Nonetheless, I would note that although Oblio and I specifically notified Mitsu that we had read his links (about fifty pages worth of printout) and replied to him in detail, Mitsu has made no response.

Bang! This is a genius I believe Clinton and Obama share.

On the other hand, he showed a spectacular kind of genius to get everyone to think that he had great intelligence. I believe that this trick is easier than you might suspect. Clinton was famous for getting everyone to believe that he agreed with them, and I have noticed that we always think that people who agree with us are highly intelligent, indeed. A dazzling politician, sure, but no Richard Feynman.

“E: word is that at Harvard Law, at least, Obama was a very good student. He graduated magna cum laude.”

Good for him! Back then, I mean! And what a waste in the years since!

It reminds me of how frustrating it was to watch Bill Clinton piss away all his intelligence, charm, and potential to do great things. What makes intelligent people go so horribly wrong? Could it be that the kind of smarts that get people their Rhodes Scholarships and magna cum laudes these days don’t require greatness of mind – more like “gradeness” of mind.

Magna at Harvard Law takes a lot of hard work, and I don’t mean to denigrate it. I myself earned my bachelor’s degree from a top university in three years with the cum laude distinction (I didn’t know I would receive the honor until they read my name at graduation – and I had no idea how to calculate my GPA or even what a GPA was. I am not kidding.)

However, I failed economics. That failure means more to me than the cum laude ever did or ever will. It’s good to come face to face with one’s own limitations, and to learn from others. Will Obama have the grace and humility to do the same, or is he too superior to think he needs to? Could he be – like General Motors or AIG – “too big to fail?”

With the exception of the Leonhardt article, Obama is only quoted in snippets and most of what we get is through the prism of the journalists’ viewpoints.

* Joe Klein: Why Barack Obama is Winning

A month before the 2008 election Joe Klein gushes, In his usual partisan way, over Obama while slamming Bush and McCain. There is so much here to fisk — like Bush’s supposed abdication of responsibility by allowing Petraeus to win the war in Iraq or Obama’s judicious thoroughness in choosing Biden as VP — but it would be pointless and this is already a long post.

Instead I will focus instead on Obama’s “Apollo Project” as quoted in Klein’s article:

A new economic turbocharger is going to have to be found, [Obama said],and “there is no better potential driver that pervades all aspects of our economy than a new energy economy … That’s going to be my No. 1 priority when I get into office.”

Mitsu, do you really believe that alternative energy is going to turbocharge our economy? To my mind, this is classic Obama foolishness, a prime example of how sloppy and uninformed his thinking is.

* Dave Leonhardt: After the Great Recession

This is, as Oblio said, the best of the articles, since Obama is quoted extensively, but it is mostly leftover campaign rhetoric. We need more regulation of the financial markets to prevent future meltdowns, we need more college students majoring in math and science, we need to make healthcare more efficient, we need a healthy mix of jobs in the economy.

Blah, blah, blah. No special insights to be heard here. Move along now.

* Brian Whitmore: Obama Wades Into Russian Politics

Obama talks to dissident elements in Russia to give a signal that the White House supports democracy and human rights in Russia. Stop the presses! It’s a shame Bush never thought of that.

* Spencer Ackerman: Petraeus Talk Bolsters Obama

A month before the 2008 election Ackerman uses quotes from a talk given by Gen. Petraeus about Iraq as a means to undercut McCain’s campaign attacks against Obama. Obama is not quoted once.

Mitsu,.perhaps your “other evidence” does the trick, but based on this article I’d say your belief that Petraeus voted for Obama — who fought ignorantly and dishonestly to undermine the Iraq War and the surge — is wishful thinking on your part.

“Studies at the University of Chicago and the University of Minnesota have found that teachers smile on children with high IQs and frown upon those with creative minds…E Paul Torrance of Minnesota found that 70 percent of pupils rated high in creativity were rejected by teachers picking a special class for the intellectually gifted.”

As for Obama’s intelligence, I know quite a few smart people, including several Yale grads, a Harvard Law grad in my immediate family, and a whole bunch of advanced-degree holders of one sort or another, and I don’t see any evidence that he would stand out in any way in their company. When my kids were in school, the gifted-education program handed out a circular explaining the difference between the “bright child” of ordinary good intelligence, found among the top few students in every classroom, and the “gifted child” of remarkable intellectual capacity who comes along more rarely, in terms such as this: the bright child knows the answers; the gifted child asks the questions. The bright child copies accurately; the gifted child creates a new design. The bright child is pleased with its own learning; the gifted child is highly self-critical. And such. From what I’ve seen of Obama’s writings, speeches, and actions so far, he seems to fit very nicely into the “bright child” category and into the “gifted” category, almost not at all.