i've been thinking about intelligence and politics. first of all, i note that leftist types regard conservatives as dolts, and spend an amazing amount of energy on this, as if it were by far the most important thing. reagan and bush: people spent years of endless yapping asserting that they were (are) stupid. now bush is not some kind of genius, and has articulation problems. but my sense is he's no dummy, more or less. they were wrong about reagan, though, as you can see from the diaries published a couple of years ago.
the idea, though, is that the positions themselves are marks of stupidity, and the assertion is basically this: anyone who disagrees with us (me) is ipso facto a fool. that is, truly, the essence. now what this is is, first, an inyoface ad hominem fallacy, and, second, a piece of self-congratulatory propaganda: we try to make our opponents - not reconsider their position, but - feel stupid, and thus want to agree with us.
al gore is a pretty bright fellow, though he conducted his political career with extreme cowardice. if intelligence is a virtue, it's not the only virtue.
bill clinton, and hillary, are bright as anything. but they sure are vicious little runts, ain't they?
the most absurd moment in "i'msmarterthanyou" politics came during the 2004 campaign, in which democrats somehow detected the gleam of wit and wisdom beaming from the pulpy non-brain of john kerry.
i don't think there's any doubt that on some raw scale of intelligence - whatever this may mean, exactly - barack is the smartest major pol in my lifetime. here i do think we see actual intelligence of some value: like someone who can really think. he's one of the few actual political figures who could sit down
and write a good book, himself. this is good because he could also,
say, write a speech, and thus speak his own words as a public figure.
but again this is obviously not the only or the paramount value. mccain also strikes me as very bright.
but i think it's true that while mccain has been tested with regard to many virtues, like courage or persistence (both outside and inside politics) etc, obama's trials are at least less obvious.