What is “Dumb”?

“I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University”.  William F. Buckley, Jr.

It was only a matter of time—it’s like clockwork.  Every election season the Democrats resort to the kindergarten politics of name-calling, personal destruction and finger pointing, the most ridiculous charge being, “Our guy’s smart, your guy’s dumb”.  After months of the media painting most of the Republican leaders as less than intelligent.  Now the Politico has jumped head first into the shallow end of the pool trying to take down Texas Governor Perry since he assumed a lead in the Republican presidential primary race.  The Politico piece, “Is Rick Perry Dumb?”  attempts to paint a picture of Perry as a shallow thinker, “Advisers and colleagues have informed much of his thinking over the years”, coincidentally the same accusation they made about Ronald Reagan, an accusation that has since been revealed as a total fabrication thanks in large part to his writing and radio show recording archives.

The technique of mocking one’s opposition, lying about them and questioning their intelligence while declaring the brilliance of your side--the side of the “intellectual elite”--is an old saw used by Leftists since the days of Vladimir Lenin.  The Democrats have practiced this tactic religiously, laughably going so far as to paint Jimmy Carter as brilliant and Ronald Reagan as dumb, and more recently painting Al Gore and John Kerry as brilliant and George W. Bush as Dumb.  Only recently after years of painting Clarence Thomas as an idiot, the Left has admitted his intellectual prowess and fear it will lead to the repeal of Obamacare.  These accusations persist despite the fact that history has proved them to be false.

Oddly, the media never questioned Barrack Obama’s intelligence despite the fact it is rumored he flunked out of Occidental College, despite his claim during the campaign of 2008 that he’d “visited all 57 states”, said his healthcare plan would “reduce healthcare costs by 3,000 percent”, pronounced Navy “Corpsman” as “corpseman”, pronounced “infantry” as “infanry”, then during a speech on memorial day stated he saw dead soldiers in the audience, confused a breathalyzer with an inhaler at a town hall meeting when talking about children with asthma, recently blamed current job losses on ATM’s that have been in existence since the 1970’s,  and many many more:
 

Off teleprompter Obama is challenged in both his speech and delivery.  The Democrats and the media skewered President Reagan for using index cards with bullet points to which he referred during speeches for the sole purpose of ensuring he covered his entire message.  Now we have the first president in the history of the country to use teleprompters to such an extent that he required them to speak to a class of sixth graders, and the few times he is off teleprompter he stammers like a fool.   The media has no interest in even mentioning Obama’s oratorical shortcomings, rather defending them as a sign of intelligence.   One of the more humorous episodes which exposed this media adoration for Obama occurred when Don Imus had “Presidential Historian,”  Michael Beschloss on his show for the following exchange:

Michael Beschloss: “…this is a guy (Barack Obama) whose IQ is off the charts…” Imus: “Well. What is his IQ?” 
Historian Michael Beschloss: “Pardon?” 
Imus: “What is his IQ?” 
Historian Michael Beschloss: “Uh. I would say it’s probably - he’s probably the smartest guy ever to become President.”

Beschloss went on to admit to Imus he had no idea what Obama’s IQ was.  Audio and video versions of this exchange have been pulled from You Tube and the Web, presumably by Mr. Beschloss, as they make him appear intellectually dishonest and a shill for Obama.  To think the Democrats and their media allies painted a bright young Dan Quayle as an idiot, destroying his political career merely for suggesting “potato” was spelled “potatoe”, quite the double standard.  

Though it was easy to dismiss Election 2000 claims about Al Gore’s intelligence since it was public knowledge he had flunked out of Vanderbilt, it was hard to argue that G.W. Bush’s GPA was higher than John Kerry’s when Kerry wouldn’t release his records during the 2004 campaign.  Nevertheless a national media obediently complicit with the Democrats ignored that fact and echoed the false claim of Kerry’s superior intelligence.  However, when the dust settled in the aftermath of Election 2004, Kerry’s academic records were finally revealed and indicated his GPA was lower than Bush’s.  

Barrack Obama likely learned the lesson of secrecy from Kerry and the “most transparent president in the history of the country” has not released any of his academic records to date.  Not that academic records have anything whatsoever to do with intelligence—three out of the top five billionaires in this country never finished college and the other two are women who inherited it—but academic records are held in high regard by the establishment elites in the Democratic Party and the media for some reason as an indicator of intelligence, particularly when the degree is earned at a grossly overpriced undergraduate institution.  This should strike one as odd, since anyone who would pay $200,000 for an undergraduate degree that can be earned for a fraction of the price at a state university doesn’t seem very bright. 

Oddly enough, Obama’s entire presidency could be seen as a complete repudiation of the perceived benefit of overpriced schools and academic success.  Virtually the entire Obama administration has been staffed by academics from the so-called “elite” academic institutions and theoreticians possessing little experience in the business world.  These “best and brightest” and aren’t looking too bright these days after dreaming up policies that put our nation’s economy squarely in the toilet.  It seems that gross overspending on an undergraduate degree can instill in one a propensity toward overspending in other areas as well.  It is difficult to call what these “intelligent” people have done in the way of record high deficits, escalating debt, record high unemployment and record low economic growth “smart”.  If this administration is an example of superior intelligence idiots would be preferable.

Undoubtedly, Governor Perry with his degree from the esteemed Texas A&M University, or any other “idiot” from the Republican field of presidential candidates could do far better for our nation than what we’ve seen out of Obama and his “best and brightest” over the past three years. 

Hypothetically, let us agree with the Left’s assertion that Republicans are “dumb” while Democrats are smart.   President Obama was handed an anemic economy which was still in decline.  However, the causes were easily identified and all had their roots in government meddling.  The housing crash which led to widespread failure in the financial sector was caused by government social engineering and using taxpayer dollars to secure the inevitable failure of this engineering.  Energy costs?  Too many government regulations and restrictions have been placed on exploration and refining.  High unemployment?  The Democrats’ insistence on high corporate tax rates and burdensome regulations including the Minimum Wage law, has pushed millions of jobs overseas to more manufacturing-friendly environments.

What was Obama’s solution?  More government meddling.  More complex and convoluted power-grabs.  More “Keynesian” spending, even after the major tenets of Keynesian economic philosophy have been disproven time and time again.   Obama took a bad, but fixable economy and made it horrendous and hopeless.  If this is what we get from such superior intellect, give us the simpletons on the Right.