Obama draws flak for Spock-like decisions

We should have guessed at the 2008 Democratic convention in Los Angeles, when Barack Obama spotted Leonard Nimoy and gave the double-finger Vulcan sign to the man who played Spock in the original Star Trek. Yes, Obama is a Trekkie. This endears him to Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, King Abdullah of Jordan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who were all delighted to find a fellow fan. And it gives him some common ground with Al Gore, whose Harvard roommates said he spent more time watching the show than studying. (Colin Powell is another avid fan.)

Just as the world divides into Beatles and Stones fans, Trekkies are split into fans of cerebral Spock and those who prefer Captain Kirk (whose character was dreamed up in the 1960s as an echo of JFK). Even without considering his prominent ears, no prizes for guessing which way Obama leans—and what is more, the president is often compared to Spock.

Obama’s mixed heritage finds a parallel in Spock, who is half-human and half-Vulcan. And they both make calm, controlled, logical decisions. Roberto Orci, scriptwriter of the latest Star Trek film, says he researches new aspects of Spock’s character by watching Obama. Leonard Nimoy has said he thinks the comparison is “a compliment to him and to the character.”

But not everyone sees it that way. Obama has been rethinking his Afghanistan policy for over two months—a lifetime in the timeframe of the US media. He had reasons for prolonged deliberation on such a large decision. Vice-president Joe Biden was against sending more troops and Hillary Clinton was sitting on the sidelines. Ensuring she signed up with the policy and agreed to sell it to Nato allies took time.

A Spock fan might applaud Obama’s exploration of all the options. Dick Cheney thinks he’s dithering.?“Every time he delays, defers, debates, changes his position, it begins to raise questions: is the commander-in-chief really behind what they [the military] have been asked to do?” he told the indispensable new Washington daily Politico. He also attacked Obama for apologising for the US, “I think our adversaries… see that as a sign of weakness.”

Trekkies know that supercool Spock took his time, but weakness was no part of his make-up. But Obama may not know that Gene Roddenberry, the second world war bomber pilot and former cop who invented Star Trek, planned to write about the death of a Democratic president. For the second Star Trek movie, Roddenberry devised a plot in which the crew travelled back in time and got involved in the JFK assassination. In a Spock-like decision, Paramount swiftly took him off the project.