IN THE PURSUIT OF STUPIDITY

"Parlez-vous francais?" Because if the answer is, "Oui", and you are an American, according to a political ad recently released by the Newt Gingrich campaign in South Carolina, you are an intellectual elitist and by virtue thereof, are totally unqualified to become president of the United States. That's the essence of the Gingrich campaign ad targeting G.O.P. frontrunner, Mitt Romney, who – you guessed it – speaks French. It came in handy during Romney's two-year missionary stint in France in the 1960s.

I'm just as opposed to Romney taking up residence in the White House as I am to Gingrich, but Romney's intellect and foreign language skills don't enter into the equation. His policies do, but certainly not his intelligence quota.

Over the past three decades, Republicans have garnered a fair amount of success using the kind of anti-intellectual argument that lies at the core of Gingrich's anti-Romney ad, so it's no surprise that Newt's campaign would resort to such a strategy. What surprises me more is its use in a G.O.P. primary against the front-running candidate. That's the kind of stuff Republicans usually wait until the fall campaign to levy against the Democratic candidate. Maybe since Obama is a black man, and suggesting that such an individual could be intellectually elite goes against those with racist views in the Republican Party, Newt has decided to use the "intellectual card" in the primaries instead. Still, I sense a hint of desperation in Gingrich's strategy that highlights just how barren Republican policies have become. Gingrich's posters should read: "Pick me; I'm the Republican dunce!"

I love a good political debate, especially when those debating can do so with a broad base of knowledge and experience, a healthy dose of intellectual reasoning and a deep sense of appreciation of the value of opposing viewpoints. Maybe it's a liberal thing, but I can't think of a single reason why anybody should want the class idiot to run America. Then again, maybe that's why Republicans have been waging an angry war against public education for the past three decades. Perhaps a stupid electorate is exactly what they want, with a dunce leading the crowd.

The pro-stupidity political strategy reminds me of the warning given to Forrest Gump by his mother – "Stupid is as stupid does!"

Talk about a great campaign slogan!