[My2Cents]

About liberals wanting their leaders "complicated," I think it stems from the nature of liberalism. The longer I live and observe politics, the more I'm convinced that liberalism is a mental illness, or at least is a dysfunction. Liberals seem to like leaders who create "drama," usually of the personal kind. But, then again, because these leaders are liberal themselves, they tend to be dysfunctional as people.

[Taliesan]

Also, liberals like to think that complicated is interesting because their own thoughts are a buzzing, swarming mess. If you could take a trip through a liberal mind you would see something resembling a constant MTV video; the conservative mind is a plodding documentary.

They have no organizing principle with which to structure their own thought-life, because they don't want one. They like it when the world and their own minds are moving like a music video. It's acid without the needle.

You can see what the liberal mind thinks is really neat-o by watching West Wing. Really fast, snappy patter. Verbal cleverness. Strings of facts and figures used like Monet's paint -- to suggest a conclusion without having to clinch a long rigorous argument. Lots of violin music moments (West Wing has lots of violin music moments without the music) and free-association masquerading as thinking.

Anybody who speaks in direct declarative sentences is "dim". Anybody who talks and thinks like Robin Williams is "intelligent".