Remember, Caesar, thou art serious

At least the head of the National Endowment for the Arts wants you to think so:

This is the first president that actually writes his own books since Teddy Roosevelt and arguably the first to write them really well since Lincoln. If you accept the premise, and I do, that the United States is the most powerful country in the world, then Barack Obama is the most powerful writer since Julius Caesar. That has to be good for American artists.

Even assuming, as I don't*, that Obama wrote his own books, the lie is not even close to being reasonable. Clinton wrote several books, as did Reagan, Nixon, Carter... but the funny thing is that if there is a President who did not "write them really well," it's Lincoln. Where is the great literary work that he created?

But even if Obama wrote his own works and those other recent presidents didn't, one thing Obama's works lack might be described as "gravitas." Weight. Seriousness. Intellectual heft. If Presidents write naturally about one thing, it's themselves, the most important thing in their lives. But that doesn't mean their work is serious. I have in my library a 5-volume History of the American People written by the man whom I consider the worst president in American history, Woodrow Wilson. This nation would have been far better off if he had never been President, but at least he was a serious writer and serious thinker. Obama is neither.

But going back to Caesar? Good grief. A lot of conservatives are making Caesar comparisons of another nature - danger to the Republic and all that - and they are wasting their time. Obama's not Caesar, he's a lightweight in every sense of the word**. But the only people who are even more lightweight than him are the placemen and sycophants who follow him around, whispering in his ear.

In the days of Rome, the Praetorians were allegedly tasked with reminding Caesar not to take himself too seriously, "Remember, Caesar, thou art mortal." Today's Praetorians have a far more difficult task in trying to convince the rest of us that their lies about Obama should be taken seriously at all.

* Ok, smart guy, where's the proof he didn't write them? I don't have any. I just find it very, very unlikely that someone who has written nothing before or since has the ability to knock out two works of that size.

** I don't say it as a gratuitous insult because I don't have to, it just happens to be true. If you want to fear a Caesar, fear a Wilson, a Teddy Roosevelt, a Lincoln. Especially a Lincoln.