PrintNovember 15, 2010
Intelligence is as Intelligence does
"I am not voting for Barrack Obama because he's black, I am voting for him because he's brilliant!" gushed Oprah Winfrey during the 2008 elections.
If I had a nickel for every time a conversation with a liberal about Obama disintegrated into, "Well... he's just so intelligent," I'd be a rich man.
I see no evidence of extraordinary intelligence in Barrack Obama. I have never seen his grades from Columbia or Harvard. He has almost nothing published from his days at law school there. I have never really heard him say anything that resonated with me intellectually. Much of what he says, to me reveals an ignorance on many subjects.
Let's, for the sake of argument however, assume he is "Highly Intelligent." Does this alone qualify him to be a great president?
Here is a list of highly intelligent people: Einstein, Bobby Fisher, Van Gogh, Beethoven, Ted Kaczynski, Mao Zedong and Charles Manson. All Geniuses. Which of them do you feel would make a great president and why?
Intelligence alone does not qualify one to be a leader. Liberals seem to think that it does. Liberals are seduced by this thought: The inequities in the world can be leveled by use of their intellect. The greater the intellect, the greater the ability to level the inequities of the world.
When confronted with the reality that there is no evidence in history that intellect can remedy the inequities of the world, liberals proceed to their fallback position,"Well, we are a more caring group because at least we want to try." But trying in this case does not come without tremendous, sometimes horrific costs. It involves coercion, the trampling of rights and liberty and punishment of the behaviors that create wealth and opportunity for all. In many cases throughout history and in the world today, "trying" or claiming to try has resulted in the murders of millions of people.
Barrack Obama might be highly intelligent. So might be George Carlin. It doesn't mean that either of them would make a good president.
