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Posted By: Joann

The past 8 years have been a disaster, with our folksy and collegial president that's basically as dumb as a stone. Even his inner circle long ago gave up trying to deny that he just isn't the brightest guy out there. He was elected because he could have been the guy on the next barstool, and look where it got us.

Tbob is 100% correct with his point above that we should definitely want smart people running the country. Why in God's name would we not value and even insist on that, at least? And yet the Republicans once again proudly run under the anti-intellectual banner, and right there is your VP nomination for Palin.

Women should be incensed with how she is being packaged and put out there. We should be hearing endless recitation about skills, knowledge and qualifications. But no - the Republican image machine is basically saying "Look! It's a soccer mom! It's PTA-er! She hunts moose!" That is just horrible, that they would nominate a woman and then emphasize her qualifications in the home and family more than in the professional and political arena. It's insulting.

But people seem to want the guy from the next barstool, or the Treasurer from the PTA. We are here - from the H.L. Mencken quote from many years ago:

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

It's okay to want a balance of personality characteritics, with no one trait - even intelligence - dominating all others. But to aggressively pooh-pooh intellect is frightening. What's even more frightening is that people buy it.

Joann