It's Okay To Be Smart Again

As a university instructor, one of the hardest things for me the last eight years was watching the "dumbing down" of the American presidency. George Bush has two college degrees, yet he seemed to pride himself on his ability to come across as ignorant.

Besides his own personal behavior, he chose officials in his administration based on their loyalty to a narrow ideology rather than any minimum amount of competency in the field of their assigned responsibilities. We all remember "Heck of a job, Brownie" after Katrina, but several authors have pointed out the same sort of cronyism in the Iraq occupation.

Soon we will have someone with a real intellect in the White House again. Barack Obama is also a professor -- of constitutional law at the University of Chicago. He thinks, as anyone can tell who has read his books. He is intellectually curious. He surrounds himself with similar people. Coupled with that intellectual brilliance is a lot of street smarts, too.

Imagine, the president of the United States of America will once again speak in coherent sentences. He will not insult the public's intelligence by pretending to be just a regular guy.

It's okay to be smart again.