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From The Weekly Standard, this about Obama's appointment to lead the NEA. Which, as you'd expect, has everything to do with political hackery, and nothing to do with the arts.

Not a brainiac, Landesman first broke into public consciousness with a speech declaring that Obama is "the most powerful writer since Caesar." The claim wasn't as ludicrous as it first sounds—Landesman meant that the president was the most politically powerful person since Caesar who could also be thought of as a writer—but it was still pretty ludicrous.

"This is the first president that actually writes his own books since Teddy Roosevelt," Landesman said, "and arguably the first to write them really well since Lincoln." Good thing he inserted that indispensable fudge word "arguably." Obama is indeed the first president to have written his own books since Teddy Roosevelt, but only if you don't count Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and, arguably, Bill Clinton. And Obama couldn't be the first president to write his books really well since Lincoln because he, -Lincoln, didn't write any.

Looks like Obama's just as disappointing when it comes to culture as he is at everything else. My favorite is the "Principles of Civility" nonsense which now seem to be core NEA doctrine.

I won't bother trying to come up with a list of American authors who probably couldn't pass a civility test but are still considered pretty great. Because, well, I can't think of one author considered pretty great who could pass a civility test.