The more things change, the more they stay the same. In 1979, when our great nation faced down an economic disaster which gave birth to the misery index, several news sources were feverishly churning out news stories assuring all of us that Jimmy Carter was indeed the single most intellectually gifted President we had ever been graced with. When in 1980, it became clear that Ronald Reagan would be the GOP nominee, the Reagan is a dolt theme was born. How could we let our nation be led by a man who attended Eureka College, and not some Ivy League institution. We were treated to, “Ron is Stupid,” columns masquerading as serious news pieces for an solid 9 year time frame. Never mind the fact that Reagan was plenty smart. By the end of his 8 year turn at bat, he had successfully won the Cold War, by ignoring the genius nuanced idiocy of the political left. He had started America down the path to unprecedented economic prosperity, by eliminating much of the genius central planning lunacy put into place by the smart economic moronic directives of Johnson, Nixon, Carter who preceded him. So, for all of you leftists out there, you’ll please excuse me if I do not take your analysis as to who is smart and who is dumb as the gospel truth.
Flash forward to today. Perry’s college transcripts have been made public. Having not actually seen them myself, I don’t care. Academia has its place I guess, but so does real world success. What kind of a student Perry was or was not three decades ago is much less important to me than his obvious success as the Governor of Texas. I want that kind of success for my country. How smart Barack Obama is of little help to me facing life in a soup line. This is where we are in America today, ivory tower theory has replaced real world results in too many minds. There is nothing wrong with academic pursuits, but at some point those pursuits must include a correlation to the results from practical experience to the theory being taught. When the Keynesian model being inflicted upon us in a government gone wild video produce the complete destruction of our national economy, and the results are greater hardships for every victim class being touted in debate worthy anecdotal stories, then at some point, if you truly do care, you must change your policies. Not doing so would be, dare I say it, stupid.
I have been assured by any leftist with a pen or a microphone how smart Barack Obama is. He is a, “Constitutional Scholar.” Never mind that in every interpretation of the Constitution I have heard him make has been at best juvenile. My favorite example is this little quote from an NPR interview in 2002, “I believe the founding fathers missed their historic opportunity to instill the Constitution with re-distributive justice.” The irony of course, redistribution of anything was completely at odds with the principle upon which this nation was founded. Never mind that in any speech when he has given an historical perspective, it would not have been accepted by even the dimmest of junior high school history teachers. My favorite example, “People of the world – look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.” The irony here, the Berlin wall fell precisely as the result in a conflict being won specifically by the Western World. The Socialist system, which Obama touts as the entire basis for everything he does collapsed, and the wall was torn down by the starving imprisoned people being held hostage by that form of governance. No wonder, that with all of Obama’s genius, we are scared by the terrible results that follow any rule of Socialism. Our economy is poised on the brink of a disastrous abyss, and it is there as a direct result of President Obama’s centralized planning approach, and not in spite of it. The failure of the, “smart diplomacy,” is even more stark. Around the globe, our allies no longer trust us to be supportive when they need support. Our enemies consider us to be a paper tiger which displays a startling lack of resolve. The ravages of the so called, “Arab spring,” will cause untold hardships for millions of people decades from now.
Contrast that with the unbridled success of Texas. During the last 3 years, only 6 States in the country have had positive job growth. Texas of course, with its dolt Governor leads the pack. As a matter of fact, if you take Texas out of the mix, the nation as a whole would be negative. The debates between Obama and Perry should be fun to say the least. Obama will no doubt tout his job creation record, as though it is not dismal, and then his intellectual junior will tout the Texas number for job creation, which will in fact be a larger number than the national number Obama can state. It is no secret that new and established businesses are breaking all sorts of records to relocate to Texas, one of the last bastions of the free market system left in the country. Obama’s approach of course has been to sick the EPA and other regulators on Texas in an all out effort to destroy their economy as well.
Just as an aside, I am still waiting for Obama’s college transcripts. He remains, even as President currently, the least vetted man in America. While I have always maintained the entire birth certificate thing to be foolish, it is still understandable to me how it took on a life of its own. Rick Perry has not even announced himself as a candidate for the Presidency. His college transcripts and private emails have already been dumped into the public arena for scrutiny. We still now very little about Barack Obama. No college transcripts, no familiarity with anyone who ever knew him at all has been shared with the American Electorate. We knew more about Bristol Palin’s boyfriend than we did about the President of the United States on inauguration day in 2009. Here we are 3 years later, and that has not changed. I once heard a member of MSNBC claim that Barack Obama was the most vetted President in history. He was not even the most vetted person at the $38,000 a plate fundraiser he attended last night.
I do share the sentiment that I would like someone smart for President, I would just like to expand the definition of smart to include those capable of learning from their personal experiences, and the results of the failed social experiments of the past. Good grades from the Ivy League, while nice, have never been a reliable predictor of useful success. Rick Perry is plenty smart enough to lead this country.
Cross Posted at Musings of a Mad Conservative.
