SMARTYPANTS

A lot is said about intelligence these days.  Apparently, in our country we are bullish on smart.  

I don't claim to be the brightest bulb, but I'm beginning to get a whiff of a stacked deck.  See if you smell anything...

Consensus from the media and the left had President Reagan pegged as an actor/empty suit, lacking mental acuity long BEFORE his dementia began.  Everyone knows Dan Quayle can't spell potato(e).  Both Bushes were characterized as "not really that bright".  The former Governor of Alaska is made out to be a buffoon.  And now, the word "airhead" is in the same sentence as the name Michele Bachmann.

Conversely, Joe Biden is said to be really sharp.  Bill Clinton was the smartest politician ever.  Listen to these commentators in a discussion about Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer:


SIMON: It's the very intelligence of these men like Spitzer, like Weiner -- how bright they are, how quick they are, uh, how successful they are -- that gives them a sense of invulnerability, that nothing bad could really happen to them because nothing bad ever has.

HALPERIN: You won't meet any smarter people in politics than those two guys. Just won't.

Right.  And of course, there's the President.  He's so brilliant it affects nerves that run down Chris Matthews' leg.  OK, I'm picking up a pattern here.

So this is about one side's density versus the towering intellectuals on the other side?  Surely not.

Perhaps it's just a case of elitism.  Maybe if you graduate from the right coast schools, you're a brainiac.  Nope...that wouldn't work.  Both Bushes graduated from Yale (the elder in just three years) and W went on to get a masters @Harvard.  It must not be about the right school.

Maybe it is misogynistic.  No, they think Hillary is brilliant.  

So if this mindset is not elitist or gender-oriented, then what drives the "big brains" bandwagon?  

And why do all the conservative candidates get to wear the dunce hat?  Methinks one side has a bully pulpit. 

Let's flip through the Rolodex and consider a few conservatives in that corner:

SARAH PALIN

Has our country sunk so low that a candidate would be smart NOT to run?  Do liberals and the media have the power to  "r-u-n-n-o-f-t" a candidate? (Washington Hogwallop @"Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?")

Sarah Palin probably won't run for President, but even if she WERE to run...let's unpack the attacks on this woman.  What drives a hatred that slanders/mocks her every word, her special needs child, her out-of-wedlock daughter, and on and on and on.  What would YOU think if someone published a request to the general public for help going through 24,000 of YOUR personal and business emails?  Sounds like a witch hunt to me. Mother would have called it a "water haul" since it hasn't turned up anything juicy. http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/575779/201106171909/Pursuing-Palin-NYTs-Fixation.htm

Sarah Palin's IQ is unknown, but without the number it is obvious that she has good instincts and she espouses her own clear vision for our country.  No one has to send Sarah Palin talking points or plug her into a teleprompter.  In Alaska, she bucked her own party, bucked the mighty oil companies, and bucked "the way it's always been done".  She has walked her fiscal talk and her love of country.

RONALD REAGAN
This President held firm to his plan to cut tax rates when even his own advisors lost confidence.  The plan worked and the economy roared.  Reagan was a LEADER who had vision regardless of polls or criticism.  At his death, the public stood in long lines at the Capitol to pay respects.  Wiki says 104,684 people passed by at the rate of 5,000 per hour.  Mourners then lined both the motorcade route to Andrews AFB, and then along California's 25 mile route to the burial service with 700 invited guests at the Reagan Library.

History tries to rewrite this man, but facts are facts.  Ronald Reagan connected with the American people and people loved him.  His words ring fresh and true even now, thirty years later.

GEORGE H. W. BUSH/GEORGE W. BUSH
Both gracious men, these Presidents were respectful and refused to return evil for evil.  I remember one time when Barbara Bush said in frustration "George is a GOOD man!"  It must have been hard to hear her husband criticized so unfairly.  Little did she know the reviling would be ratcheted up when her son was elected.  George W. Bush received hateful assaults and chose to turn the other cheek, even today choosing not to respond to criticism.

Both GHWB and GWB were smart enough to reach the pinnacle of service to their country.

MICHELE BACHMANN
Now let's consider a woman who IS running for President.  And just for the record, Michele Bachmann's smart badge was awarded to her for a life well lived.

She is an attorney who specializes in tax law.  Thirty-three years and five children ago, she married her Phd college sweetheart.  Together they began a small business, a counseling service for people going through tough times.  She has a heart for foster children and has brought 23 teens into their home.  And she serves as Minnesota's Congresswoman.

As Michele Bachmann announced her candidacy, it struck me that courage was part of her integrity.  Right now she is no threat and the media is treating her gingerly.

But if this woman gets traction....we will know  she's connecting with people when the attacks come against her intelligence.

"This is what the LORD says: 'Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,' declares the LORD."   Jeremiah 9.23,24