“As democracy is perfected, the office of President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”—H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920.

Mr. Mencken was of course being facetious when he wrote that statement nigh on a century ago but he could have easily been describing our current political landscape. We often like to make fun of President Bush for his, at best, estranged relationship with the English language. And he has yet to disappoint us, as he did the other day when he inartfully suggested that Saddam Hussein killed South African President Nelson Mandela (who is very much alive, by the way). I think what has most everyone tittering over this is the idea that Bush even knows who Mandela is, much less what he accomplished. Indeed, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to learn he had to be informed that Mandela wasn’t a type of fruit.

One of the men vying to be his successor is apparently intent on continuing the Mencken prophecy. Like Bush, Rudy Giuliani must have also gotten mediocre grades in Econ 101 because he seems to think that we would be able to balance tax cuts with even more tax cuts. I don’t know about you but the only place I know of where a negative times a negative equals a positive is in algebra, which I will admit it takes an advance degree in to sort out the current tax code.

And on the subject of why he now favors gun rights after seemingly years spent advocating stricter gun control laws? Three guesses what his answer was (Hint 1: it’s his answer to everything) (Hint 2: No, not tax cuts).

When it comes to the President, it is really too much to ask that we elect someone based on more criteria than the presence of a pulse?

(h/t to Joe Galloway for Mencken quote)

(X-posted at The Xsociate Files)