Much of the intellectual criticism of Bush during this campaign attempts to persuade readers that they should not vote for him because he is an intellectual lightweight. I’m afraid that misses the point. His appeal to a segment of the American public is precisely that he is not smart. Chuck Taggart at Looka! quotes from an essay on AlterNet by David Corn:

At one Bush rally, a senior-citizen W. enthusiast — no

names, please, she said — told me that it was obvious that Bush could

not match Gore in terms of gray matter. But that did not faze her.

“Smart people don’t have all the answers,” she said. “And if you’re not

so smart, maybe you won’t tell the rest of us what to do.” Perhaps

after the past seven years, many Americans actually are eager to have

a president they do not have to take seriously.

I think it’s more basic than that, and it certainly can’t be blamed on the Clinton legacy. This campaign has made it clear to me that a large segment of the American public are afraid of thought and complexity per se. As has been said, they’ll get the President they deserve.