You also invite me to expand and brag on the ones who you would talk to and see for five minutes and come away thinking they were crippled hicks, only to learn later that they were pretty darned successful in their current blue-collar or manufacturing endeavor, and had been a former professional orchestra violinist, or college-degreed engineer, or former restaurateur with a science degree -- you'd assume they were hicks wrongly. There are a lot of pretty smart folks you'd never even recognize.
You are like the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz, thinking that a medal confers courage. No more do diplomas, awards, certificates, and honors confer intelligence or ethics.
No. Doing well(hell, just doing alright) in college implies intellectual curiosity and work ethic, nothing more. Gov. Palin couldn't even meet that low threshold.
No one saying she needs to qualify for the Townsend Chair of Theoretical Physics at Oxford. But, one might expect her to roll off the names a few conservative authors and ICONS that may have influenced her political philosophy. She couldn't. She didn't. Apparently, she can't.
Frankly, I got sick of her say ad nauseum "We're gonna send a message to the fat cats on Wall Street, You Betcha!" Adam Smith was rolling over in his grave.
Heh heh! Your choice of examples reminds me of an incident back in the mid-70's when I was a seasonal Park Ranger at Grand Teton. My regular job was at the Buffalo Entrance and Signal Mtn Campground, but I loved every chance they'd give me to ride along with the North District Road Patrol.
One day I was riding with an NDRP ranger named Randy Hunter, when he got a call to pick up a couple who had been stranded when their boat broke down; he was to shuttle them back to the marina where they'd parked their car.
During the ride, Randy was making pleasant conversation, and they told us they were locals, living in Jackson Hole. He asked the husband what he did for a living.
There were a few seconds of hesitation, which piqued my interest. Why would this guy hesitate? Was he unemployed, perhaps?
Then the answer came out .... he was a composer.
Aha! Now I figured out why the hesitation. From top to bottom, Randy looked the part of a typical cop - badge, uniform, holster, dark shades, heavy duty flashlight doubling as nightstick, ticket book, car with siren and flashers, etc. (He also acted the part. Frinstance, I remember when his fellow Road Patroller Stan Pugmire received in his mail the latest copy of a glossy-photo gun & weapons catalog geared towards law enforcement, and came rushing to meet Randy, they excitedly pored over its contents, like two sixth-graders with a girlie magazine).
So I could see what this composer was thinking ..... blue collar cop type .... no appreciation of fine arts .... probably will chuckle or smirk when I tell him what I do for a living ..... he probably wouldn't even consider that as a valid way to make a living ..... should I lie?
By this time I was looking around to the back seat, so I saw this guy's face when Randy asked him, "Wait a minute. What did you say your name was?"
The guy answered.
Randy asked, "Didn't you compose the [name of some obscure piece of classical music]"?
You should have seen this guy's jaw hit the floor.
It turned out that Randy, while going to law school at U of Wyo, took time to play (some string instrument ... cello?) with some Wyoming city's orchestra, and what's more, they had recently played a piece written by this same composer.
LOL!!! It was hard for me to suppress an ear-to-ear grin! I think this guy learned a valuable lesson about pigeon-holing "obvious blue collar types" that day.