The President and the Over-Valuation of Intelligence

Barack Obama is many things, in my view, more bad than good.  But the President is undeniably regarded as a very intelligent person.  And that’s an overwhelming positive in the leader of our nation, isn’t it?

Apparently, that view, his color, plus his liberal leanings (“moderate” as they appeared to many in 2008), earned Obama a pass on the thinness of his resume.

 

How foolish was that?

 

High intelligence, as a prerequisite for the Presidency, is over-valued.  Brain power is aptitude only.  The use to which it is put matters; its mere existence can actually lead to destructive arrogance in its possessor.

Think of Woodrow Wilson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter… and Barack Obama.  Brilliant all and largely failures.

 

Then reflect on another set of Chief Executives:  FDR, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan.  Whatever each may have lacked in brilliance was more than compensated by abundant character and/or judgment.  The late William F. Buckley, Jr. – the founder of the modern conservative movement and unquestionably a brilliant person – put the questionable value of raw intelligence in leadership quite succinctly:

“I’d rather be ruled by people chosen at random from the Boston phone book than by an equal number of professors drawn from the Harvard University faculty.”

What he meant was that the former would apply common sense drawn from experience; the latter would rely on theories that in practice would likely prove to be hare-brained.

 

It’s obvious which side the intellectually pompous Barack Obama is on.

Faced with a megalomaniac like Vladimir Putin, who fancies, apparently, that he is the second coming of Ivan the Terrible, the President warns of costs and consequences if Russia takes Crimea from Ukraine.  Immediately after such threats, the deed is done.  The Administration’s response to the naked aggression?  Well, of course, the President informs the world that military action is not contemplated.

People who know human nature, who employ common sense, recognize that you do not inform a schoolyard bully or an adversary on the world stage that you renounce force.

There can be no doubt that our President is a peace-loving soul who does not want war.  But his conduct proves that he has no understanding of how to serve that goal.

It is not a meaningless cliché to observe that history teaches that the best way to deter war, or aggression, is to be prepared to confront it and to convey that fact to foes.

 

But that truth, of course, is too simplistic for our President.  He’s so sophisticated, you understand.  He knows best how to deal with Russia.  Just ask Jimmy Carter.

And now I have a prayer.  “Please God.  Bless our country for the next three years.  We’re going to need Your grace in a very big way.  Amen.”