PRESIDENT OBAMA: “Well, the math stuff I was fine with up until 7th grade. But Malia is now a freshman in High School and I’m pretty lost. It’s tough.
This is really an astonishing revelation to come from a man reputed to be more cerebral than any other President of recent memory, brighter, more intelligent, and capable of issuing executive orders which regulate our economy.
A former Biden staffer, disillusioned but still staunchly left, has written a scathing expose of just how much Biden and company live in the pockets of Wall Street:
He is harshly critical of his own party and the Obama administration, arguing that the president is no different than most other Washington Democrats in his willingness to kowtow to Wall Street.
President Obama and Biden, he writes, are “both financially illiterate.”
For another example of the President’s financial illiteracy read here.
5 Comments
The President’s confession of mathematical weakness conflicts with his reputation for superior intellect. It also conflicts with his purported arrogance, however. I’d find the admission charming from someone else, but not from the defender of entitlement programs and stimulus spending. That’s like your thoracic surgeon admitting that he couldn’t get past Anatomy 101, just before you lose consciousness on the table, bright lights beaming and scalpels gleaming.
OK, I don’t think much of Obama, but I’ve said similar things in front of my son about some of the harder subjects he has, exaggerating just how hard it is.
If either of us think about the fact that when I was his age, I was a sophomore in College instead of a freshman at High School, it tends to have somewhat of the opposite effect.
Like Malcolm pointed out, it’s one thing to say this kind of thing to your kid in your own home. It’s entirely something else for the President of the United States to say this on national television in the midst of an economy tanking because of his policies. That shows a lack of judgment even if only because of the bad example he sets for students. And then there’s the additional context of Biden’s aide complaining that neither he nor Biden understand economics.
While I’m not really an Obama fan, this is a sad use of sensationalism. Being “lost” in high school math doesn’t equate to economic illiteracy. He didn’t even mention what kind of math it was and one has to take into account that more and more complex math is being taught in high schools. When I went to high school was one calculus class. Now, that same school (and many others) offer Calculus 1, Calculus 2, and Calculus 3. Then we also have to add in the fact that Obama’s children attend a $35,000 a year private school. It’s a fair bet that Malia is doing math that most of us weren’t doing when we got to college . . . if we even took math in college.
One’s understanding of Economic Theory isn’t solely based on their ability to do every kind of esoteric math that exists. Einstein did pretty well despite gaps in his math knowledge. Since that comment didn’t mention what kind of math the president was feeling “lost” about we don’t know whether it would effect his understanding of economic theory or not.
It’s seventh grade math. And his policies, as well as the other links, indicate his failings in economic theory.