Why GOP embraces simpletons and how it hurts America

If someone asked me my favorite children's book, I would definitely pick something I read to my son.

The only reason I'm skeptical about W.'s 2006 reading list is because I can't imagine a president having time to read a book, let alone dozens in a year. I can't even find the time to read many books, and I'm no president.

 

But those aren't policy articulations. Obama is decidedly nuanced and fraught with ambivalence on many matters of policy. It's seen as a weakness.

 

You said he failed out of every graduate school he ever attended.

He did not "fail out" of Vanderbilt.

 

Point taken.

I talked about this a little on the stimulus thread. I thought that the OBM report about the number of jobs created put the GOP candidate in a position where he would have to pick it apart with nuance, something that voters from either side don't like. They think they are being tricked.

 

Why don't you tell me a little bit about our current defense systems? You don't think they trace their history directly to the research begun with "Star Wars"?

Oh, I see, you'd rather not further defend your statements.

 

Doesn't much matter to me. They're easily intelligent enough to do the job ... but then again I don't think raw intelligence (assuming you meet some modest baseline standard) matters all that much.

 

A question I've always wondered:

If our political system is the greatest in the world, and our Constitution the living embodiment of human perfection, like some people (mostly on the right) would argue...why do we not export it?

When we personally or through proxy overthrow foreign governments and set up completely new systems (such as in Iraq and Afghanistan, etc) why do we always set up British parliamentary systems, instead of our native bi-cameral one?

 

His emotional quotient is higher.

This is a hard thing for Romney. His track record is as a back-slapper, all-smiles compromise artist. The GOP voters obviously want a bit harder of a line than that.

 

Fair enough.

I'd like to ask you to join my campaign to correct the narrative of President Obama's career. Please join me in pointing out that President Obama never held the title of Professor at the University of Chicago Law School whenever you see it mentioned.

 

I don't quite agree that voters don't inherently like it. They're told not to like by TV and radio, which needs them not to in order to create the illusion that the news they peddle is useful.

 

That's fine. But then you can't dismiss Romney's combined MBA/JD or Bush's Harvard MBA.

It's either tough to get into or it's not.

I don't think they make it easier for Republicans.

 

I think the short answer is that our Constitution is a product of the conditions already present here - namely, 13 separate sovereignties banding together. I think that was a lot more the case then than we think of it now, post-Civil War.

If we were setting up a government for, say, a United States of the Middle East, the system would probably look pretty similar to what we have.