This will not sink in for most liberals – just as the fact of Reagan’s astounding intelligence and knowledge never sank in:
I’m a Democrat, but I’ve worked as a consultant with the McCain campaign since shortly after Palin’s nomination. Last week, there was the thought that as a former editor-in-chief of Ms. magazine as well as a feminist activist in my pre-journalism days, I might be helpful in contributing to a speech that Palin had long wanted to give on women’s rights…
…Now by “smart,” I don’t refer to a person who is wily or calculating or nimble in the way of certain talented athletes who we admire but suspect don’t really have serious brains in their skulls. I mean, instead, a mind that is thoughtful, curious, with a discernable pattern of associative thinking and insight. Palin asks questions, and probes linkages and logic that bring to mind a quirky law professor I once had. Palin is more than a “quick study”; I’d heard rumors around the campaign of her photographic memory and, frankly, I watched it in action. She sees. She processes. She questions, and only then, she acts. What is often called her “confidence” is actually a rarity in national politics: I saw a woman who knows exactly who she is.
For all those old enough to remember Senator Sam Ervin, the brilliant strict constitutional constructionist and chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee whose patois included “I’m just a country lawyer”…Yup, Palin is that smart.
Like Reagan (and, though she’s got a long way to go to achieve this level, like Churchill), Palin’s critics are hammering her for being dumb when she’s actually thinking so far ahead of them that they can’t even grasp the concept. What newspapers do you read? For crying out loud, who reads newspapers at all anymore? Why on earth would a governor of Alaska be even remotely interested in, say, the New York Times? Other than glances at papers while sitting in waiting rooms, its been some years since I’ve read newspapers – there’s usually no point, as the news is something I read a day or two before on the internet. I don’t know where Governor Palin draws her information from, but she’s certainly drawing from better sources than the MSM.
A lot of things go into making a person smart – and very often these days, an Ivy League diploma, outside of the sciences, is an indicator not of smarts but of the willingness to swallow and regurgitate the reigning liberal orthodoxy. The crucial divider between “smart” and “dumb” is intellectual curiosity – a willingness to consider a different point of view. Our friends on the left are convinced it is they who have this talent, but the fact of the matter is that they are rigid ideologues who are terrified of anyone questioning their beliefs.
And this, I think, is what scares them most about governor Palin – her very existence is a question to their beliefs. How can it be that a woman can be an ardent Christian, a great mother and wife and still rise high in a career? This is supposed to be impossible – Christians are too dumb, wives and mothers lack motivation and to rise high in a career requires the abandonment of children. Allow Palin to rise higher in the American political spectrum and all you’ll get is endless proposals to correct liberal errors – and liberals would rather not be bothered trying to defend themselves. This requires thought – and our braniacs on the left have amply proved one thing over the years: Their lack of intelligence.
Blogs For Victory 