This is a president that, fuck, we have some sort of crush on this man. He speaks like a president, not always authoritative or anything but he can form sentences, complex sentences with beginnings and ends, subordinate clauses—you can hear his semicolons! He knows the answers to questions. He knows acronyms and the names of foreign leaders, their deputies. It is heartening, it makes our country look smart, and this is an important thing, something we have too long been without.… Toph, I would say, Toph, this man is actually bright, could be brilliant. This man still read books; encyclopedic and charming and so seemingly real… and though we hope that he is real even if he is not entirely real he is more real, and smart enough to seem real, and wins both ways…

Dave Eggers’s take on a different president.

From A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, thanks Ray.

17 replies on “Too Long Been Without”

  1. I caught myself referring continually to the president as “the President”, as opposed to “Obama”, which I did prior to Inauguration… As in “Matt Lauer is interviewing the President before the Super Bowl”, and “The President was on Capitol Hill last week playing nice with the Republicans”.

    For me, this is what makes it finally sink in that we’re finally free of Bush.

  4. It’s kind of sad how grateful we are for simple things like literacy in a president. It’s like having a boyfriend who hardly ever beats you.

  6. Is there a recent edition with a new forward? It was first published in 2000 I think. (I don’t remember this passage but I probably wouldn’t recognize excerpts from things I read last week so that doesn’t mean much.)

  11. I still feel the rush of air as if I’d had a plastic bag over my head. Taking breaths so cool and free. Reality takes hold. Shame on them for what they did to our beloved country. Shame!

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