Juan Williams charges that Sarah Palin is “not on same ‘intellectual stage’ as Obama”. Yeah, well, I hope not.

Barack Obama, you see, is a pretender. From a former colleague who actually likes Obama but is very forthright in his assessment of the former Community Organizer. This Obama-Isn’t-Smart-He’s-Just-Pretending revelation might interest Juan Williams and anyone else who is still swimming around in the delusion that Barry Soetoro is a genius.

Below is a snippet from the transcript of a an interview with Richard Epstein who is the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. There are additional links which provide invaluable insight into the the poseur that is Barack Obama, offered by someone who knew him well. I chose the small segment below considering the coverage the Juan Williams comment about Obama’s supposed ‘intellect’ is receiving. Please do click through and read the whole thing (HT Instapundit).

Richard Epstein Discusses Barack Obama

Robinson: You are quoted in the Boston Globe, “I like Obama but I reject the suggestion that he is an intellectual. He is an activist merely mimicking the mannerisms of an intellectual.” How good is Obama’s mind?

Epstein: His mind is pretty good, but it is a clever “means-ends” mind. He has never written a scholarly article in his entire life.

Robinson: He was President of the Harvard Law Review but never wrote an article.

Epstein: If he did, it was unsigned and not academically significant.

Robinson: Would you ever give him tenure at the University of Chicago Law School?

Epstein: No, no, no…

More evidence from Whitney in Comments on the Let’s-Hope-Sarah-Palin-Is-Not-on-the-Same-Intellectual-Level-as-Obama front:

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14 Comments | Leave a comment
  1. […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tammy Bruce, Political Splash and others. Political Splash said: Oh no, the wheels falling off the Obama intellectual wagon: http://bit.ly/hAOnUb #tbrs […]

  2. Maynard says:

    At least George Bush had the decency to sound like a moron. Obama is a stealth moron, and that’s the worst kind. On the surface, he sounds like he knows what he’s talking about, and his confidence inspires faith in the dogmatic and weak-minded. That gives him leeway to do tremendous damage. I don’t see Palin as being ripe for the presidency, but the irony is the criticism of Palin we’ve been hearing endlessly is much more true of Obama than of its intended target.

  3. LJZumpano says:

    It is the Emperor has no clothes syndrome. His supporters keep saying he has such a great intellect and I keep asking for just one example that would demonstrate his intellectual superiority on any topic. crickets.
    When HRC ran for NY Senate she won because the Democratic machine was ready and able to get her the votes. The same machine got Robert Kennedy the seat years ago. So, getting elected depends heavily on the machine effort rather than on the superior qualities of a candidate. Charles Rangel comes to mind as well.
    As we continue to examine the election of 2008, & hindsight being 20/20, we can see the factors which brought us BHO. For many Americans it has been a lesson learned and one we have vowed will never happen again.

  4. makeshifty says:

    Re. Tammy’s comment, “I hope not.” That’s an interesting way of putting it.

    I heard Juan Williams’s comment about the “intellectual stage,” and the same tinge of frustration arose in me as when I hear liberals talk about people on their side being “smart,” and conservatives being “dumb.” Sometimes when they talk of a liberal being “smart” they are reporting accurately, but I think in most cases all they’re talking about is that they’re “emotionally smart,” not intellectually smart. Aren’t the two the same thing in that one capacity translates to the other? No. Not in my experience.

    Obama has been good in terms of at least acting like he’s someone who should be at the table when it comes to leadership. I’ve always said he talks a good game. I think that in terms of what the American public expects of its politicians, they at least need to be able to do that. It’s what he actually does that I find questionable. In the public’s mind they have reason to question Sarah’s actions as well.

    Obama has always put in a good performance when on TV, no matter what media outlet he’s been on. Sarah’s performance has been uneven. It seems like she does well in venues where she is accepted as legitimate, and her ideas are questioned and prodded. Where she’s had trouble is on outlets that need convincing that she even deserves the place in people’s minds that she has.

    On the intellectual front, I’ve always said I think Sarah has potential. I think she has the smarts, and to some extent greater experience than Obama does, but I always get a sense with her that there are some significant gaps in her knowledge base. Her existing knowledge and experience was certainly demonstrated with the oil spill this last summer. She had a better idea of what to do about it than Obama did. It’s a matter of “filling out” her knowledge base into other areas besides energy, and making her feel more comfortable with “Rorschach test” questions in interviews.

    I agree that Obama is a poseur. I saw the likes of him in a place where I worked years ago. It drove me up the wall, until I realized what was going on. I ultimately left, because I wasn’t going to be managed by incompetents. I think what people want to see in someone they’re going to vote for is a sense of consistency, even if it’s just in their demeanor. Obama delivers that. Palin does not at this point. I think that’s the main obstacle for her in comparison to Obama.

  5. trevy says:

    Proverbs 12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.

    Obama is dangerous because he’s a fool and doesn’t know it.

    • naga5 says:

      i agree with trevy!
      i think that urkel has successfully gamed the system for so long that he actually believes the lies told about him and his “superior intellect”.
      rick

  6. Slimfemme says:

    I agree with Maynard. From day one I thought Obama was a fake. If this man is an intellectual, then pigs can fly. Unfortunately, Americans, and my own family voted for this man. This man likes to play act; and he will do considerable damage to the country. My anger is geared towards the electorate who fell for the sticky platitudes and tired bromides. But Sarah Palin? I’m still not to sure about her. When I think of her I say: I don’t know.

  7. franknitti says:

    As that great philosopher once said, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” Obama’s problem is that he’s a lightweight who thinks he’s a genius. It’s his friends in the media who tell us he’s an intellectual giant.

  8. ConservativePup says:

    I know exactly what Tammy means when she says, “I hope not.” And I totally agree with her.

    I would even modify it to say that I’m certain that Sarah Palin is not on the “same intellectual stage” as Obama. She’s light-years above in her genuine knowledge of ‘how things work’ and ‘consequences of how things work;’ her life experiences have been much richer and varied than his, and, she speaks truth. If her presentation isn’t perfect, so what? That is how real people are.

    As for a consistent demeanor, she has abundantly. She is consistently positive about America, consistently favorable about free market solutions, consistently speaks her mind without teleprompters or carefully parsing her words. Obama is only as consistent as his teleprompter. And even without that, he’s consistently stuttering and bumbling with his words.

  9. Atomic Crusader says:

    Juan Williams is welcome to advertise that he prefers the “intellectual stage” of Barrack Obama to that of Sarah Palin, it might be news to him that it doesn’t surprise anyone that he would do such a thing.

    Intellectual stage? What stage, where? At Harvard during graduation time? Maybe Chas Krauthammer can explain it.

  10. andrew4550 says:

    Barack Obama has Juan Williams fooled, but Richard Epstein has him tagged but good. I just hope Mr. Epstein’s taxes are paid up to date, and to the penny.

  11. thierry says:

    and we wonder why the dean of harvard law school, urkel’s dean, spectacularly unqualified, got on the Supreme Court… we are never going to see the school records or actual writings of mr. president genius. kagan got paid back in full for enabling this pathetic charade and spectacular fraud.

    http://tinyurl.com/3am5bef

    “Since it is now known that Harvard professors have plagiarized, copycatted, and pretty certainly have had stuff ghostwritten for them, the bona fides and reputations of nearly everyone at Harvard is called into question, especially people in the law school.” Lawrence Velvel, dean, U of MA law school.

    urkel’s ‘ thesis’ was his alleged ‘autobiography’. what western european white student would get away with that- yet he was offered professorships based on the idea that he was going to opine about Himself in print. it is intellectually depraved is what it is.

    i’ve never seen any proof that urkel is extraordinarily learned, book or otherwise. he certainly like most lefties hasn’t presented us with any sort of original thinking – he’s a parrot. a clean well scrubbed parrot that’s prone to repeating itself like a skipping record.

    and if one has not lied about oneself why would one have to hide things like birth certificates and college transcripts?

    it reminds me of the towering genius that al gore was supposed to be- a guy who flunked out of preacher school and had grades that were actually worse than george w.’s- who was supposed to be the biggest dummy in the world. that dummy managed to hold his presidency together despite fairly vicious opposition and his own rather glaring failings. and the genius urkel is watching the entire government melt down in a matter of a few months… that’s smart power.

  12. Rob_W says:

    BO is well insulated and propped up by his support staff. A cheer-leader media doesn’t hurt either. It all contributes to the illusion that he understands what he is reading from the teleprompter.

    I welcome the delusion from the left – in both parties. Let them hang on to Sarah Palin’s current poll numbers which can only go up. Even the pollsters will not be able to distort Sarah’s appeal after she mops the debate floor with the imbecile-in-chief. It will be the intellectual smack-down of the century.

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