dagblog - Comments for "Obama Goes Smarty-Pants; 'Skeptics' Favor More Traditional, Dumb Cabinet"

I wonder if

Orlando — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:14:31 +0000

In reply to Obama Goes Smarty-Pants; 'Skeptics' Favor More Traditional, Dumb Cabinet

I wonder if anti-intellectualism is new or if it's just a new refrain of the city vs. country fight that we've been having since the country was founded. In any case, they were talking about the orginial "Best and the Brightest" quote on NPR this week. I missed most of it (because it came on when my alarm did and I'm not predisposed to retain a lot of information first thing in the morning), but what I did get was that the quote was meant to be ironic and in reference to the eggheads who got us in to Vietnam.

As you say, things are complex. Smart people have a greater capacity to be stupid sometimes than even the truly stupid people do, i.e. Greenspan. To be sure, sometimes having the smartest people in the room doesn't help to solve the problem. But given the choice between well-educated, well-informed (even if somewhat arrogant and stiff) Harvard and Yale grads and the Michelle Bachmanns of the world, I'd choose the Ivy leaguers every single time. Unless the problem is how to kill the Thanksgiving turkey. In that case, I want Palin.

Absolutely, but this is a

DF — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:14:29 +0000

In reply to Ok, your best post ever DF.

Absolutely, but this is a different type of criticism than is being forwarded in the WaPo article. Your criticisms are, erm, how I do say.. valid. They involve specific people and specific questions about specific decisions they've made, sans CV scrutiny.

For what it's worth, Glenn Greenwald has impressed me a lot lately by doing exactly that. In fact, I haven't seen anyone on the left doing as good a job of keeping things honest after election day.

Of course, another drawback of this travesty is that in spending too much time listening to one guy from a high-profile U bad-mouth people from other high-profile U's is that it avoids a discussion with any real content or specificity. Then again, maybe these guys really don't dislike the specific choices so much?

Ok, your best post ever DF.

quinn esq — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 05:11:05 +0000

In reply to Obama Goes Smarty-Pants; 'Skeptics' Favor More Traditional, Dumb Cabinet

Ok, your best post ever DF. Since I know you'll wanna see HOW I reached that conclusion, the breakdown showed -5 for backing complexity, -7 for not seeing how bad Bill Hicks would've hated Summers and Geithner, but... +7,000,000 for leading with a Bill clip. And +17 for bashing Libertarians and the too clever by half quip - bingo. On the issue, I'm glad we're gonna get some smarts. Smarts beats dumbs. And I believe Obama himself has some serious smarts. BUT. Let's be smart and tell the truth on some of the Cabinet choices. Summers and the economic team, we really DO have to ask, "If you're so smart, how come you just drove us over that cliff?" That's an ugly question, and the truth produces only one bottomline. Unless & until they explain that, they've got no business being there, other than to "send a signal" to some big money people. Gates? Well, maybe he's smart now. But when he was up to his ass in Iran-Contra and wanting to bomb & invade Nicaragua, well... that was dumb. Richardson? I like him, but not maybe totally smart. Hillary? Pretty damned smart. So, right now, I think we've got a mixed bag - based just on their own records. But of course, it isn't just gonna be them, on their own. My hope is that Obama's own smarts - and heart and vision - is gonna show in how he directs these people, and who he surrounds them with. But for the Republicans, and Libertarians to be mouthing off, now, about this... well... that's just almost too dumb to believe.

there r smart people and

SarahPalinGrrrrl — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 05:11:00 +0000

In reply to Obama Goes Smarty-Pants; 'Skeptics' Favor More Traditional, Dumb Cabinet

there r smart people and there r nerds. like sarah is a smart person b/c she knows stuff that people care about like not letting the goverment take all of our money and give it to people who don't deserve it. but obama is a nerd b/c he's like not a normal person and he thinks he's soooooooooooo smart. i never thought that america would vote for a nerd b/c when wally lipschitz who is a nerd from my school ran for class president he only got 3 votes and like i wrote before, miley cyrus got more votes than him and she doesn't even go to our school. and then wally got some guns and stuff and was going to kill everyone but the police got him. and that proves that nerds are not normal people.

but u probably don't understand b/c u r probably a nerd too. and u r a TOTAL nerd !!!!! i heard that u didn't even go to PROM!!!!!!!!! i went to prom every year since i was 11.