I can hear the peanut gallery objecting: “But President Obama isn’t oozing Carter-sque doom and gloom.” Fair enough. But he’s oozing something worse: he’s oozing too much intelligence.

Yes, too much intelligence. Intelligence is not a bad thing, but a president should never put too much of it on display.

Jimmy Carter’s mistake wasn’t really the doom and gloom, it was his professorial, uber-competence and his legendary micro-managing. The doom and gloom was an inevitable product of his putting too much intelligence on display.

Basically, it was his publicly-aired honesty and wandering intellect that got him into trouble. These traits obscured the sacred/universal qualities of the presidency and the need for strongly directed leadership. It actually diminished the presidency in the electorates’ eyes.