[pageonetoo]

I can never figure out if Walter E. Williams is the smartest man in the world or if it's Thomas Sowell...

It is sure that they are smart, educated folk, but to say they may be the smartest is probably just racial pandering.

They are consistently willing to state the obvious, and that is why most of us love them. That they are black, is why they are celebrated, by us conservatives, in the light of JJ, Rev Al, etal...

I have my own pick for smartest, but he probably isn't... he just acts like it!

[rdb3]

It is sure that they are smart, educated folk, but to say they may be the smartest is probably just racial pandering.

I see. Noted.

[SittinYonder]

Explain to me how this is racial pandering. It might be exaggeration for effect - maybe - but their race has nothing to do with it. My opinion is that as economists writing about public policy they have no peers - particularly Sowell in the arena of education. You're certainly free to disagree with me, but that's just an absurd accusation.

[Tax-chick]

but to say they may be the smartest is probably just racial pandering

If we're using "smartest" as a shorthand term to praise a person's intellectual output, Thomas Sowell would have to be included irrespective of his race. I don't find Mr. Williams' work to be comparably original and deep, although he is certainly a solid economist and a clever writer and speaker.

Milton Friedman is often compared to Thomas Sowell, which makes sense, since he is Dr. Sowell's intellectual mentor. Judge Robert Bork is also a great and productive mind. Others could be named (but I need more coffee).

[LanPB01]

How anyone can label a declaration of Sowell as one of our greatest intellectuals "pandering" is beyond me.

[The Great Yazoo]

This thread reminds me of my schoolboy debates. "Who's stronger Superman or Captain America?"

Fact is, the conservative movement is blessed with many women and men of intellectual power and accomplishment. Their writings are regularly posted here on Free Republic.

I'll gladly take one Milton Friedman or one Thomas Sowell or one Victor Davis Hanson or one Mona Charen or one Walter E. Williams or one William F. Buckley, Jr. over all the Al Frankens, Michael Moores, Jeanenne Gerfooldos (spelling, sorry!), Bonnie Erbes (not to mention Molly Ivans and Helen Thomas), etc. etc. etc. in the world.

[bad company]

They are consistently willing to state the obvious, and that is why most of us love them. That they are black, is why they are celebrated, by us conservatives, in the light of JJ, Rev Al, etal...

Hogwash. I would suggest that you read the book "The Economics of Politics and Race" before you suggest that Thomas Sowell is just your average conservative that is being moved to the front of the class just because he is black. His grasp of economic principles and his ability to put them in terms I can understand go far beyond the "obvious".