Time and time again in the post-debate punditry, the main criticism (usually from Republican wonks) of Biden was that he came off too "professorial". Meaning, I suppose, that he spoke coherently and with a solid grasp of the English language. As opposed to Sarah "Gee-Jimminy-Whilikers" Palin. What I want to know is...
...when did "professorial" become a bad thing? When did this pernicious idea that our leaders should be some kind of Everyman, rather than our best and brightest, seep into the mass consciousness?
George W. Bush won in 2000, we are told, because Al Gore came off as too smart. Too professorial. Too wooden. Whereas Bush was the kind of guy people would like to have a beer with. Well look where THAT got us. Thanks to Dubya's handling of the economy, the only beer you could afford to have with him now would be a PBR.
He won again in 2004, we are told, because John Kerry was too smart, too professorial, too wooden. Are we detecting a pattern here?
And now, with Obama's public speaking style being too much in the revivalist vein to be accused of being boring or condescending, Republicans have resorted to trying to slap the label onto Joe Biden. Biden is another Gore or Kerry, we are told. A hyper-educated East Coast elite liberal who looks down his nose at you and me (and of course, many of the pundits saying this are themselves highly educated political elites who don't exactly dine on Easy Mac and Spam for dinner....). Personally, I thought Biden nailed it out of the park. He got fired up as the debate went on, and I thought he did a fantastic job of boiling his answers down to simple, effective points that even the "average" American could understand. Three weeks in Iraq, same amount of money we've spent in Afghanistan in seven years. That's simple, that's blunt, and Palin made no move to explain or excuse it. But yet, he's boring and professorial, whereas Palin "held her own", you betcha bless her heart.
I think the Daily Show nailed it a few weeks back when Rob Riggle said, "I want a President who's like me, Jon...or dumber."