually 12 years old.

- blackton

December 3, 2009 at 8:09pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

lsernoff, but both sides aren't full of it. There are plenty of sane conservative commentators out there, I might not agree with them but I see their point easily enough. I think TNR brings these people to light plenty of times, and addresses their comments in a thoughtful manner, when they disagree with them that is. There are a lot of people I can take seriously, Carlson I simply can't, and I see no reason why we can't poke fun at him.

- blackton

December 3, 2009 at 8:17pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

It shouldn't be surprising that a twit like Tucker Carlson thinks that true wisdom comes from being scorned and knocked around. When your grasp on success in your chosen field is so tenuous that Jon Stewart can get your show canceled with a few offhand comments, it's a little difficult to take your analysis seriously. Working as he does for the conservative employer of last resort, maybe Tucker could take a cue from Obama instead and realize that a little honest intellectual engagement pays more long-term dividends than empty, reflexive ass-kissing and spin-propagation.

- austinexpat

December 3, 2009 at 8:26pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

Thank you for reminding me of the un-manning of the century. I pity Carlson still. His testicles were removed on live TV, there is no fully coming back from that. I both smirk and feel bad for the guy if I even hear his name. Who doesn't? Stewart is a killer, bless him.

- WandreyCer

December 3, 2009 at 8:51pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

Carlson is on to something here. Take George Washington. Charmed life; succeeded at everything he set his mind to. Never failed, always held in the highest esteem by his peers. Well, except for that time he was supposed to go on a scouting mission and accidentally started the first modern world war. But that failure made him an international hero in his early 20s, and led to his memoir becoming a bestseller when he was barely out of his teens. And then he bagged the richest, prettiest widow in the colonies. Anyway, point is, Washington never knew real, face-smacking failure either, and look what a disappointingly shallow president he turned out to be. Also, Dwight Eisenhower. Cruised to the top on nothing but brains, talent, and hard work, nary a face-smacking failure along the way. Hero to millions, greatest liberator of enslaved peoples maybe in human history, public adulation all the way. How did the country ever survive the overreaching mess Ike made of the 1950s? And a contrary example: George W. Bush failed at everything he ever tried before the age of 40. Bankrupted businesses, washed out of the armed forces, lost a half-assed congressional race, ran up a criminal record, helped his own father lose the presidency. Nothing but face-smacking failure his whole adult life, an embarrassment to his own mother, and so is it any wonder that Americans struggle to name a chief executive as wise? Why, to this very day, according to a Washington Post poll, fully 11 months after leaving office, a whopping 1 percent of Republicans still regard the Solomonic Dubya as the "leader" of their party. When will we ever see such wisdom, such largeness of spirit, again? So yes, Carlson is right. America is in the unenviable state of having as its chief executive a competent, successful person who's actually good at his work. But Tucker points the way to a "narrative" that can get Sara Palin elected in 2012: "Vote Palin - She's Failed at Everything."

- rhubarbs

December 3, 2009 at 9:01pm

You must be a subscriber to post comments. Subscribe today.

SHARE HIGHLIGHT

0 CHARACTERS SELECTED

TWEET THIS

POST TO TUMBLR

SHARE ON FACEBOOK

Close