Jennifer Rubin has a superb posting up at Commentary’s Contentions blog. Rubin focuses on the subject of Barack Obama’s intellect. We’re constantly told that he’s some super-genius who has actually done well for the country. So why isn’t he more popular? The story goes that Americans are just too ignorant to pick up on his genius.

The latest such example comes from Margaret Carlson of Bloomberg. Carlson apparently wrote this with a straight face:

He is so supremely confident in his intellect that he forgets, on his way to the correct decision, to slow down and pick up not-so-gifted stragglers.

It’s not that his policies are bad, mind you. It’s just that he’s so smart — and he knows that he’s smart — that he forgets to explain it all slowly to us ordinary Americans, us people of the land. You know, morons.

Of course, that’s bullcrap. One can find a million examples of Obama’s ignorance. There’s his assertion that his uncle liberated Auschwitz when the death camp was actually liberated by the Red Army. Or his claim to have visited fifty-seven states during the presidential campaign. Or any number of his expressions of ignorance.

Rubin does a better job taking Carlon’s claim apart, though:

Well, supremely confident but not so smart. Does he truly not get the distinction between constitutional rights and moral persuasion? Does he not understand that an imam who can’t denounce Hamas, insists America is complicit in 9/11, and won’t disclose whether state sponsors of terror are funding his project isn’t seeking reconciliation?

You really need to read the whole thing because Rubin gets into explaining Obama’s mindset. In short, he’s been told his entire life that he’s extremely smart and playing chess on three levels.

It insulates him from ideas and facts that conflict with his pre-existing liberal rubric (so “every economist” believed his stimulus would work). It leaves him unprepared to engage in real debate with informed opponents (e.g. the health-care summit). It skews his understanding of how geopolitics works, as he imagines that his own wonderfulness can sway adversaries and override nations’ fundamental interests (the Middle East).

It’s a rude awakening for Obama when his plans don’t work out. Unable to deal with the failure of his actions, Obama lashes out at a variety of sources. Everyone else is to blame but he is never responsible. He may say the buck stops with him, of course, but his actions and statements conflict with that platitude.

His plan for Middle East peace didn’t work out so it’s time to lash out at Israel. His economic recovery plan isn’t working so it’s time to lash out at Bush, Republicans, and the private sector. His approval ratings are on the decline so it’s time to lash out at the media and polling establishment. There’s always someone else to blame.

Obama isn’t where he is because of intelligence or hard work. Every step of the way he’s had sympathetic figures in power willing to further his career. Every step of the way he’s been told that he’s super intelligent and can change the world just by showing up.

Well, now it’s time to deal with the real world. Now it’s time to put plans into action. Now responsibility rests on his shoulders. Now people are demanding actual results. And he can’t do it. He can’t just wave his hand and fix the economy. He can’t change the world just by showing up. It’s a rude awakening for the insulated man from Chicago.