AN EGGHEAD FOR THE OVAL OFFICE: "WE NEED TO GET OURSELVES THE SMARTEST PRESIDENT WE CAN FIND"!

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: An Egghead for the Oval Office
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, June 1, 2007; Page A15

Al Gore has been in town launching his new book, "The Assault on Reason," and you could have predicted the buzz: Is he about to jump into the race? What you probably wouldn't have predicted is the counter-buzz that Gore, poor fellow, is just too ostentatiously smart to be elected president.

In the book, you see, Gore betrays familiarity with history, economics, even science. He uses big words, often several in the same sentence. And in public appearances he doesn't even try to disguise his erudition. These supposedly are glaring shortcomings that should keep Gore on the sidelines, rereading Gibbon and exchanging ideas about the structure of the cosmos with Stephen Hawking.

Leave aside the question of whether Gore is even thinking about another presidential run, or how he would stack up against the other candidates. I'm making a more general point: One thing that should be clear to anyone who's been paying attention these past few years is that we need to go out and get ourselves the smartest president we can find. We need a brainiac president, a regular Mister or Miss Smarty-Pants. We need to elect the kid you hated in high school, the teacher's pet with perfect grades.

When I look at what the next president will have to deal with, I don't see much that can be solved with just a winning smile, a firm handshake and a ton of resolve. I see conundrums, dilemmas, quandaries, impasses, gnarly thickets of fateful possibility with no obvious way out. Iraq is the obvious place he or she will have to start; I want a president smart enough to figure out how to minimize the damage....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/31/AR2007053101851.html?nav=hcmodule

[Matariki]

1. One who will tell the nation that plants need water, not electrolytes?

;-)

[cynatnite]

2. My favorite line:

"I want a president -- and it's amazing that I even have to put this on my wish list -- smart enough to know that Darwin was right."

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Yes! Lots of great lines in this piece. Bravo, Eugene Robinson! nt

[pnwmom]

4. Thank you, DeepModem Mom! Great piece. K & R.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. I think a response to this: "Dana Milbank thinks Iowans are too stupid to understand Gore's book"

I think Robinson's column is in response to Dana Milbank's column discussed in this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3290772&mesg_id=3290772

[pnwmom]

7. One of the most unnerving things about having Bush for President

is feeling that even I -- with no preparation -- would make a much better President. And so would my next door neighbor. Or the mailman. Or my 80 year old mother. Or my 14 year old son.

I live for the day when we again have a President who is far more knowledgeable than the average joker on the street.

[EFerrari]

11. That's what I thought on 9/12. nt

[mwb970]

17. I am so sick of being smarter than the president!

I never once, for one second, felt that I was smarter than Bill Clinton about anything that mattered.

I have always, at every moment, felt that I am much smarter than Li'l Bush on everything that matters. (I even knew what Sunnis and Shiites were before the Iraq invasion.) And I hate it.

[Nickster]

18. I've said the same thing for several years. I just can't believe that people want someone that is

obviously no smarter than the average joe in the office of the President. I've always wanted a President that I knew was much smarter than anyone I knew personally. Don't people realize that running the country is a very complex thing and you need someone with above average intelligence to handle it?

[SammyWinstonJack]

23. It must make them feel better about themselves or maybe they identify with ** on that level.

:shrug: Personally, after listening to that moran, I feel stupid! Both for having heard what he said and for having listened too him in the first place. :dunce: :spank:

[Nickster]

26. I like to pat myself on the back as much as anyone, but geez, I can't even begin to pretend that

I could run the free world or that I'd be doing justice to the country if I was in charge. Knowing that, how in the hell could I ever feel good about someone just like me being in the driver's seat? That thinking is just so alien to me. Would you go to a medical doctor that knew only as much about medicine as you did? Mind-boggling.

[renate]

29. not me. I want someone I can have a beer with

Because my having a beer with the president of the United States is a much more likely scenario than his having to make important decisions.

[DeepModem Mom]

24. I thought the same thing -- I'd give the office to anyone of my acquaintance...

over Bush. Aside even from smarts, they have more common sense.

[mirrera]

46. Same here!

I didn't believe a thing this guy said since before he was selected resident. I KNOW I am not that smart. Smart but not more so than all these frickin LAWYERS running the country.


www.NoBullshiRt.com


Gore's book is excellent...still reading, but I do not know why he doesn't discuss Impeachment so far. HMMM a political thang? Edwards seems more daring in a way.

[BattyDem]

32. That's a classic, isn't it?

:rofl:

[DeepModem Mom]

6. LINK TO WP, "IS IT WISE TO BE SO SMART?," BY DANA MILBANK --

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/29/AR2007052902038.html

I think Robinson may be tweaking his WP colleague Dana Milbank.

[pnwmom]

8. I think he is tweaking him and the tweaking is well-deserved.

The only good thing about Bush may be that he's helped America respect intelligence again. No one wants another idiot for President.

[AlGore-08.com]

9. And this Robinson OpED would have never appeared during the 2000 campaign

Another interesting sign that the Times and the WashPost, they are a changin'...

[blm]

27. Wouldn't do it in 2004 either. It took a category 5 HURRICANE, fer chrissakes

to even make a FEW of them wake up to the disaster of having the frat boy sons of the BFEE in charge.

[terrya]

10. I've had enough with this "who would you rather have a beer with?" crap.

I don't know why the hell this country is suspicious of intellectuals in politics. Damn right we should expect the best and the brightest. I think we've pretty much scraped the bottom of the barrel with the other end of the intellect spectrum, don't you?

[EFerrari]

13. The problem is thought is a liberal thingy and we've been brainwashed

to believe that Amerika went "conservative" when in reality, it didn't. The media was bought and some elections were stolen but you'd never figure that out by listening to the Noise Machine.

It's been creepy as hell watching Junior, surrounded with educated, smarter sycophants, driving daddy's car and not able to reach the pedals.

[DeepModem Mom]

25. Well said! nt

[madmunchie]

34. The beer barrel?

"bottom of the barrel"

I've been saying this for years..... Why would we want a POTUS that we can have a beer with?????

[madmunchie]

35. Isn't Bush an alcoholic? How can you want to have a beer with an alcoholic?

Duh????? Enough with this drinking beer with POTUS crap. That just shows how low "we" have lowered our standards to.

[KittyWampus]

12. Being an intellectual genius doesn't make you a great diplomat or even solution-oriented

edit- not that I mean to imply Gore isn't a diplomat or good at solving problems.

Just saying.

[Labors of Hercules]

36. so... what are you saying?

[DFW]

14. Intellectual isn't necessarily "smart"

We need someone with both intelligence and street smarts.
Sarkozy with a heart, if you will.

For me, Al Gore comes closest to this, but if he sticks
to his decision not to run, if column A consists of Hillary,
Obama, Edwards, Biden, Richardson, Kucinich, Dodd, and Clark,
and column B consists of Giuliani, McCain, Thompson, Romney,
Brownback, Paul, Huckabee, then it is a no-brainer that I
would choose ANY from column A over ANY from column B.

Carter was intelligent, but lacked the street smarts.
Reagan had street smarts, but lacked intellect.
Clinton had a fair share of both. He did better than either.

Bush Lite lacks everything but grammatical mistakes,
which is why we're in such a mess now.

[Labors of Hercules]

37. So True! Sooooo True! n/t

[Oilwellian]

15. Great read...

In Gore's recent speech at GW University, he quoted someone, don't recall who, and said, "evil is the absence of truth." That really stuck with me and I haven't stopped thinking about it since.

Gore is so well read and so well traveled...to have his intelligence in the WH...do we dare have that much hope?

I'm working on a new video with the help of fellow DU'er Berni McCoy (he recently did a photo essay on Gore & Kennedy) and hope to have it finished sometime next week. Gathering the photos for it has been quite emotional for me. I found myself faced with the thoughts of what could have been and what might be.

[Kazak]

16. On top of being "smart" and obvious best choice, Gore...

has eight years experience as VP!! No one (well, almost...) can say that!

[Ganja Ninja]

19. Right now I'd settle for someone that's sane and deals with ...

reality. He or she doesn't have to be a genius.

[Vinca]

20. At this point I'd settle for "sane." nt

[Cameron27]

39. That's the sad truth.

[camero]

21. Just one that's not greedy would be fine with me

Which leaves out the vast majority of candidates in my book. Having a heart not corrupted by greed and an undesire to please corporate benefactors would go a long way toward repairing the damage done Rhodes Scholar or not.

[npincus]

22. Amen.

[driver8]

28. But...I thought we already had the smartest president we could find??

YEEEEE HAAAAAWWWWW

[TahitiNut]

30. The battle of Adlai v. Ike was fought 55 years ago.

:shrug:

[Sapere aude]

31. And most voters want someone like the "Cable Guy."

Right wingers want a white man with a Southern accent that can say Jesus, fag, deportation, Islamo-fascism and get a laugh at the same time.

[DFW]

33. We should all remember Adlai's famous line

It's debated whether or not this really went down this way, but the story
has it that during one of his presidential campaigns, a woman yelled
out to Stevenson "You have the support of every thinking American," and
he replied, "This is not enough. I need a majority!"

[Labors of Hercules]

38. A jolly good point. How do you get stupid people to vote for an intelligent person?

Gotta make the smart guy the one that "just feels right".

Stupid people respect strength and authority, that's what feels right to them. Hit hard and fast. Dialogue is good to a point and I agree there needs to be a major change in the basic means we use to exchange information, but besides that, intelligence has to be broken down and spoon fed in a way these people will be swayed. They have to be shown time and time again: The problems, who created them, and who will solve them. Time and time again.

Repeat after me:
The war is bad. Bush made the war happen. Bush is bad. Gore will make the war go away. Gore is good. You like Gore.
Climate change is bad. Bush likes climate change. Bush is bad. Gore will make climate change go away. Gore is good. You like Gore.

etc. etc. etc...

[berni_mccoy]

40. Bush is SOO DUMB...

Audience: "How dumb is HE?!?!"

They had to MAKE UP the Intelligence to go to Iraq!

Ba-dumb-dumb.

[EFerrari]

41. I hope you'll be here all week.

lol

[Javaman]

43. remember to tip your waitress! nt

[EFerrari]

44. And try the veal! n/t

[Javaman]

45. Who says the borscht belt is dead LOL

[BlooInBloo]

42. What are Things You'll Never Hear An American Say, Alex?

[dtotire]

47. Kick n/t