talkpolitics | A Blasphemous Question

sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com posting in

Is electing a "Smart" politician overrated?

Dumb question right? Of course we want our leaders to be smart, the more they're a "Magnificent Bastard" the better.

An internet aquaintance of mine posted this thought in his blog, and while it intitially sounds ludercrous, I think he makes a good case.

Smart is as smart does, and you don't have to be particularly smart to be a good politician.

People roll thier eyes and laugh about Sarah Palin being able to see Russia from her house, yet take Nancy Pelosi seriously whe she says "we have to pass the bill to find out what's in it".

Both of these comments are objectively stupid but only one demonstrates either (A) a critical failure in understanding how our government works or (B) a belief that all voters are morons.

Clearly they are both equally qualified ;)

Edit:
The full Pelosi quote was actually "we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy."

wich is what I get for ~~posting~~ trolling while drunk and not doing my research.

Still aside from coming accross as condesending it demonstrates a logic failure in that not knowing what effects a law will have is a good reason not to pass it. Aside from that, as a Senetor/Congress-person reading and understanding the bills put forth is basically your job. If you're not going to do your job why should we care how smart you are?

Also maybe there should be a rule that bills can not be over 30 pages. If your plan can't be explained in less it's probably a bad Idea any way.

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From:

udoswald.livejournal.com

I don't think Pelosi's statement betrays stupidity or a belief that voters are morons. It certainly didn't betray "a critical failure in understanding how our government works" since she was simply explaining how things work in government. Do you think most members of Congress read each bill from cover to cover? At best they have a lowly staffer do it and give them the gist, at worst they accept what their leadership tells them about what's in the bill. Also, any bill that passes Congress still has to be interpreted by the appropriate departments so it's entirely possible to be unsure exactly how a bill will be implemented until that review takes place.

Palin's statement betrayed a lack of depth as a person and a willingness to say completely absurd things in order to score what she felt were political points. She obviously knows she cannot see Russia from her house, especially since she lives far from the western part of Alaska and even someone there would probably have a hard time seeing mainland Russia from their house. She was trying to dodge a question about her foreign policy experience and she tripped over her brain (what there is of it).

I have no way to know if Palin honestly thought the viewers would be satisfied with her answer, or if she was just too stupid to come up with a better one, but if the first is true it does indeed show "a belief that all voters are morons." Pelosi was simply pointing out a truth about the way Congress works, nobody expects to read every bill from front to back and by claiming otherwise the Republicans were just trying to score political points and bring the whole process to a screeching halt (it would have taken months for every member of Congress to read the entire bill).

From:

mrbogey.livejournal.com

'Palin's statement betrayed a lack of depth as a person and a willingness to say completely absurd things in order to score what she felt were political points. She obviously knows she cannot see Russia from her house, especially since she lives far from the western part of Alaska and even someone there would probably have a hard time seeing mainland Russia from their house. She was trying to dodge a question about her foreign policy experience and she tripped over her brain (what there is of it).'

Whew...it's a good thing you did so much research on the topic and missed the glaringly obvious issue of how Tina Fey said it and not Palin.

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A Blasphemous Question