Why GOP embraces simpletons and how it hurts America

Bush is like an AP newspaper writer -- keep it simple, short and at a level a fifth-grader can understand. Gore is like a long-form magazine guy.

 

Being smart from an academic standpoint doesn't always translate into good political instincts, which Cain, Bachmann, Paul, Palin, etc., don't have for the national stage. Neither did John Kerry, Michael Dukakis, George McGovern or Al Gore. I don't think either side has a corner on intellect or street-smarts.

PS: Don't think the left really wants to hold Gingrich to the fire for having affairs. Clinton got elected in 1992 after the public already knew he was a serial cheater. John Edwards almost held national office, with his extracurricular baggage. We're should either judge marital infidelity the same way on both sides, or not count it at all.

 

Point of information: I don't think it's right to say the public "knew" Clinton was such a cheater. He denied it all over the place, and to those who wanted to believe those denials, they held with it until Lewinsky came about. I think probably everyone "knew" on some level, but it still wasn't discussed as fact. That attitude was naive then and absolutely ridiculous in retrospect, but Clinton was not on the campaign trail as an acknowledged philanderer the way Newt is.

And Edwards wasn't revealed as the world's sleaziest slimeball until he was out of the campaign.

 

Since we're talking about what is and what is not dumb, I'll tell you what is dumb: Arguing about the matriculations of sons of governors, Congressmen and senators as proof that those sons are smart, as if they were blindly admitted on the strengths of their SATs.

Puhleeze.

 

Oh .... so that gets them off the hook.

 

No, not saying that. Just saying that it's not an apt comparison to how that issue is going to affect Newt's chances.

 

As a practical campaign matter, yes.

Don't you remember the Clinton's '60 Minutes' appearance?

 

I think anyone who watched the infamous Bill and Hillary on 60 Minutes in late 1991 or early 1992 knew he had cheated on her.

And I'll be perfectly honest, whoever convinced them to get in front of it like that was a freaking PR genius. Or maybe Clinton was just so charismatic and likable that it didn't matter.

 

You beat me to it...

 

Exactly. His wife had forgiven him, why wouldn't we?

You can't blame the electorate in 1992 for information they wouldn't have until 1998.

 

Newt is a much tougher sell on those issues, but he's not hiding from them either.

 

That said, Newt is John Edwards, minus the love child. And we know all about it long before the election. I'll be interested to watch the moral contortions the GOP is - or isn't - therefore willing to make on his behalf.