Thomas Sowell Has Obama Pegged

The Confident Ignorance of Barack Obama

I love Thomas Sowell. Here's a taste from the article:

Obama was already doctrinaire at a very early age — and ill-informed or misinformed on both history and economics. 

His statement in Dreams from MyFather about how white men went to Africa to “drag away the conquered in chains” betrays his ignorance of African history. 

The era of the Atlantic slave trade and the era of European conquests across the continent of Africa were different eras. During the era of the Atlantic slave trade, most of Africa was ruled by Africans, who sold some of their slaves to white men. 

European conquests in Africa had to wait until Europeans found some way to survive lethal African diseases, to which they lacked resistance. Only after medical science learned to deal with these diseases could the era of European conquests spread across sub-Saharan Africa. But the Atlantic slave trade was over by then. 

There was no reason why Barack Obama had to know this. But there was also no reason for him to be shooting off his mouth without knowing what he was talking about.... 

Barack Obama is one of those people who are often wrong but never in doubt. When he burst upon the national political scene as a presidential candidate in 2008, even some conservatives were impressed by his confidence. 

But confident ignorance is one of the most dangerous qualities in a leader of a nation. If he has the rhetorical skills to inspire others to have the same confidence in him, then you have the ingredients for national disaster.

Exactly! Especially when it's combined with arrogance and deliberate deceit. So here we are four years later with the doctrinaire deceiver continuing to sell his snake oil. God help us all if he wins a second term where, in the words of Spike Lee, he can "do whatever he wants."