So argues Chris Stirewalt of The Washington Examiner in this column.
Remember the media comparisons between Obama and Mr. Spock from the original series Star Trek ? his cunning mind, his precise logic? Now, Stirewalt writes the president is acting more like the ego-driven, gut-trusting, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants Kirk:
Obama has been doing his best James T. Kirk imitation since the beginning of the year.
Obama has set his presidency on ramming speed and diverted all the energy from the shields and the photon torpedoes to passing Obamacare.
The president has ditched rationality in favor of pure passion by trying to pass health care legislation that is unpopular, seven months late and deemed seriously flawed even by its most ardent supporters.
Spock might have called for a logical compromise with the GOP, but not Obama. The president and his team are whooping like a Klingon war party at the prospect of the battle to come.
His argument to the dozens of anxious House Democrats whom he wants to boldly go where no Blue Dog has gone before is classic Kirk. The president acknowledges that the battle he is precipitating will be destructive to Democrats, but that it will also weaken Republicans.
After the debris clears, Obama says, the Democrats will have survived and be in better position for the battles to come.
Capt. Obama wants to turn the ship into the blast, not away from it.
But unless you’re the protagonist in a television show, arguing that a plan is so crazy it has to work is not usually convincing.
And for the more than four-dozen House Democrats who face possible defeat this fall, this is a reality show, not science fiction.
