----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Weiss" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 9:24 AM
Subject: Re: "Poetry" versus "Prose" in New Hampshire
> Gore's 2000 image was invented by relentless Republican repetition.
> Likewise Clinton's ice maiden aura. In each case a countervailing
> image--Bush the reformed reprobate good old boy, Obama the prophet,
> flatter national fictions .Obama, at any rate, is probably benign (it's
> his competence that's in question), but the heart is a questionable guide.
> Think of Bush looking into Putin's heart. As one of the columnists
> recently noted, Putin was a KGB agent, he had no heart. And in choosing
> leaders I prefer the head. The heart gave the world Reagan and lots
> worse--Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini. Best to use one's head to cut through
> the pretty stories we're all prone to and the machinations of the
> propaganda machines that feed them.
>
> I realize that I speak as the veteran of several marriages. One tries to
> learn.
>
> Mark
>
Mark, your last few e-mails have made excellent points. My only cavil is
Napoleon. A substantial intellect. Fine mathematician. Remember the
scientists he took on the Egyptian campaign. Thought strategically on the
largest scale (and made the largest errors). "Head" vs. "heart" is a crude
distinction, but N's besetting vices were intellectual: opportunism ("I saw
the crown of France in the gutter and I picked it up") and contempt.
