Bush was labeled as stupid, because he was stupid. The Dems made the mistake of thinking that the voting public wanted someone smart, but Gore bored them. (I'm not even going to go into Kerry, wrong man, at the wrong time, with the wrong message, and he never fought back.) It turns out that most people anymore do not want a leader, they want "someone they can have a beer with." Or as the great H.L. Mencken once said, No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.
Of course he also said,
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.
and
Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses.
and, at that, he was writing in the 1920s, but he was visionary when he wrote:
The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. (Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920)
He would be happy to know we've made it, and having Huckabee as front runner is going to make Bush II look like Einstein.
