Apology to Okrent

I'd just like to apologize to Daniel Okrent for calling him an idiot and whatnot in my previous post. I just finished reading The Daily Howler's take on Okrent, and I had misjudged the man. I had assumed that Okrent was just some lamebrained political writer who thought he knew better than everyone else. But now I realize that Okrent's not an idiot. He just doesn't care about this stuff, and only accepted the job to help his ego.

And as I've always believed, you can't blame someone for accepting a powerful position that is offered to them; even if they are too incompetent to fulfill the requirements of that position. Equally, I don't blame Bush for allowing his daddy's friends to talk him into getting into politics to become President. Who could have turned down that offer? Especially as incompetence rarely comprehends its own incompetence.

So if anything, we should blame Bush Sr's friends for inflicting Junior on us. And we only have the NY Times to blame for inflicting Okrent on us. Both Bush and Okrent have their little talents and hobbies which I'm sure are quite useful in their own little world; but they just happened to be offered jobs that had little to do with those talents. But could you honestly say that you'd turn down your dream job, just because you'd suck at it? I don't think so. Each of us would be unlikely to turn down the ombudsman or president jobs. And even though we still would have been better at it than the boobs we got, you just can't blame people for doing what you'd do.

So I apologize to Okrent. He's not a stupid man. He just has talents of a different variety than those he needed for the job that was offered to him.