Obama as a Literary Conceit

"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back to their money or their vast carelessness ,or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Odd, isn’t it? I mean, just last Saturday,  JDOlson posted the above quote from The Great Gatsby in the comments on “Who, Really, Won the Cold War?” and next thing you know, Big Guy shows up for Easter Services wearing his Gatsby suit (the 2013 Dicaprio version). He must be reading my little blog again.

“The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s Business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

For her part, Lady M played along, dressing up as Daisy Buchanan (the 1974 Redford version):

“It is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own powers of adjustment” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Although in reality she looked more like she was going to her First Communion than a party on the Long Island Sound.

(First Communion dress available on Etsy)

It does become clear, however, that David Brooks was correct about this man all along:

“I remember distinctly an image of–we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pant,” Brooks says, “and I’m thinking, a) he’s going to be president and b) he’ll be a very good president.”

His observation subsequently produced the now widely used journalistic scale of human intelligence and moral fortitude known as the “creased pants” theory. It has also been successfully employed by Chuck Todd to assess BO’s humility and veracity.

That was a brilliantly parsed apology, Mr. President; and BTW, may I say you’re looking sharp tonight!

Ah yes, the brilliance and internal fortitude of a well dressed man. Gatsby would approve, I think:

“Ah,” she cried, “you look so cool.”… “You always look so cool.”  ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Indeed, Big Guy would have made a great literary figure. No, not Jay Gatsby, that’s too easy. I was thinking more along the lines of Tom Buchanan:

“As angry as I was, as we all were, I was tempted to laugh whenever he opened his mouth. The transition from libertine to prig was so complete.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

 

Not a man in full, butt full of himself.

“It occurred to me that there was no difference between men, in intelligence or race, so profound as the difference between the sick and the well.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Oh, and by the way, here’s the lead-in to the above quote from JDOlson about Tom and Daisy Buchanan:

“I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused.”

 

It makes you wonder, doesn’t it, whatever we did to deserve a fictional character of such little import as our President?

Well, enough literary analysis for one day. I’ve got to run: the Spring Sphere Roll is about to start (alas, with real eggs) and I don’t want to miss anything. I’ll report back tomorrow, complete with video.

Feel free to post your own favorite lines from The Great Gatsby; there are a zillion good ones that seem to apply.

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Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network