Here’s an interesting bit from a recent interview with president-elect Barack Obama:
JIM ANGLE: He was asked what he’s been doing to get ready for office and whether he talked to any previous Presidents.
PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA: I have spoken to all of them, that are living, obviously, President Clinton — I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any séances. [emphasis added]
Obama later apologized for apparently mocking the supernatural belief system, but that doesn’t remove two facts:
- It was Hilary Clinton who did séances, Reagan used astrology, either way, superstition. (I imagine Laura and George just used good ol’ fashioned prayers).
- Obama is willing to make fun of superstitions. People who generally buy this stuff don’t do that. This means there is potentially a sceptic in the White House. Imagine the ratifications of that – a president who consults knowledgeable advisers before acting. It’s the most promising thing I’ve heard about him so far.
Exciting times.
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I don’t think that this shows anything extraordinary about Obama. Everyone can see craziness in other people’s religious or otherwise paranormal beliefs. Many people laugh at the Mormons, Scientologists, or the Greek neo-pagans who worship Zeus et al. Even Richard Hoagland ridicules moon hoax believers.
Obama seems to have a much more sincere faith than McCain (the only alternative would be his being an extremely good — and cynical and Machiavellian — actor). His background in working with church-based community groups leads me to think that his ideas on expanding faith-based initiatives are probably genuine and not mere pandering to the Christian Right , as Americans United saw it (I can’t imagine Obama being so stupid as to think that that would actually work). However, his interpretation of Christianity is not harmful except if you agree with Dawkins that liberal Christianity enables fundamentalists and makes them look more respectable.
He seems sensible on most issues, but I don’t think that this particular comment tells us much about what his presidency will be like. What his apology for the comment does tell us, however, is that he may very well be sympathetic towards protecting religious sensibilities such as cartoons or crackers. But this may be too far-fetched and he is just trying not to be too divisive before he’s even in office.
I think all the apology tells us is that he’s a politician still who has to keep his personal opinions to himself at times.
The good here is that compared to the last few presidents/first ladies (remember that it was H. Clinton who held the séances) this one seems at first to be more promising.
I agree about Obama seeming promising, however I don’t think that his skepticism of spiritualism tells us much more about him, for two reasons: 1) everyone scoffs at the absurdities someone else embraces, and 2) he may be a good president even if he would hold certain weird beliefs (Lincoln was a spiritualist).