It’s going to feel so good to have a real grown-up as President.
“Part of what we want to do is to open up the White House and remind people this is the people’s house,” Obama told NBC’s Tom Brokaw during a “Meet the Press” interview taped Saturday in Chicago…
The president-elect said his administration is interested in “elevating science once again, and having lectures in the White House where people are talking about traveling to the stars or breaking down atoms, inspiring our youth to get a sense of what discovery is all about.”
“Thinking about the diversity of our culture and inviting jazz musicians and classical musicians and poetry readings in the White House so that once again we appreciate this incredible tapestry that’s America,” he said.
“Historically, what has always brought us through hard times is that national character, that sense of optimism, that willingness to look forward, that sense that better days are ahead,” Obama said. “I think that our art and our culture, our science–you know, that’s the essence of what makes America special, and we want to project that as much as possible in the White House.”
I’m looking forward to having new results from the LHC explained at the White House and broadcast on C-SPAN.
Relatedly, Dreams from My Father is an impressive book, well worth reading if you haven’t already. Impressive not only for its content and candor, but because the guy can flat-out write — he turns a phrase masterfully, but also has a talent for finding the illuminating perspective or a telling anecdote. And he has a writer’s appreciation for ambiguity. Not always a good feature in a politician.
Obama was something unusual in a politician: genuinely self-aware. In late May 2007, he had stumbled through a couple of early debates and was feeling uncertain about what he called his “uneven” performance. “Part of it is psychological,” he told his aides. “I’m still wrapping my head around doing this in a way that I think the other candidates just aren’t. There’s a certain ambivalence in my character that I like about myself. It’s part of what makes me a good writer, you know? It’s not necessarily useful in a presidential campaign.”
After eight years of unshakable certainty, I’ll take it.
Comments
21 responses to “Science and Culture at the White House”
OK, if you’re certain that’s what you want.
i don’t see any chickens yet.
Ha – beat me to it, Sean! I was just about to blog on this. I feel like I must be dreaming. A President who knows we are breaking down atoms and actually cares. Imagine!
Anyone who hasn’t seen this interview should watch it. It’s really great to listen to someone with a finite IQ give straight
answers for a change. We do need a leader who has some vision beyond the here & now & can think bigger thoughts than next Tuesday. I’ve don’t really remember such a president & I’m getting up there age-wise.
In related news, the NYT lists Steve Chu as the favorite to be the next energy secretary! Would this be the first physicist, and nobel laureate in a science in a cabinet? It’s pretty awesome since Steve’s all about renewables! To have a physicist at the top there is great stuff.
Steve Chu as energy secretary would be beyond awesome.
[…] inspiring our youth to get a sense of what discovery is all about.” [huffington post via cosmic variance] Search this […]
Steve Chu as energy secretary? Man, now I know I’m having a fantabulous dream…please don’t wake me up!
I have just been amazed at the … and I hesitate to use this word, but what the hell, the change that I’m seeing over your side of the pond. Imagine having an articulate, inspirational president with ideas that go beyond politics. I was living in California during the current occupant’s transition, and I have no memory of anything like this.
Golly.
Rabi was Science Advisor to Eisenhower in 1955-1957, but I don’t know if it was a Cabinet-rank position at the time. (For that matter, I believe that Junior demoted the position of Science Advisor, so a nice move for Obama would be to upgrade it again).
Sean
Are you still in the running for Secretary of Dark Energy?
If not we need to get the meme propogated asap.
e.
I was nominated for Secretary of Dark Energy, but it turned out that the whole department was non-interacting.
You just need more wimps in the department
You do know that Dreams from My Father was ghost-written by William Ayers, don’t you?
You do know that Dreams from My Father was ghost-written by William Ayers, don’t you?
Look, you can’t walk on water and write a book at the same time. Be fair!
I think Ayers also wrote “The Great Gatsby” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”.
e
Ayers is also the writer formerly known only as “Homer”. You can tell by all the nautical imagery.
Someone get rid of the Village Idiot NOW so we can get Obama in the Oval Office ASAP!!!!
Forget his ethnicity – I never thought I would see an INTELLIGENT AND AWARE PRESIDENT in my lifetime! I had to live through Nixon and Reagan, please note.
Obama MUST screw up. If he doesn’t my view of our politics will be irreparably broken, and that is not allowed. 🙂
BREAKING NEWS
Chu was just named Energy Secretary !!!!
e
[…] has been nominated to be the next Secretary of Energy in the Obama administration. (Thanks to Elliot in comments.) This post is enormously important for science in general and physics in particular, […]