yes, you win a prize. an autographed Jason Lane rookie card. anytime you want to drive to The Woodlands and pick it up, I'm sure it's still lying in the gutter where I left it.
How important do you think it is that the President be smart? There is a pretty weak correlation between IQ and success in business. I can't imagine it is much better in politics. There are many other qualities that are important and possibly more important than intelligence. But, we don't think of those as concretely as we do intelligence.
Rocketraccoon HS education Does this make you happier? Do you think you can walk into my office and take it over because you have more education? Do you think your degrees in Engineering and Business Admin. makes you smarter than me and my 18 years in the far east? You probably do consider this poll. Hey, I agree that a good education is wonderful to have, but to say an education has anything to do with smarts is down right insulting to everyone who hadn't gone to college. You somewhat suck as a smart person.
Going to college doesn't make you smart, Bill Gates never finished college. Sarah Palin may be smart, but she is also ignorant. DD
Given the ongoing financial meltdown, I would expect our VP to have at least a rudimentary background in economics and financial markets.
The president has to be at least informed inquisitive insightful Call em' the three I's. Palin has none of them. McCain has one. Biden might have two. Obama has all three. For the record, I think Hillary has all three too.
I suppose it is insulting - but you know what? This is the presidency we're talking about here. No offense but I can't really think of anybody in this day and age who didn't go to college who I would be confident would be able to handle the incredibly complex issues confronted by the President every day and make an informed rational choice about them - absent some other sort of demonstration of skill like dropping out of school to become a computer genius like Gates, etc.
I don't like Palin either, but this is kind of silly. Change the thread title to "My unit is bigger than yours" would be more fun.
The OP was suggesting he was smarter than Palin because of his degrees. That is what I was responding to. He gave no credit for experience, just degrees. Who in the world, considering the "complex issues" of the world, has degrees in all fields that the next president will need? And you are considering Obama to deal with these complex issues. Where are his degrees? I'm good, no, I'm better than good at what I do, but it's not because of me. Its because of who I have surrounding me, advising me, assisting. Hell, I've gleened info on this board that made my work shine. Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the presidency work the same way?
Sorry but experience as a hockey mom and playing with mooses does not provide evidence of a superior intellect - which I want in a president. Like I said, with Palin all we have is her second-tier education and zero public record of any type of intellectual capacity - what are we to conclude? That she's a closet genius? It's not the specifics of the degrees themselves, it's the fact that an academic resume is an indicator of the ability to comprehend issues like credit default swaps. For example, I don't have a degree in economics or finance. But I know what a CDS is. I'm pretty confident that given time to study them, most of my old law school classmates could do the same. Am I willing to extend that benefit of the doubt to junior college dropouts? Probably not. Are you serious? Well they're listed earlier in the thread. Sure all presidents have advisers - but a president who can make an informed judgment about a problem by comprehending the problem is vastly superior to one who is not intelligent enough to do so and has to rely blindly on advisers - do you need me to explain that to you? Come on.
I think DD was giving her credit for being "smart", as in politically savvy. She is. And it is in no way incorrect to say that she is "ignorant". She is largely unaware of any affairs outside of Alaska. She is not well traveled, she appears to have been unaware of significant legislation passed during the Bush Administration with respect to transparency, and clearly did not have a good handle on the Bush Doctrine when questioned about it.
FIrst, I hesitated responding to you initially because I know the outcome. I'm not a great debator. I don't use words well. You don't see me here in D&D often because of this. BUt damn, I do have an opinion...just not able to express them sometimes, especially when I have a crap load of work to do. But now that I have bitten... You sir have no idea of her intellectual capabilities. Or maybe you are just intellectually sharper than most of the people of Alaska. An academic resume as an indicator of the ability to comprehend issues? My wife is going to kick your butt Sam. And she's a big girl. Watch out!!!! So you're telling me that because I don't have an education I will never understand what a CDS is? No, I was being rhetorical. But his resume doesn't suggest he'd be a good president either. Yes, mr. smarts, explain it to me, because all I see is you measuring her with the ruler you use to measure yourself.
I'm evaluating her ability based on what I've seen so far - thus it's a pretty shoddy academic record, and, when not reading off a script, an inability to grasp basic concepts. And the McCain campaign isn't helping by limiting access to her - why would they need to do this if they were confident in her abilities to not look dumb? No but I'm tellling you as a general rule I'd expect somebody with a good one to be better able to comprehend something like this and the ramifications of policy decisions better than somebody with none to speak of. Well it's vastlly superior to any other candidate in the race. Well OK I'll explain it to you. Not being able to comprehend policy issues that your advisers come to you with is essentially an abdication of executive authority because it means you're throwing darts at a board when it comes to decisionmaking. I mean why don't we just have a Magic-8 ball as president if that's what you're prepared to do?
Ignorance can be erased through the implementation of the knowledge required. You have an issue, you study it. Stupidity, as is being implied, is knowing better then the facts, but acting incorrectly anyway. Knowing better than to speak out of turn repeatedly, but then continuing to do so... that's stupid. And by default, between Biden and Palin... Wow, Biden is not just ignorant on this one. He knows better.
