R & R Time With Ben Stein

If you were mentoring Obama today and you had the ability to put some of your wisdom down, if you could take his arm under yours, how would you lead him to change his course?

I would say, look, you’re a young man, you have very little experience in national government—you had no experience, at all, until January of last year of being an executive of any large entity or even of a small entity. Don’t rush into things. Learn the ropes, learn what’s going on. Consult people across the opinion and political spectrum. Don’t assume that you know everything. You don’t. There’s an awful lot you don’t know.

Look, Nixon—I think of Nixon. Here’s Nixon. Nixon had been a U.S. senator, he’d been a congressman. He had been vice president under a beloved and very smart and experienced president. He had traveled all over the world and met all the world leaders. And then, when he came to office, even he made mistake after mistake with very high-end intel all around him. Obama—Mr. Obama, President Obama—you’re going to make mistakes too. Try not to rush into things and try to be very careful about what you’re doing. I would say, most especially, try to be careful about this nuclear disarmament crap because that is really a dangerous idea. Why would we ever trust our future to countries like Iran or North Korea and trust them to say we don’t have any more nuclear weapons? If they only have one left we become their slaves or else they destroy a large part of America. No, it’s too important to keep nuclear weapons. Don’t even think of getting rid of them.

Is there any advice that you would give Obama to help small businesses?

Yes. I would say, “Understand that the small businessman and small businesswoman are the backbone of the American economy. Whatever you are thinking of doing, think first of how it will impact the person who owns an appliance store or runs a small paint factory or runs an insurance brokerage. How is it going to impact that guy? Is it going to scare him or encourage him? If it’s going to scare him, rethink it. If it’s going to encourage him, then go for it.”

Thank you very much. I enjoyed it very, very much, Geoff. Thank you; it was excellent.