As the world struggles with war, inflation and climate change, political leadership is needed now more than ever. Humorist Andy …
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As the world struggles with war, inflation and climate change, political leadership is needed now more than ever. Humorist Andy …
source
Look at Cambodia. They killed all the smart people out of jealousy and then had no doctors, e.g.
Trump is a much worse version of Reagan!
Jimmy Carter wasn’t given much of a chance
I blame home "schooling" and Federal funding of religious schools. Those kids are being deprived of a good education!
reject your tribalism and embrace your humanity.
Mutual human respect
The GQP is appealing to the lowest common denominator and have made them their base of support because they are compliant and easily manipulated because they don't have a grasp of the facts on so many issues. I agree. I'm well educated and keep abreast of the issues, but I want my political leaders to be much smarter than me.
Walter tried to push back on Andy Borowitz about Reagan and Bush but was met with keen perception. Success is not just about accomplishment and ramming bills through Congress but the ability to make judgments about how knowledge can be used for the greater good of mankind, not your particular interest group. Jimmy Carter was prescient about human activity's effect on climate change. If we had started his administration's change to solar energy and got rid of the combustible car engine, as he was encouraging, we would have had an almost 50-year head start. By the way, we also would now be fully metric, like the rest of the world, and not bound by an archaic numeric system.
I want GOOD and smart people in power, not smarmy, overly self-assured people all educated to agree.
Thank you, Andy Borowitz!
Every time I start to watch a video and see Walter I immediately turn it off and dislike him. He's too full of himself for his own good. Borowitz is a bloody genius.
Blame home-schooling. Notice most Trumpies never graduated from anywhere good. Ronald Reagan was an actor's activist who went on to become Governor, then sided with a known Nazi, and a pobable reason President Kennedy' got his head shot off, to become president. Both Bushs made home schooling legal and political and religious. Get Christ out of our government and Nazis won't get away with lying to you.
The only reason I would have a beer with a Republican is for the entertainment value of ignorance
Andy Borowitz is a typical democrat party hack.
This piece bothers me so much. I’ve never had such a visceral reaction to anything amanpour and Co had done before.
I think it’s because it completely misses the point that smart people are not necessarily good or wise. In fact, a lot of smart people are neither good nor wise. My list includes Ron de Santis, Ted Cruz, and Josh Hawley. I’m sure all of them have read lots and lots of books. They are completely unfit for leadership, and no amount of reading could correct that.
Intellectual curiosity is needed in our society.
Actors live in a world of fantasy, when this country elected an actor as president I knew we were lost. It was bad enough when he became governor and look what happened to CA during his term.
Hmm. Isaacson is a really good interviewer.
although I agree with Andy re Reagan, Isaacson shows that Andy has no coherent argument here about importance of books smarts to political success
The ignorance of Trump, Greg Abbott, Boebert & Madge Greene proves – "Stupidity is more dangerous than wickedness!"
Didn’t Carter share the Nobel Peace Prize ? And, you consider that “ unsuccessful” ? You mean “popular”……Why was reagan popular?
Stoopid is in! Trump is dumber than hell and so is our political systum. I'd rather look good.
Great interviewer
Dumb is bad. Yes. But evil genius is bad too.
The takeaway is having a leader who is willing to learn. Some learners don’t always glean knowledge from reading. They might learn from hands on experience or from listening to those that know more than them. The real sign of a bad leader is ego and obsession with appearance.
Regan was an actor hired to perform a role as a puppet president. He was parroting policy that he was told to have. Trump was similar with the added benefit that he distracted everyone with his unbelievable stupidity. Those who placed him in the presidency knew what they were doing. They’ve made a farce of American politics so that we lose faith in democracy and can swoop in and insert their own agendas in the aftermath.
Civility can return, we the people have to show up locally. Stack rank voting as they now do in Maine and desolving electoral college votes is answer.
Just as the NWP are the true sheroes of woman's right to vote, not the power grabbing individuals of the suffragate movement based on party affiliations.
State by state we the people need to ask for an amendment to the constitution to implement these two changes.
⚘♥️🕊
We are the point of them being dumber than dumbest.
Evangelicals, Republicans, and the(ir) Antichrist. Catch the bus to death, depravity, suffering, and the destruction of the race of man.
Reagan is father of the 30 trillion national debt. Reagan is responsible for destroying the middle class and redistributing trillions of wealth to the top 1% . Not successful in my book.
To me, when politicians say stupid stuff, it scares the crap out of me. That said, gaffes are hard not to make when someone has to talk and be eloquent on the spot.
Although I'm not a Clinton fan, Bill Clinton was intellectual, but able to talk plain.
Wonderful interview session. Challenging questions and some very interesting answers.
Kudos to Walter for really challenging him on the fact that there’s very little correlation between being book smart and being a good political leader. Plenty of example that contradict the notion in both ways. Seems that what we want is leaders with intellectual curiosity, wisdom, ethics, sound judgement, and humility about what they do and don’t know. But they can have that without necessarily being smart, and being smart doesn’t guarantee they have any of that. If they have those qualities, then it’s probably better that they’re also smart, but those qualities are the first priority must-haves. Smart is a nice to have.
One shouldn't confuse with being smart and being wise, good leaders know they don't know it all but always puts the people interest first before special interests, those who want wealth and power should always be view with suspicion and motives…
I consider myself a Democrat because my Dad was a union man and I believe blue collar workers are the foundation of the USA. However, I voted for many Republicans and independents based on facts and reason.
He dismantled his own argument that even intelligent make mistakes.
Budh and Ted Cruz are intelligent they pretend not to be that is all so we can make fun of them while they actually do what they really want. Listen to Michael Parenti he said that years ago.
Hillary Clinton!! Seriously what about Libya she totally destroyed that country.
Whatever happened to wisdom?
A great mathematician, engineer or medical scientist can still be intellectually and emotionally infantile when it comes to history, culture, humanity and race. I.e. they can still be dumb racists who pollute the truth as well as selfish people who don’t care about their neighbors nor the environment.
"You say you like smart people but Hitler was smart so clearly we shouldn't want smart leaders." Jesus this interviewer sucks
Too bad The Council on National Policy has had a 40 year head start on eroding America's educational system and hardly anybody knows what it is.
Unfortunately intelligence does not zero out greed and does not guarantee empathy or compassion. You can be intelligent and still be ruthless.
Walter is past his expiration date.
On October 1, Jimmy Carter turned 98. Seventy years earlier, in 1952, he averted a nuclear disaster by leading a team of men to repair the Chalk River nuclear power plant. He organized them in rehearsed relays so that none of them were exposed to radiation for long periods. He took his turn in the reactor as well.
No other president could make such a claim and I bet 90% of Americans have no idea that this modest man was such a hero.
I agree with Andy on reading and learning – that's where intelligence actually growth like in a garden with plenty of water – greenery growth better. But this is not, in real life, much impacting person's ability to digest and process information – very little correlation. Sometime it is actually exactly opposite. As Lichtenberg said in 18th century: "one read and studied a lot, but it all did not sink in". On the other hand Andy willingly shows his limits not addressing at all such leadership as demonstrated by Biden-Harris.
Absolutely. A large swath of Americans have gotten dumber and dumber and our politicians, GOP ones especially, have taken great advantage of that.
This is nuts
racism by definition is not smart
Hmmm…Jimmy Carter was an expert in nuclear physics. Ronnie was an actor who worked with a chimp. Not much else really needs be said.
Not really 'enlightening'. Andy appears to have strong 'democrat' leanings. Defining 'success' seems important. 'Smart' with bad judgement sounds questionable. 'Intellectual humility' might require less ridicule, less censorship, more willingness to understand 'tribalism' and 'civil engagement' – getting along with your neighbors. I can understand Andy struggles with hiding his annoyance, sarcasm and contempt.
Book reading time is limited for the 'working-class', and our 'educational' curriculums might have problems.
So spot on! Love you, Andy!