June 07, 2008
It Isn't That Intelligence and Leadership Don't Correlate . . .
it's that intellectualism and leadership
don't.
I like brains as much as the next girl, but a lot of people get a bit weighed down by same.
I think Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter may have been the smartest guys to occupy the White House during my lifetime. Clinton is certainly a brilliant politician.
At the end of the day, what did that do for us? One person's intuition might be worth a lot more than another's certified left-brain, genuinely rigorous analysis. Remember what professor Sowell used to say?—that the type of intelligence many black men seem to possess is suited to split-second, extemporaneous decisions?
I want a jazz musician in the White House, not a policy wonk. A running back, not an attorney.
Bottom line: Obama just isn't black enough for me.
Posted by: Attila Girl at
08:26 PM
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1
To put it in Harry Potter terms, only one of our good presidents (Jefferson) was a Ravenclaw. The other Ravenclaws--Wilson, and arguably Hoover and Carter--either failed or instituted policies that led to failure in later administrations.
Slytherins run as Ravenclaws, which explains Hillary.
Posted by: John at June 08, 2008 01:31 AM (TxgHr)
2
It's not intellectuality that's the problem, but a certain *kind* of intellectuality, in which words are taken for the primary reality.
Somebody pointed out that in business, it is people who are highly intelligent but not at all creative who tend to go for prepackaged "paradigms" and apply them without much thought as to how well they really fit. The same is likely true in politics.
The term "intellectual" is applied to lots of people who would probably be better described by the "clerks" (in the medieval sense) and "sophists" (in the Greek sense.)
Posted by: david foster at June 08, 2008 06:54 AM (ke+yX)
3
Where does Madison fit in? I think he was more than an intellectual, but I'm not sure I could prove it.
I'm not sure I
can define an "intellectual," but I know it when I see it. My favorite term, though, is from J.D. Salinger's
Franny and Zooey: "dirty little bookworm."
I would also like to point out that E.M. Forster suggested that pseudo-scholars are nice people, and make great dinner-party guests. But nothing about how we do as heads of state.
Posted by: Attila Girl at June 08, 2008 07:26 AM (1q/ac)
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