Thinking Stupid.

Uh huh:

TakuanSoho:
Every partisan thinks that their opponent's leader is an idiot. They have to, because if they were intelligent, well then that leader would be on their side. Ford was an idiot, Carter was an idiot, Reagan was an idiot, G H W Bush was an idiot, Clinton was a bit of an exception, but Bush II was an idiot, and now Obama is an idiot. Of course how much of an idiot can any of them be when they can get 50% of the country to vote for them doesn't cross anyone's mind on either side.

Ta-Nehisi Coates:
I really didn't think Bush II was an idiot--at least not an idiot in any way that concerned succeeding at politics. That's the only relevant metric.

Craig:
That is a really narrow lens through which to view a politician's success.

Ta-Nehisi Coates:
I mean, I guess. The point is to win elections. It might be fun to talk about how the dude who kicked your backside isn't really "smart," but it doesn't much matter. He was smart enough to beat you. I've heard Muhammad Ali was never that great of a tennis player either. This isn't a book-reading contest.

Craig:
The point is to govern. That is still why people try to win these things, right? In your analogy, Muhammad Ali-as-Bush is someone who is really gifted at training and then gets creamed by Foreman on fight night. Getting yourself into office is the preliminary job. Actually doing something with the office is what's on record.

That exchange almost -- almost -- tops this gem:

All parties agree that Ron Paul is not, personally, racist and that he didn't write the passages. This is comforting. I am not an anti-Semite. But give me a check to tell Harlem the Jews invented AIDS, and I'll do it.*

I don't know.
Even for a Howard school dropout, the boy is pretty damn dumb in my book. Think it sure, buddy, but to publicize it? $20 says you'd agree with the author of The Bell Curve ... if the price was right. You know, them dummies can be so easily bought off...

Did you ... exchange...
a walk-on part in the war,
for a leading role in a cage?

“People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply; by the lives they lead.”
― James Baldwin

The saddest part about it?
I think the brother believes himself.

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* I wonder what would happen if you put a 2x4 in his un(der)educated hands, let him loose in a quiet field with some other brothers one night, and told him, "All the cool kids who want to be in our club are playing cream Kunta Kinte tonight: Beat, or be beaten. You in?"

Uh huh.