Why Intellectuals Like Obama

Intellectuals think they are experts, and politicians should defer to them as senior advisers (listen to New Republic writer Noam Scheiber gush about Obama's trust in experts below). Thus, to the extent a politician looks like someone who appreciates policy wonks, they will get better press. A good strategy for any politician above the city level is to make the intellectuals you speak with feel like they are the smartest guy in the whole wide world, because that is the expert's ultimate fantasy.

It's a naive fantasy, that politicians are 'technocrats' who take the best ideas from objective, leading experts in formulating policy (to think these people usually condescend to those who believe in organized religion). Experts have diametrically opposed views in terms of policy implications all the time, so it is a trivial exercise to 'listen' to them--you choose the right ones. Further, a politician's inability to implement a plan just like a certain intellectual would have wanted, merely says that this particular intellectual was not as persuasive and correct as I am, think most intellectuals, so inconsistency is brushed off w/o much concern.