The AP discusses Mr. Spock
The AP asks one of the more important questions of our time:
Is Obama another Mr. Spock?…He shows a fascination with science, an all-too deliberate decision-making demeanor, an adherence to logic and some pretty, ahem, prominent ears…
Roberto Orci, the screenwriter and producer behind the latest “Star Trek” movie, said Obama “has a Spock-like aura about him: calm in the face of great adversity and looking for a logical middle ground.” Obama, himself a big “Star Trek” fan, screened the movie at the White House during its opening weekend.
“We knew he was a Trekkie,” Orci said in a telephone interview. He said he watches the White House regularly for insight on the Spock character. “To have a case study like that on the news every night makes my job a lot easier,” he said.
Orci said James T. Kirk, the “Star Trek” captain, was “based on a young new president, John F. Kennedy, and that the Obama administration is part of a 1960s-type revival. Except this time, Kirk isn’t in charge. Spock is.
In the movie, however, Spock was in charge of the USS Enterprise before he decided to hand over command to the more gut-driven Kirk. Spock’s reasoning that Kirk was better suited to command seems to echo some Obama critics who contend he lacks the emotional connection people want in their president.
Doesn’t the AP bother to fact-check itself? In that movie, which was pretty bad in the opinion of someone who remembers where he was on September 8, 1966, the plot is not as the AP described. Spock didn’t reason that Kirk was better suited to command. Spock was relieved of command after demonstrating that he was unfit to lead. But perhaps that doesn’t fit the plot line that the AP would like to advance.