Isn't it Time for the Smart Guy to Win?

[davidbcoe]

Let me start with this:  I have many friends and acquaintances who are conservatives and Republicans.  I disagree with all of them on most issues, but I believe them all to be thoughtful, intelligent people.  My mother-in-law and father-in-law are both Republicans.  I have tremendous respect for both of their intellects.  There are many on the GOP

Comments

[bevhale]

amen. the woman irritates me and scares me as well.

[davidbcoe]

Thank God for Tina Fey and SNL. Have you seen the ANL skit lampooning the debate? Classic.

[kmarkhoover]

They go for "teh Dumb" because they believe it connects with the "low-information" voter. (To put it nicely.) And guess what? They're right. "Teh Dumb" works. Well, almost always

correction

[kmarkhoover]

Of course, I meant "never BET on the Democrats." I vote for them all the time. Which says a LOT about me and my willingness to repeatedly go down with the ship..... ;)

Re: correction

[davidbcoe]

Yeah, I figured that much. I vote for losing candidates all the time.

[davidbcoe]

Well, you were certainly right about the Cubbies this year. Let's hope the Dems find a way to win in spite of themselves.

[hedwig_snowy]

Isn't it only in politics that we do this though? We don't go in for a doctor's visit and have them tell us we need surgery and then look around at all the surgeons and pick the janitor to operate on us because he 'seems' like a nice guy that we'd like to have a beer with.

We tend to look for the best, the brightest, the most athletic (sports) in just about everything else but having a President that actually understood the problems facing the country and the ability to deal with them? Nah...as long as he doesn't make me feel stooopid...

Still, I sometimes wonder about politicians. Take Congress. Most of them are lawyers. While there are many reasons for people to enter public service, I do have to wonder if some weren't so bad at their 'real' job that they took up politics. Some might think that the best and the brightest in the legal profession just naturally move into politics, but ten minutes of watching C-Span will dissuade them from that fantasy.

[davidbcoe]

It's like those Charles Schwabb (or whoever) commercials that show people operating on themselves or some such and then the punchline is "Relying on your own investment expertise doesn't make much sense either..." You're right -- we look for intelligence and excellence everywhere else, but we trust idiots to run the country. Bizarre.

[markwise]

I for one agree with you on this. Although I would extend it to both parties and not just a symptom of the Republicans.

People not only are drawn to others like themselves, they also are very busy people. Most voters in America are busy people and don't have the wish, want, or desire to really research canidates, so they follow slogans and party lines.

This leads to the dumbing down of canidates. Smart canidates means research and fact check. That's too much time investment.

What is more effective in a campaign, "Here's my energy policy." or "A chicken in every pot."?

[davidbcoe]

Well put (you know, for an old person -- so how old are you now, anyway?). Wouldn't it be great to have an Australian style campaign? Six weeks -- eight tops -- of true public debate on the issues. And then we vote. I am so ready for this thing to be over....

[markwise]

That sounds good to me. Also, there is a need to make all Primaries to take place on the same day rather than across 6-8 months. We can have a national eclection on the same day but not Primaries?

[davidbcoe]

I agree 100%! Okay, how about four weeks for primary campaigning and eight weeks for the national campaign? That would be 12 weeks total -- about 1/10 the length of the campaign we have now. I could live with that.

Actually it would be interesting to ponder what this campaign would look like if we'd had that kind of campaign this year. I would think it would tend to help frontrunners, so we might be in the final days of a Clinton-Giuliani campaign. What do you think?

[tiarella]

Here's a link to the New Yorker article endorsing Obama. It's a very thoughtful analysis of Obama's strengths.

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2008/10/13/081013taco_talk_editors

[davidbcoe]

Thanks very much for the link. I get the New Yorker, so will read it there, but others should check it out here.