I cannot believe the… self-indulging sense of importance Rocco Landesman and member of Obama’s administration have. Truly, I cannot. However, I guess the follow isn’t too far fetched from a group that asked artists to shill for the administration.
During his 2009 Grantmakers in the Arts Conference Keynote, Landesman – the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts – made the following statement:
This is the first president that actually writes his own books since Teddy Roosevelt and arguably the first to write them really well since Lincoln. If you accept the premise, and I do, that the United States is the most powerful country in the world, then Barack Obama is the most powerful writer since Julius Caesar. That has to be good for American artists.
Really?
What about, I don’t know, say…
- Leo Tolstoy
- Mark Twain
- William Shakespeare
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Now, assuming that Landesman meant that Obama happened to be a writer, not the best, per se, that commanded the most power due to his political position, what bout:
- Winston Churchill
- Adolf Hitler
- Vladimir Lenin
I think the case could be easily made showing other writers as more powerful in terms of both ability AND political position. From where I sit, I’m not sure that is a good comparison to make right now.