Obamacans for Intelligence

In a rather fascinating interview today, David Brooks (The conservative political philosopher of our generation) came out strongly against Gov. Palin because of her inexperience and spoke briefly about Sen. Obama's strong suits. 

When I first started in journalism, I worked at the National Review for Bill Buckley. And Buckley famously said he'd rather be ruled by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the Harvard faculty. But he didn't think those were the only two options. He thought it was important to have people on the conservative side who celebrated ideas, who celebrated learning. And his whole life was based on that, and that was also true for a lot of the other conservatives in the Reagan era. Reagan had an immense faith in the power of ideas. But there has been a counter, more populist tradition, which is not only to scorn liberal ideas but to scorn ideas entirely. And I'm afraid that Sarah Palin has those prejudices. I think President Bush has those prejudices.

Brooks went on to comment on two of Obama's strongest presidential qualities: his intellect and his social perception. The first is demonstrated in a story Brooks tells about asking Obama if he had ever read Neihbuhr, to which Obama responds with a very thorough and nuanced understanding of his theories. Second, Brooks notes his social perception and ability to pick up on the more human side of policy debates. This, Brooks argues, is why Obama is in politics and not simply in the world of academia. Brooks most certainly disagrees with Obama on all major policy positions, but the interview is a shining example of some of the other traits Obama has, aside from policy positions, that would make him a good president.