Sometimes "slick" is just slick

Related Link » Brilliant No More
“How many times has a pundit or Democrat gushed over Obama’s “brilliant” mind? As conservatives pointed out to the swooners on the left, there was very little evidence of it — no inventive Third Wave philosophy of governance in his pre-presidential career, no significant legislative or intellectual achievement — other than writing a self-promoting and somewhat fictional account of himself — and actually very poor people skills (Maureen Dowd has only now figured out that he is thin-skinned and emotionally robotic). […] Now that his presidency is in dire straits, perhaps the mainstream media are more receptive to that perspective. As Noemie Emery writes, to the extent that he was/is “brilliant,” it’s in the mundane task of running meetings […] Now that Obama’s policies and political standing are faltering, the media mavens are puzzled, as Emery notes. How can it be that he’s failing when he’s so smart? It never dawns on them that they confused slickness with smarts and urbanity with insight. Whether it is Obama or Elena Kagan, it’s rather easy to impress the chattering class — an Ivy League degree, poise before the cameras, verbal acuity, and disdain for conservative ideas usually do it. It matters not what these figures have produced (legal opinions, legislation, etc.) but with whom they circulate and where they’ve studied. To a great degree, social elitism has replaced meritocracy as the left’s yardstick.”
— JENNIFER RUBIN - 07.01.2010 (Commentary)

He can walk and chew gum at the same time. To quote that self-declared fount of Vice-Presidential wisdom, "Big f*cking deal!" Just about any elementary-school student can do that.

Even if he wasn't concealing what he actually accomplished at Columbia and Harvard, if anything, a brilliant mind that would not guarantee necessarily. Sure, there have been some brilliant minds who had passed through those hallowed halls of Ivy splendor. But so have a lot of run-of-the-mill grade-whores.

Brilliant? I think not. Sometimes "slick" is just slick. Or downright slimy.

Post #1,340 Sometimes "slick" is just slick