Re: Re: Re: RE: No recognition for Enduring Freedom!

["Justin Schwartz" <jkschw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Carrol says:
> I keep remembering Eisenhower's years, when everyone had a ball mocking
> his clumsy rhetoric and suggesting he wasn't too bright. It was a hoax,
> a rather deliberate one. It is particularly unwise to try to estimate
> intelligence on the basis of someone's command of language: that can be
> very deceptive. It is quite possible for highly intelligent people to be
> consistent bumblers in their speaking and writing.
>
> Never underestimate an enemy.

Carrol's point is good. With Ike, though, there was a lot of evidence that
he was no fool. He'd done a superb job as CiC of the Western allied forces
in WWII, and was a tolerable prez of Columbia. Even his command of language
wasn't so awful. He wrote Crusade in Europe, no doubt with some help, but
it's readable. There is no evidence that theShrub has ever even read a book.
Imagining him writing one is beyond my capacity. And there is a fair amount
of evidence that he's been a failure at everything he has put his handto.
However, and this is key, he's surrounded with very smart and dangerous
people who seem, so far, to be able to submerge their differences enough to
act in a fairly coherent manner.

Moreover, as the examples of Reagan and indeed Lyndon Johnson or Harry
Truman show, analytical intelligence is not necesasry for political success.
Or, closer to home, Carrol, our own Richard M. Daley, Da Mayor (the dad of
the current boss). Or, to range further afield, there is one Josip
Dzuglishvili, aka Stalin, and there is Adolph Hitler. These were all superb
politicians. None of them had anything like what one would consider to be
the sort of brains foe which professors or lawyers are rewarded. It didn't
matter. Now, the Shrub (so far) isn't in their league. But people can learn.
Truman did. Before he had greatness thrust upon him, he was a low grade
machine hack, picked for precisely that reason. He became the architect of
the first cold war, and from his point of view, did a fabulous job. Who can
tell about the Shrub? But he's off toa  good start. We can't deny he's
handled this situation very well.

jks

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