Posted by
Dennis Pemberton on Friday, June 04, 2010 7:32:49 AM
Adlai Stevenson had a reputation as an intellectual largely on his ability as a speaker; he was the choice of "the intelligent voter." Indeed, he attributed his losses to Dwight Eisenhower to his intellect, and his appeal to intelligent Americans, which he viewed as something of an oxymoron. However, his intellectualism did not extend to actually reading books. He read very little, and it was not uncommon for a year to go by without his reading a single book. Perhaps he felt he knew all he needed. Reading for such a person would be a pointless exercise- the books he read would either confirm his worldview, and be redundant, or contradict it, and be wrong. So, on the evidence of his rhetoric, and little else, Stevenson was the darling of intellectuals, and his electoral defeats merely confirmed for them the essential ignorance and anti-intellectualism of the American people.
Harry Truman, conversely, was seen as a hick. His voice was tinny, and he was not known for a well-turned phrase or soaring rhetoric. Intellectuals disdained him. However, Truman was a voracious reader, and read Cicero in the original Latin. He once corrected Chief Justice Vinson when he used a Latin phrase incorrectly. But he would never be seen as an intellectual, and Stevenson will probably always be seen as an intellectual.
Which brings us to Paul McCartney. In his press conference concerning the Library of Congress Gershwin Award, McCartney saw fit to drop this little gem: “After the last eight years, it’s great to have a president who knows what a library is.” This is interesting, because there is no record of the current President reading anything while he has been president. A lot of basketball, a lot of parties, a lot of vacations, but no reading. President Bush, on the other hand, read at least a book a week while he was in the White House, at least in the years 2005-2007. And they weren't all of the "The Poky Little Puppy" variety. They included Camus' "The Stranger," Andrew Roberts's "A History of the English Speaking Peoples Since 1900," and Doris Kearn's Goodwin's "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln." More than half of the books were nonfiction. But, because he is not the best speaker, and did not have the audacity to write an autobiography when he was 20, he is a dolt, fit for lampooning by Paul McCartney.
As for "knowing what a library is," The Washington Post's Charles Lane wrote,
"Bush’s wife Laura is a librarian. She and her husband made a mini-cause of supporting literacy and public libraries, both when he was governor of Texas and when he was president.
The Bush administration oversaw creation of a federal grant program to train a new generation of librarians. It’s called the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, and it has awarded $130 million to date. During Bush’s presidency, federal funding for public libraries grew from $163.2 million per year to $212.2 million per year – a 30 percent increase."
Perhaps being an intellectual has little to do with reading. Perhaps that is why, if it isn't already, the United States should be anti-intellectual.