Why Does Barack Obama Hate Not Using Metaphors?
You have to wonder with all of these BOOKS about Obamar: how many of the reported quotes are true, and how many were tweaked on a cocktail napkin for several hours before the source gave them to the author? (You don't actually have to wonder about this, they're just anecdote books, who cares?) But consider this Obama quote about Lloyd Blankfein and Goldman Sachs, as recalled by a "friend" in Jonathan Alter's new anecdote book: "'Let me get this straight,' the president said. 'They're now saying that they deserve big bonuses because they're making money again. But they're making money because they've got government guarantees? These guys want to be paid like rock stars when all they're doing is lip-synching capitalism.'" How writerly! More of this please, and better. Next time he criticizes the Minerals Management Service, we want to hear arguments against bureaucratic conflicts-of-interest in iambic pentameter. And then we want him to actually do something about Lloyd Blankfein's bonuses. [ NY Mag ]