My heavens, this is the sort of thing dreadfully in need of being said (HT Instapundit):

Real life is not like a science experiment . . . . Humans are not purely rational beings. They have phobias, biases and other irrational elements. Ego, hatred and childhood experiences are not something that can be turned into statistics. . . . . [W]orks of literature can help [Obama]. Precisely because they’re not concerned with reducing every event to facts and figures, and because they’re not limited in length and description like policy briefs, they can explore events and people with a thoroughness that factual books and briefs can’t. They describe the world as it really is–and so are essential to making knowledgeable policy decisions.

Or any other kind of decision. The author applies it to Obama as “emotionally detached” and having things go badly for him. Fatuous that, if it’s that which will save this bad presidency. I will ignore the Obama part, if you don’t mind, and welcome the wise words that will lead a decision-maker to do the right thing, or increase his chances of doing it.

He’s puffing a book that makes the point:

This lesson–how great works of literature provide invaluable guidance to understanding events and people–is brilliantly explained in a new book, Grand Strategies, by Charles Hill. In the book, Hill, a . . . former career diplomat who . . . lectures at Yale . . . takes readers on a grand tour through the great pieces of literature, along the way explaining their lessons for policymakers. It’s the perfect primer for the president and his team.

Not quite, though it sounds interesting. The perfect primer would be Hayek’s Road to Serfdom. But big-govt. enthusiasts won’t touch it. Leopards and their spots, and all that, you know.