These are quite simple rules. They eliminate the genius quite as surely as they eliminate the unfit. No Edison could ever qualify; no Lincoln, either, with his soiled linen duster and his habit of interrupting important business with funny stories. I am sorry to forego the companionship of such men in my rather dingy building here in the wholesale grocery district. But I comfort myself with the thought that Cromwell built the finest army in Europe out of dull but enthusiastic yeomen; and that the greatest organization in human history was twelve humble men, picked up along the shores of an inland lake.

Why I Never Hire Brilliant Men

Obama is a political dilettante whose skills are entirely people skills. Valerie Jarrett’s people skills are negligible and concentrated on only one person, but unlike her boss, protégé and adopted son, she has the endurance and drive to pursue an issue indefinitely.

Barack Obama isn’t driven. Throughout his entire adult life there have been people there to open doors for him. It seemed natural for him to let Valerie Jarrett drive his political career and his administration to do the things that he lacks the attention span or the focus to do.

Valerie Jarrett, the CEO of Obama Inc.

Obama has become a door-to-door insurance salesman. His appearance on “Between Two Ferns” was humiliating not because the leader of the free world was taking part in a lame comedy routine, but because Obama was doing it to sell a product. Presidents have gone on Leno, Letterman and Saturday Night Live, but they have never sat awkwardly cracking jokes in the hopes that a few young people would stop by their website and bail them out by buying some of what they’re selling.

The Insurance Salesman-in-Chief

I Have a Dream

Ozymandias.

Forward! (But You Can’t Fix Stupid)

Unfortunately, it seems that the future Aldous Huxley predicted in 1932, in Brave New World, is arriving early. Mockery, truculence, and minimalist living are best, then enjoy the decline.