Hey Everybody !!!
“Political philosophies have implications.” – Some Guy
A political philosophy that has been killing the country over the past few years is one that is held in common by both Democrats and Republicans.
It is a philosophy that says. “It is better to hire (vote for) the ‘regular guy’ than the smartest person running.”
Being super smart used to be a given, a minimal requirement for anyone seeking the Presidency. Now… not so much.
It seems obvious to me that brainpower should be a major criteria for picking a President, so put aside all of your partisan rancor and ‘regular guy’ assumptions and tell me who is the smartest person running.
Mitt Romney.
And it ain’t even close.
Raw brains, I’d say Hillary, but that doesn’t mean I want her as Presidentrix.
Well Romney certianly meets the “not a regular guy” criteria, but I don’t know how smart you have to be to be born the son of a CEO.
Obama is no slouch. Harvard yo!
You know, I just finished reading David McCullough’s outstanding biography of Harry Truman. In Truman’s time, he was denigrated quite abit for not being smart — mostly as a way to note that he was not a college man, not a person of a certain class, and as a way to remind folks he was not Roosevelt.
But the lesson of Truman (and I think the lesson of BushCo) is that smartest person may not be nearly as important as someone who has real skills in management and leadership. Truman, I think, a modern model of the President as CEO, and after WWII, CEO of the Free World. Which isn’t to say that Truman was not smart — he certainly was. It is unfortunate that modern presidential campaigns want us to value the person who you think you could have a beer with rather than someone who might do an extraordinary job.
But I think that there is alot of brianpower out there — John McCain is awfully bright, but I wouldn’t want him continuing the current failed policy. Hillary is brilliant, but she’s not in my top three choices; Richardson and Dodd have alot on the ball too, but they don’t get alot of chance to show it.
I’d like to see Edwards in a debate with Romney. Edwards has poise and he is a wordsmith; not sure if that translates into “smart” but I think he’d carve up Romney if Romney was foolish enough to trot out RNC talking points.
I guess they are all smart in different ways. But none of them is (Bill) Clinton smart.
I’m not sure, but one thing I have observed in all my years, and it’s borne out by W, is that people who are smart usually speak well. And, people who are dumb usually don’t. I don’t mean just gramatically, but the ideas seem to flow because they’ve been well thought through. And the speech is economical, not rambling. Rambling is a sure sign that the brain is slow.
I’m looking for great ideas that are expressed with great words. Of course, I could be fooled by a great speech writer. There’s always that risk. But even then, the candidate has to be able to memorize the great speech and there are a lot of them who can’t.
Rebecca,
Got it.
Dis
Edwards would first have to debate himself.
So says the Flipp Romney man.