QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 8:37 A.M. ET:   From Bret Stephens, writing in The Wall Street Journal:

Much of the media has spent the past decade obsessing about the malapropisms of George W. Bush, the ignorance of Sarah Palin, and perhaps soon the stupidity of Rick Perry. Nothing is so typical of middling minds than to harp on the intellectual deficiencies of the slightly less smart and considerably more successful.

But it takes actual smarts to understand that glibness and self-belief are not sufficient proof of genuine intelligence. Stupid is as stupid does, said the great philosopher Forrest Gump. The presidency of Barack Obama is a case study in stupid does.

COMMENT:  Agreed.  We have a tendency to confuse academic intelligence with wisdom.  The two are not the same.  I have great respect for true scholarship and great teaching.  But the president does things.  He doesn't simply contemplate things.  And this president's ability to do things is, to put it mildly, under question. 

He comes from a world where people dream of putting their College Board scores on their gravestones.

He seems to have little understanding of how the real world operates, having rarely lived in that world.  He believes that by speaking well he can do well and move mountains.  He cannot.  He seems to have contempt for the very acts of politics, compromise and vote counting that allow great things to be accomplished.  He does not understand what a leader does, having never been one before.

Maybe the next time we choose a president we should bar one question from being asked of candidates:  Where did you go to school?

August 10, 2011