When imbeciles rule

A number of columnists, including Paul Krugman, have noted that the McCain-Palin campaign became a blizzard of lies after the Republican Convention. Krugman also remarks that it has striking similarities to the Bush-Cheney campaign of 2000 with the exception that one needed some familiarity with the rudiments of arithmetic to catch the Bush-Cheney lies, while the McCain-Palin lies are evident to all but the most mentally challenged of those out there in dupeland. Palin has supplied most of the lies with her claims to rejecting the bridge to nowhere (and took the money anyway), her opposition to lobbyists and earmarks even though she hired lobbyists to obtain earmarks. And, of course, there are the absurd lies made up about Barack Obama.

Conventional wisdom is that the American people will ultimately discern and do the right thing. We can't forget, however, that they re-elected Bush-Cheney in 2004 with full information available that the war on Iraq was a phony contrivance and was killing off honorable American soldiers at an alarming rate. The people have to bear equal responsibility for the deaths of more than 4,100 Americans in an act that is the moral equivalent of genocide. And even though George Bush has admitted that Iraq was in no way involved in the 9/11 attacks, Sarah Palin still believes so. Her popularity is an indicator of a mentality that has grasped control of America.

A symptom of the mental condition of a significant portion of Americans is the reaction to Joe Biden's self-effacing remark at a campaign event that Hillary Clinton might have been a better choice for a vice presidential candidate than he is. The comment has been inflated by bloggers into the prediction that Joe Biden will resign his candidacy and Hillary Clinton will step in. This contention was also advanced by a nationwide radio talk show that specializes in appealing to the ignorant and superstitious by dwelling on ghosts, shadow people, UFO abductions, psychotic psychics, and all manner of those things which go bumping throughout the night. Host George Noory of Coast-to-Coast AM raised the prediction that Biden would resign and Hillary take over last night with the concurrence of a numerologist who was doing her political-expert number.

The great elevation of ignorance, superstition, and general mental deficiency does define a huge block of voters.

The Biden quip about Hillary's qualifications for vice president came after a person in a campaign audience made some disparaging remarks about Hillary Clinton. Joe Biden responded vigorously in what was a gracious affirmation of Hillary's stature as a political figure, He said:

"Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America," Biden replied, standing before a crowd at a Nashua rally. "Let's get that straight. She's a truly close personal friend; she is qualified to be president of the United States of America. She's easily qualified to be vice president of the United States of America and, quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me, but she is first-rate."

A symptom of imbecility is the ability to pronounce words, but not understand complete sentences. To borrow a line from "Mr. Roberts," politics has become a game devised by imbeciles to be played by idiots.