And it seems to me _obvious_ that the personal intelligence and/or experience of presidents is not particularly relevant to the success/failure of ltheir administration. It is Administrations, not the prsident him/herself that make and implement policy. In retrospect, even historians who hate Bush's politics will recognize that his administration has been quite successful, particularly in making it more or less certain that the next administration (whether it is of McCain or Obama) will carry on the same policies. Personal characteristics of the president are important only to those whose relationsip to politcs is that of the spectator and/or drama critic. This thread would appear on the entertaiment pages of any newpaper rather than constitute political commentary.
Carrol
rayrena wrote:
>
> > Call me an elitist - and I mean that, it's ok with me -
> > but criticizing Palin for her lack of experience is
> > hardly sexist.
>
> I've never heard you--which doesn't mean you
> haven't--criticize Obama for being inexperienced. I'd like
> to hear an argument that he's more experienced than she is.
> Or at least one that doesn't boil down to his being from a
> big state and graduating from an elite law school.
>
> It's not like she's going to be crunching employment numbers
> or writing the CFR by herself. She's got a huge bureaucracy
> to do that for her. All she needs is a philosophy and a few
> technocrats to help her put it in place. Like Reagan did.
>
> > Not that the office of VP, or even
> > president, is that admirable or glorious. And maybe,
> > like Andy Kopkind thought of Jerry Brown, you think it'd
> > be great to have someone who has no idea what she's doing
> > in high office because it would "destroy America." But say
> > that.
>
> I don't think that, of course, which is why I made the
> argument I made, not the one you want me to make.
>
> > And I don't think it's terrible to point out that having a
> > backwater hick who's hardly ever traveled abroad running
> > a country of 300+ million people may not be such a good
> > idea either.
>
> I could point out what you don't seem to want to admit, that
> lots of people can't travel because they don't have money to
> and that lots of smart people live in small towns. But that
> would be flattering you by tagging you an elitist. Why do
> you care so much about the cultural profile of the executive
> vp of the American state?
>
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