Because stupid is easy to understand

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I am reading a book which is a collection of short news items along the Dumb Crook News. The book does include plenty of dumb crook news, but also contains short quotes from the legendary politician Dan Quayle.

Quayle may indeed be an idiot, as evidenced by the sheer number of malapropisms he uttered and the fact he served in Congress. This, however, is belied by this: Quayle joined "Cerberus Capital Management, a multi-billion dollar private equity firm, in 1999 and is chairman of the company's Global Investments division. As chairman of the international advisory board of Cerberus Capital Management, he recruited former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney, who would have been installed as chairman if Cerberus had successfully acquired Air Canada" among other high profile jobs.

This got me to thinking. Every time Quayle uttered one of his infamous statements, he was headline news all over the world.

Maybe Quayle is a lot smarter than people give him credit for being.

Attacked for "cheesy grits" statement.

Think about it.

By uttering a seriously stupid statement, Quayle put himself and his apparent idiocy into the media, dominating it for several days.

Following me yet?

Ok, a hypothetical - Say I lose my mind and decide to run for office. You can bet I'll have a load of policies and plans which some people are going to hate, especially the media.

When it comes time to introduce one of these concepts, I'll get in front of a bunch of reporters and do something idiotic and introduce the policy. Which do you think is going to dominate the news?

Are you with me?

Try this one: Which is easier to wrap your brain around - The Fed's monetary policy or politician Todd Akin talking about "legitimate rape." OK, which one makes you more upset?

And who's zoomin' who? as Aretha once asked

Which one is really, truly and genuinely going to have significant and long-lasting impacts on your life?

Are you with me now?

Politicians are masters of diversionary tactics. I'm wondering if the very best ones are the ones we think are the most stupid. I'm wondering if the ones we think are the most stupid are the very ones we need to watch for reasons entirely opposite to what the majority of people believe.

It appears the great majority of people prefer ridicule to comprehension. Because, stupid is easy to understand.