Who needs a smart prez?

With McCain's mudslinging dying down this week, we can take a minute to ponder a more thoughtful approach to Election '08. The question at hand: Who will win this race to the White House?

In a commentary on www.cnn.com today, Obama's intellectualism is addressed. Well, not just Obama. The piece outlines the last several decades of democratic candidates' failure to win the presidency because they're just too dang smart!

When it comes down to it, people want a president with whom they'd like to share a beer. Why? One of two reasons: 1) They're dumb, or 2) They judge all people by their beer-drinking habits.

Seriously though, it's understandable why people want to be able to connect with their president on some level. If a presidential candidate can appeal to the masses, it will be much easier for them to take the White House. But what I can't understand is why so many people think that is the only criteria they need to decide their vote. Whatever happened to issues?

It's pretty apparent these days that media coverage is overwhelmingly made up of horse race coverage, analyzing campaign coverage, and examining the personalities of the candidates, and it shows in voter decisions. It showed in the 2000 election when W. Bush was elected over the ever-so intellectual Al Gore, and the same when the elder Bush won against Dukakis. Sometimes voters just don't get what the smart people are saying, and in turn they're turned off.

Has this happened to Obama? Yes and no. Just by publishing the commentary today CNN is showing that people do see Obama as an intellectual, a "pointy-headed" smarty-pants who is disconnected from real Americans. But, as the polls show, Obama has enough personality to sway voters to his side and—just maybe—get them to want to have a beer with him.

As far as the Obama campaign goes, so far they have been smart to soewhat downplay his intellectualism and play up his likability--that is what voters want, after all. Who needs a smart president, anyway? Uh, I'm pretty sure the last eight years proves that one. We do.