A guy I work with sits beside me. I'll call him Mister R. I can't figure him out. At all. I have no idea what percent he represents.
His depth of knowledge about computers and abilty to retain that knowledge is stunning. If a problem crops up for anyone he is summoned and quickly fixes it. There's been days that if he had called in sick we'd have been in trouble. He's not an official boss, but as far as the projects go, he keeps them moving in the right direction and assists wherever needed. He's friendly. In office conversations about sports, music, women etc. he makes cogent, intelligent, and enlightened points.
But when it comes to politics Mister R. is, in the best way to describe it, absolutely simian. I am talking about "Did you see those dummies were blaming Sandy on global warming, and then they got a blizzard." A sibling to "It's cold out today. global warming is bullshit."
R is convinced pre-election polls showing democratic leads are false and are a conspiracy to try and covince the folks that it's all over and cause republicans not to vote.
R is certain gun comfiscation is right on the horizon.
R's takeaway from the recent election was something the Black Panthers were doing at some precinct somewhere.
He thinks Romney's 47% comment was the truth and when someone finally tells the truth in politics, everyone gets mad.
And the clincher. R watched the election returns for a little while. As usual the republican builds up an early electoral college lead on the scoreboard the networks keep up on the screen. Due to the fact, of course, that many of the early reporting states, and the earliest calls are republican givens. He said he followed the scoreboard and saw that Obama needed to catch-up and he just knew it was coming. And sure enough the Obama number started to grow. Like it was rigged or something. And he went on to bed knowing Obama was sure to win.
R is intelligent. I just can't hardly believe talk radio and FOX, or whatever else, suckered him.
But I guess so.