I tried to needle him into further recognizing “community activist” threats of extortion against the banks that conceded to opening branches in smaller communities in hopes of supporting a realistic business atmosphere, and were simply met with “Show mw the money” by folks that had no concept of remotely complex finances, as well as the trend toward shitting where they eat in their own neighborhoods. (think drugs, riots, and robbery)

He wouldn’t bite, and the subject quickly turned to the number of teaching opportunities at the Catholic University in Afghanistan.

I think the “intellectuals” that, you know…ARE, are abandoning the
sinking ship of protected “popular” opinion.

Ditto on Steve L. as far as needing the President to lead. So far, his major method of operation is to either manufacture or exploit a crisis to push a pet cause with little or no debate. Or, as in the case of Afghanistan, to put off a decision until the matter is decided for him. As former military, I find neither case very inspiring.

For some reason, the Left mistakes smarts for leadership. I suppose that, to a mental midget, a smart man is God.

I don’t need my President to be the smartest guy in the room (not that the current one is.) I need my President to be a leader.

Well, at least the guy can string two words together into a sentence. That’s more than most left-wingers can do these days.

Sadly, this commenter is unable to provide any specific, concrete examples of this lack of “intellectual curiosity” on the part of either Palin or Bush. Nor does he provide even the names of anyone whom he does consider “well traveled, well read, or well spoken” or what criteria he uses to determine those things.

It’s like you said, Morgan. We’re increasingly at a point where people are apt to label a person “intelligent” or otherwise, based only on how well the person agrees with our own views – and worrying about the incompetence of allies or the genius of enemies, seems to be a thing of the past. (That was an absolutely profound observation and I’m stealing it.) Sadly again, this phenomenon afflicts the Left even more than the Right; I wouldn’t presume to call Obama, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Henry Waxman, or Rahm Emanuel “stupid” or blather on about their lack of “intellectual curiosity.” Rather, I question their values, their priorities, their ethics, their judgment, and their commitment to the betterment of this nation.

But, you know. We backwoods, redneck hillbilly Bible-thumping fundamentalist types are no match for all that Manhattan-elite intellectual firepower anyway, are we?

I’m less concerned about how “smart” someone appears to be (whatever that means) than in the wisdom of the decisions they’ve made up to this point.