Comments on: In a twist…

By: OBloodyHell

OBloodyHell — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:51:57 +0000

> If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: “President Can’t Swim.”

Along these lines is the joke, “If I flew, the headlines that afternoon would read: ‘President does bird imitations’”. LOL.

OTOH, my opinion of LBJ is too colored by his complete betrayal of duly-elected southern black reps at the 1964 DNC.

By: gcotharn

gcotharn — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:57:56 +0000

@Mitsu

I cede your point about Bush 41. It was overenthusiastic to include him in my list. I am happy to see you agree – via absence of protest – that the left widely considered Eisenhower, Ford, Reagan, Bush 43, and Palin to be ignorami.

By: James Drake

James Drake — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:47:08 +0000

I thought the pissing / tent story referred to RFK. I don’t think LBJ had the leverage to force J. Edgar Hoover out, especially since he assumed the presidency after Kennedy’s assasination.

By: Mitsu

Mitsu — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:45:28 +0000

Actually, gcotharn, I don’t think most Democrats considered Bush 41 “the dumbest POTUS of all time”, either then or now. He was certainly smarter than all the others on your list, with the possible exception of Ford, though I think he was a better president than Ford. I certainly would rank Bush 41 as probably one of the best Republican presidents we’ve had; thoughtful and pragmatic.

Palin, however, has no chance of being elected President, so I’m not going to lose any sleep over that one.

By: Sergey

Sergey — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:49:59 +0000

High IQ has nothing in common with good judgment. Nor intellectualism has. Remember, there is no important political issue in which 20 century intellectuals were on the right side of history. As Orwell said, “Only intellectual can be so stupid”.

By: njcommuter

njcommuter — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:30:51 +0000

Actually, I probably have a higher IQ than either Obama or Biden. That doesn’t mean I could do a particular job better, because intelligence covers many areas. OTOH, to judge by Biden’s gaffes, with a few years of training I might be a better Constitutional scholar than he is, and quite possibly a better senator. Unfortunately, I’m not as charismatic.

By: Mr. Frank

Mr. Frank — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:05:22 +0000

The Dems also said Eisenhower was dumb. I guess being the Supreme Allied Commander in WW II was an easy task.

By: gcotharn

gcotharn — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:58:57 +0000

Mitsu, consider that, according to the left:

Ford = dumbest POTUS of all time,

until, thankfully for Ford…

Reagan became dumbest POTUS of all time

until, thankfully for Reagan…

Bush 41 became dumbest POTUS of all time

until, thankfully for Bush 41…

Bush 43 became dumbest POTUS of all time

until, hopefully thankfully for Bush 43…

Sarah Palin becomes dumbest POTUS of all time.

Could it be a pattern of the left convincing themselves that Repubs are ignorant? Nah. Just a pattern of Repubs exposing themselves as ignorant. Barack and Joe Biden certainly have higher IQs and shrewder judgment than Sarah Palin.

By: Mitsu

Mitsu — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:51:54 +0000

I really find your defense of Palin quite perplexing, Neo. Whether this woman is “intelligent” or not is really quite beside the point — she was and is totally unprepared for the job she was nominated for, as one can see simply by watching her astoundingly unprepared performances in interviews with Gibson, Couric, and even Sean Hannity. Could she, one day, catch up? A woman who has spent her life mired in intellectual incuriosity is unlikely to be able to entirely change her ways, though one can always hope, the fact is she would be a dramatically less informed politician at the national level than any we have ever seen.

This is hardly “condescension” it is merely a straightforward observation, one that has been made by those on both the left and the right, as you well know, from Kathleen Parker to David Brooks. In any event, the likelihood of a Palin resurgence is asymptotically approaching zero at this stage, as it’s quite clear from the polls she was a major factor in McCain’s huge loss.

By: njcommuter

njcommuter — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:19:18 +0000

To which I ask, why doesn’t this country see that Obama wants to replay the failed Great Society policies?

In part because the Republicans, who had an obligation to educate people (or to waken them to what they already knew) failed to do so.

I am just old enough to remember The Great Society and the harm that it wrought. Since it was a failure that must be laid at the feet of the Democrats, it is not taught in school. ANY Republican appeal to the lessons of history MUST now factor this problem in, just as we must consider that a scandal involving a Congresscritter whose party is not given in an MSM report to be a Dem.