Palin No Intellectual Match for Obama: Juan Williams

Conservatives rushed to Juan Williams’ aid when NPR fired him—but now, he’s taking heat from the right for saying Sarah Palin “can’t stand on an intellectual stage with Obama.” On Fox News Sunday, the onetime NPR commentator said the field of Republican candidates was “weak,” and Palin was the only charismatic one—but she lacked the intellectual credentials to face the president.

“This is likely to end the conservative love affair with Juan Williams,” notes Doug Mataconis at Outside the Beltway. But who’s to say Obama is an intellectual, anyway? asks Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit, noting that a former University of Chicago colleague has called the president “an activist merely mimicking the mannerisms of an intellectual.” On the other hand, “Some might say Williams is picking up where Karl Rove left off and is merely voicing reality too many GOPers are unwilling to speak up about,” writes Glynnis MacNicol at Business Insider. See the Williams video at the Huffington Post. (More President Obama stories.)