Slate’s Suggestion to Obama: Choose a Cabinet of Geniuses
November 16, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
According to the November 15th Slate, Barack Obama needs to choose a cabinet of really smart genius types—that is, with those who are “brilliant—albeit prickly, semi-autistic, and egomaniacal—thinkers”:
The issue starts at the Treasury Department, where the best choice would be former Clinton Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers. Summers is the outstanding international economist of his generation, someone whose brilliance is immediately evident in any conversation. …………….
Summers can also be arrogant and politically incorrect. He sometimes does a poor job hiding his contempt for lesser intellects and loves to play the intellectual provocateur. Socially, he can be a bit autistic. But these are the defects of a superior mind, and they are a small price to pay for getting the person most likely to maximize our chances of avoiding a full-scale global depression.
…….
For Education, [Obama] might choose Joel Klein, the chancellor of the New York City school system. Klein has not gone through life making friends, but he has shown himself an unusually shrewd and committed thinker about educational management and reform. Better yet, what about getting Bill Gates to tackle the problem?
If the President-elect takes up Slate’s suggestions, get ready for quips about the genius bar on the Potomac………..
Good Catch!
Why couldn’t he have written the article without using the autism/autistic references? He makes a good point about not using posts as rewards, finding the best people to do the job, but does he have to use autism/autistic to make that point?
I agree w/Storkdok. In fact, I find his use of autistic in this case to be denigrating in the extreme. Why on earth can’t these people actually *think* about the words they are writing before they put them out there where they can’t be taken back?!
Exactly—-and the graphic with a bunch of people with their faces in books didn’t help.