Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Pete are the most conspicuously intelligent Democratic candidates for president. Can’t you just imagine a scenario in which Warren unleashes the full fury of the Socratic method on Mayor Pete (possibly even using a little bit of Latin) during a debate, and Mayor Pete responds IN NORWEGIAN! Wouldn’t that be great!
Actually, no. That kind of display alienates more voters than it attracts.
The qualities we need most from a president are empathy, communications skills, and, above all, judgment. Judgment is not synonymous with the ability to master extremely difficult tasks or solve abstract problems; in fact, they’re barely related. Judgment is primarily a function of experience. That is the public’s legitimate concern with Mayor Pete, and one of the reasons that Biden, in spite of his other shortcomings, retains his lead nationally.