[benihana]

>There is a bias in much of the mainstream press and commentariat that people from outside of NY-BOS-WAS-CHI-SEA-SF-LA are less intelligent, or at least well educated. Many public commenters harbor an anti-Texas (and anti-Southern, and anti-Midwestern) intellectual bias. They mistakenly treat John Kerry as smarter than George Bush because John Kerry talks like an Ivy League professor while George Bush talks like a Texan.

As a southerner living in New York City, this rang especially true. I grew up around brilliant people who the "intelligent elite" discounted simply because they weren't born in the proper region. It's such an arrogant and sad stance to take.

[bsimpson]

Many Americans who grew up speaking English have a similar bias against foreigners. When they hear someone struggle to articulately present a point, they (incorrectly) presume that the speaker's lack of competence with the English language extends also to the matter being discussed (e.g. if a person has a hard time speaking about a topic, he also has a hard time reasoning about that topic).

Growing up, the kid who couldn't put together a sentence in English class probably also had difficulty with other subjects. This can prime you to associate a lack of language skills with a lack of general intelligence; however, in the adult world there are plenty of examples of people who are perfectly competent in their field but struggle with English as a method of communication.

[ceph_]

Bush was born and raised in CT an hour outside of NYC. The image of him being a Texan was cultivated in the same way as much of his persona.

[shirkey]

...just as every politician learns to create a persona.

"The caricature of President Bush is that of a good ol’ boy from Texas who is principled and tough, but just not that bright."

Whether genuine or not, that was the caricature he cultivated and embraced, further distancing himself from the "elite" in the minds of most Americans. Whether a voter found this to be charming or not went a long way to how those voters cast their ballot.

[waps]

Yeah but you've got to appreciate the irony in America. America has a very selective elite who have a very narrow definition of what that elite is (ivy-league, "entrepreneurial", rich, democrat, ...) and is regularly accused of having -very- little tolerance for anyone outside of their core group ... I wouldn't say that's true for the whole group, but there's a significant portion of them that certainly do this.

And this elite is blasting everyone else for not having an equal system. Seriously. Of course the French aristocrats did the same. I'm sure many elites, present and past, liked to claim their superior status was due to "inherent" but ill-defined characteristics : nobility, chivalry, scientific accomplishment (like the Roman elites did) ... are all words that come to mind. None of them held up their own ideals. The majority of French noblemen were cruel drunks. So were most Roman elites if Cicero's anything to go by. I'm not saying America's Ivy-league elite is a bunch of drunks, but they certainly don't satisfy their own rules : they are not social (in the political sense), they do not advance equality (quite the opposite), and most importantly : it is not the case that they're the self-selected best and brightest. Like all other elites, the reason they get in power is that they are in power and get pulled in by their buddies (which, granted, beats why French noblemen were elite : because great-great-great-great-great-granddad managed to get a command position in the king's army. The first generation of French noblemen were probably very capable people who genuinely meant well).

The only distinguishing characteristic that matters in members of America's elite is friendships and other associations with other members of the elite. As for "best and brightest", you could say that there's a (low) lower bar that they need to hit. That's it.

[ravloony]

"The majority of French noblemen were cruel drunks."

The feodal system held together for about a thousand years in France. Give them a tiny bit of credit.

Also, insulting generalisations about a vast group of people doesn't do the rest of your arguments any credit.

[ecommercematt]

"Bush attended public schools in Midland, Texas until the family moved to Houston after he completed seventh grade. He then went to The Kinkaid School, a prep school in Houston, for two years."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush#Childhood_to_mid...

[Xcelerate]

One of the worst things is when people discount those with southern accents as being unintelligent. It frustrates me a great deal. I occasionally do research/experiments at Oak Ridge National Labs, and there are plenty of Tennesseans there who are incredibly intelligent. But running into them on the street, I'm sure many from the north or west coast would dismiss them because of their southern accent and slow/unhurried speech.