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Mr. Beckett:

With all do respect, shortly out of college I talked like you, thought like you—in misty mysteries all designed to make me feel smugly superior. Then I got a clue. You may not be young, but somewhere along the way you seem to have gotten mired there.

Smart men and women do not sit around and yammer on about their thirst for "learning." If you have read ANYTHING about the president, you will find he is a voracious learner. He reads a LOT of material on a regular basis. He learns from philosophy, and he learns from the records and strategies of real people.

What he HATES are the uppity, elitist attitudes that you seem to be displaying. He made a choice at one time in his life. It was a choice between being a talker and devotee of nuance, like our friend John Kerry, or a doer who seeks core values, makes decisions and moves the ball forward.

He is a wise man. He chose the later. It has nothing to do with his intellect, his desire to learn or his thirst for knowledge. It has to do with his fundamental decency and understanding that nothing is a greater hindrance to learning than uppitiness.

And, fwiw, he's in stellar company. Jesus got in trouble in his day for not being part of the elitist establishment Himself and making the entire concept of salvation far too simple. In fact, he made a point to say that even a child could understand it.