There are times you read something truly amusing and you may never really know if the person who conjured it was trying to be funny; then there are times you know.
Brooks McCabe
Yesterday I read a tweet by @BrooksMcCabeWV that still has me laughing. He had my vote for the next governor of West Virginia long before this, but now I can just tell one story and explain why he is the man for me, as well as why I believe he is the candidate our state needs in that office.
The tweet was a faux head-scratching over a journalist’s evaulation of him as “too erudite” for most voters. The exact critique was this:
McCabe has some minuses as a candidate — he doesn’t exactly take command of the room when he enters, and with a doctoral degree from WVU, he can come off a bit too erudite for his audiences.
I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of a governor “taking command of the room.” It’s philistine and tiresome and more often than not a glaring wart on a man’s character if he has to act that way. The story I heard from the business summit at The Greenbrier was that McCabe quietly took a few steps up in a large hallway and, un-mic’ed, began talking about his vision for West Virginia. He gathered a large group that soon crowded the area and listened to him intently and respectfully. My clearance goes through rumor, but I also understand that quiet talk generated $20K in campaign support on the spot.
There will always be people who need someone to “take” command of them; who look for a big guy with too much hair product and a macho background to make them feel taken care of and important. West Virginia has no shortage of these dudes salivating in the wings. Then there are other people who appreciate a leader with an education, a respectful mild-mannered approach to others, and a flawless wit. That leader is Brooks McCabe.
His tweet? “Looking up ‘erudite’ in the dictionary.” You gotta love it.
Esse Diem 
A gem of a post. Thank you for saving me from looking up “philistine” in my dictionary. LOL
For the record, 2 things: It is allowable to capitalize the word or not, and I am hoping by linking a detailed definition, I can increase its use in the coming election season. Thank you for your comment!
That tweet was brilliant:) I remember seeing it. Anti-intellectualism is officially the very most brain-killing phenomenon in politics today. The epic amount of crap Obama had to put up with for being smarter than most of us sent me into spasms.
I’m so thrilled to have found your blog. Erudite- you haz it:D
Thanks for getting it….it’s kind of crazy, isn’t it? The whole thing. I’m cooking up a post for next week about education and IQ, how they aren’t the same thing, and what that all can tell us about…….damn. I don’t know. If I were smarter I could tell you now. I may just have to do what I always do and start writing. I think when I write, versus think and then write most times. 🙂 Thanks again for your great comment, I hope you come back again!
I appreciate an erudite person who understands how much they don’t know. It seems to me that the more learned a person is the more obvious it should be that the finish line for education will never be in sight. I think one of the greatest problems with politicians and pundits, left or right, is that they tend to believe that their way is THE way, and they often have the credentials to give their arguments at least a little heft
(at least in their own minds). For some reason Paul Krugman immediately comes to mind as an example of someone who will regrettably never win over others because he reeks of high-and-mightiness while being extremely erudite. I realized recently that pundits or thinkers whom I appreciate the most tend to be reasonable centrist conservatives such as David Brooks; I find that I appreciate hearing a point of view a bit different than my own, put forth with a touch of humility by a person who strikes me as very erudite. What scares me is when someone who represents the unreasonable yet common-on-the-right disdain for erudition has so much pull in the public forum, i.e. Sarah Palin. Folks like Krugman irritate me. Folks like Palin and their popularity make me worry.
Interesting that you would mention David Brooks…..I feel much the same way about him. He’s probably more “conservative” than I am in most ways, and yet I really like his style. I will listen to his ideas before someone else’s because he does exude a humility that has my respect.