Now, Milbank doesn’t quite say it like this… but rather uses words more along the lines of ‘the American public will not vote for someone who makes them feel stupid.’
Now, I completely agree with Milbank’s opinion. As a matter of fact, I think that much is frighteningly obvious. Unfortunately, that leaves the bar pretty low for the apparent intelligence of our elected public officials. Now, I’ll admit that any book with 273 endnotes would be intimidating for anyone possessing less the passion for learning of an academic. However, what does that say for the American public, that we’d rather have officials that lie to us and cannot pronounce words in proper, international English, than people who sound like they have the intelligence worthy of the positions they aspire to.
As of now, it looks as if Gore will stay out of the next presidential election. For me, while I’d like to support an academically rigorous candidate, it seems I’d also unfortunately advise Gore to stay away from the race for 2008.