Posted on 08/31/2011 5:41:10 AM PDT by Kaslin
Folks in the media often judge the intellect of candidates using one crucial question: Do you agree with me?
Now, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, leading Republican presidential candidate, readily admits that he's not a scholarly type. But if your spider senses, like mine, are tingling, it probably has more to do with Perry's slippery politics than it does with his aversion to curling up with a dog-eared copy of "The Wealth of Nations."
In a recent Politico piece (one that mistakes wonkery for overall intelligence), readers are asked, Is Rick Perry dumb? "He is not an ideas man," explains Politico. He "hasn't spent his political career marking up the latest Cato or Heritage white papers or reading policy-heavy books late into the night. Advisers and colleagues have informed much of his thinking over the years."
Listen, I love reading a Cato white paper as much as the next guy, but that doesn't make me smart; it makes me tragically boring. No doubt Barack Obama picked up his sad conviction in redistributionist economics perusing stacks of white papers -- highlight marker within reach -- but his presidency was won on crude progressive populism anchored in emotion, not reason. Policy ideas had little to do with Obama's election victory, though they have almost everything to do with his failures as president.
I've not seen or heard enough of Perry to form any opinion on his intellect -- and if he instituted policies that I agreed with, I, like most Americans, wouldn't give one whit what his IQ was, but politicians, by their nature, are not intellectually curious, save their ability to twist their opponent's beliefs for political gain. Elections, after all, are about pandering, not thinking.
That doesn't make them "dumb." What makes a person dumb is repeating mistakes when all the evidence tells him to stop for his own good. We will witness this human shortcoming when the president rolls out his new "stimulus" package. Some ideas, goes Orwell's saying, are so dumb only intellectuals can believe them.
On the other hand, reflexive anti-intellectualism (a misguided belief on the right that was spurred by having to share the word "intellectual" with Cornel West) is also destructive. If you're going to propose more than hope in 2012 -- say, some policy -- you have to be prepared with scholarly backup.
If a candidate asserts that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and a "monstrous lie," I may agree (because I read Cato white papers!), but he'd better have some innovative ideas to offer voters instead -- ideas that can pithily and reassuringly convince baby boomers they won't be cracking open dog food canisters to survive in a few years. Decades of reliance on flawed New Deal policies doesn't just end. They need to be reformed or replaced -- unlikely as that is to happen.
When a candidate claims that Medicare is another "fraudulent" system "designed to take in a lot of money at the front and pay out none in the end," he sure is right, but he'd better be able to deftly handle policy questions and transcend talking points -- which it seems to me is all Perry has offered so far.
This requires the only form of intelligence that matters in politics: the ability to synthesize complex ideas and sell them to us.
I trust you have your flamesuit close by.
Same old cr*p from the left. Republicans are stupid. In reality Liberals are some of the most foolish, close-minded, dogmatic people you will ever meet. Really, it’s stunning how liberals profess themselves to be so wise and yet in reality they are intellectually dense.
Perry is not the only one.
Let’s see....they say Republicans are only FAT CAT CORPORATE EXECUTIVES and RICH people, then they turn around and call us all DUMB! They can’t have it both wys.
Flamesuits at the ready. Proceed with caution.
The only intellectually sophisticated and profound candidate I can see from here is Sarah.
Ain't it the truth!!
I would NOT want a leader (Conservative OR Liberal) who came to office in that way!!!
People with that kind of gut level, asinine, populist appeal are invariably DANGEROUS....think of Peron, Castro, Papa Doc, Hitler, Franco, Lenin, Il Duce, Napoleon I, Robespierre, etc.
Emotion is NOT the way to appeal to voters. Leaders who capitalize on emotion and pander to emotion will only exploit any advantage they can gain in this way. Everyone is a loser when this happens... except of course the 'drunk on power', ego-maniacal brute who succeeds with this kind of manipulation of people and the media. When we had a media worth the name, we felt a little secure in their 'watch dog' concern for public good. NOT NOW. We are on our own.
Give me a good ole' common sense person anytime.
My dad only went to the third grade, yet he was self taught from the School of Hard Knocks. He could add and subtract as good as anyone, and when you got a put down from him you enjoyed it.
What we need more of is a Common Sense candidate, preferably with a degree from "The School of Hard Knocks". If they graduated from there, they normally Don't make the same mistake twice.
Sorry, you are wrong 2 out of 3. Sarah Palin is NOT “intellectual”, nor is she sophisticated. What she is is profound. She is a country loving, family loving, hardworking, “feet on the ground”, who has dealt with the realities of the world. She got into the “comon sense line” several time, and faces problems with common sense, not high sounding theories.
Sarah strikes me as a Republican, female HARRY TRUMAN, a former president who would have NO place in today’s Democrat party. Just compare Truman’s world with that of our current (barf) leader. Go SARAH
Those of us in Texas know about Perry, including the warts. He does have some.
But we keep reelecting him, even when he runs against someone else that we like, Senator Hutchinson or Mayor White, for instance.
Perry is one shrewd politician. Seems like he often hits the right chord. And he is a ruthless administrator. Just ask any commissioner he has appointed. They do not dare oppose him.
Perry is a RINO, but he is also a leader. Smart people usually end up working FOR people like Perry. They are too hamstrung with their own intelligence to lead.
Let's see: “Is Rick Perry dumb? “He is not an ideas man,” “
Well, do we really want to examine their real record of the “smartest man ever to hold the Presidency”?
Remember the last President that the MSM declared to be dumb, only able to read what others put before him, an actor without any original thought - President Reagan.
Of the two Obama and Reagan who is more likely to solve the numerous crises we find ourselves in?
Given a choice between Obama and Perry I'll take Perry - dumb and not an ideas man.
Ronald Reagan’s take on liberal intellectuals is worth repeating:
It isn’t that liberals are ignorant, it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.
~Ronald Reagan
You cannot claim that a conservative with impeccable constitutional credentials is not sophisticated. Nor can you claim that Sarah is not intellectual unless you have a limited definition of intelligence.
I appreciate your desire to label her a Davey Crockett populist lacking in East Coast sophistication and intellectualism, but she clearly is more than that.
Ultimately, you failed to recognize my sarcasm. No fault. It was not obvious. Only a leftist would be apoplectic.
Please do not be offended by my palaver. I appreciate your position.
We missed each other’s points. I don’t regard Sarah as an EASTERN, IVY LEAGUE “intellectual” or “sophisticate”.
There used to be a descriptive term, a “rough diamond” referring to a person, lacking college degrees, refined language, and tea room manners. They were wonderfully armed with “common sense”, “ethics”, “morality”, an intense “work ethic”, “loyalty”, and very often dirty hands and callouses from their hard work.
These are the people we need, but don’t have enough of.
Sarah has proven herself to be (without the dirty hands) a prime example of a “rough diamond”.
I do not disagree but I do believe she is a lot more polished than is given credit for.
(And that is all I have ever said on here about him since he announced).
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