Superman Vs. Warm Body

by Thomas Sowell - October 14th, 2011 - TownHall.com

One of the problems in trying to select a leader for any large organization or institution is the tendency to start out looking for Superman, passing up many good people who fail to meet that standard, and eventually ending up settling for a warm body.

Some Republicans seem to be longing for another Ronald Reagan. Good luck on that one, unless you are prepared to wait for several generations. Moreover, even Ronald Reagan himself did not always act like Ronald Reagan.

The current outbreak of "gotcha" attacks on Texas Governor Rick Perry show one of the other pitfalls for those who are trying to pick a national leader. The three big sound-bite issues used against him during the TV "debates" have involved Social Security, immigration and a vaccine against cervical cancer.

Where these three issues have been discussed at length, whether in a few media accounts or in Governor Perry's own more extended discussions in an interview on Sean Hannity's program, his position was far more reasonable than it appeared to be in either his opponents' sound bites or even in his own abbreviated accounts during the limited time available in the TV "debate" format.

As usual Thomas Sowell has provided a rational assessment of the unfounded attacks on Rick Perry. Compared with both Mitt Romney and Herman Cain, Rick Perry is by far the most successful true conservative in the race. His amazing passage of limits on abusive malpractice lawsuits was courageous and required true genius in its strategy. However that is no longer accepted by the pack of Pavlovian bigots who base their beltway insanity on the superficial logic of sound bite smears. It is now assumed that the lawyer attacks on Perry are because he is not a good conservative. Not that the lawyers are furious at limits on their corruption.

However the basis for the belief about Perry is almost unassailable when it has become conventional wisdom. Idiots never seem to change their minds when to do so requires they admit they were conned by corrupt arguments.