Why would someone as smart as President Barack Obama is reputed to be behave as stupidly as he has in the affair over the ground zero mosque?  Bloomberg’s Margaret Carlson thinks she knows.

“He is so supremely confident in his intellect that he forgets, on his way to the correct decision, to slow down and pick up not-so-gifted stragglers,” Ms. Carlson wrote Aug. 18.

Yet Mr. Obama has said things -- that America has 57 states; that “Austrian” is a foreign language; that Arabic is spoken in Afghanistan; that Canada has a president -- which if George W. Bush said them, would have had journalists like Ms. Carlson chortling about what a dunce he was.

You can, I suppose, have a superior intellect without demonstrating it in any way.  But it could be the reason why Mr. Obama has made so many political mistakes, and has been so unpersuasive in his public speaking is because he isn’t nearly as smart as his admirers imagine him to be.

When the Pew Research Center released a poll with awkward results for the White House, the Associated Press raced to do what it could to help.

“Americans are increasingly convinced -- incorrectly -- that President Barack Obama is a Moslem, and a growing number are thoroughly confused about his religion,” the AP said.

According to Pew, 18 percent of Americans (up from 11 percent last year) think Mr. Obama is a Moslem; 34 percent think he is a Christian, and 43 percent say they don’t know.

On what basis does the AP declare the 18 percent are wrong?

Last week, it was reported that the sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico seem to have weathered the oil spill without much problem. But they are still unnecessarily endangered.  In fact, they always will be, because of people behaving like juveniles who have a hard time understanding the consequences of their actions. During the past several months, we have seen much of the political class in Washington increasingly act like juveniles, making the rest of us suffer. But first, let's go back to the turtle. Why are sea turtles endangered, while chickens and cows are not? The answer, quite simply, is that chickens and cows are privately owned and turtles are not - thus they suffer from "the tragedy of the commons." When things are owned in common - socialism - no person takes responsibility for protecting the property, and thus it most often ends up being neglected or even destroyed - hence the fate of the sea turtle.

We begin this week with a letter of profound gratitude.

Dear TTP Family, My Marines and I cannot thank you enough for the dozens of care packages you have sent us here in Afghanistan.  At least 50 have come in so far and more arrive almost every day.  They have been an immense morale boost, and we are able to use, eat, and drink everything.  Everything you sent is so appreciated. Just as appreciated are your prayers and spiritual support.  We are a long ways from home, and to know that people back home are praying for us every day means so much to us all. Be assured that the Marines are proud and strong.  We have the best training in the world and it is paying off here.  We are fighting every day, getting grenades thrown at us, RPGs shot at us, and engaging in intense firefights.  Despite all of this, the Taliban are running scared. Simultaneously, we are able to protect the local population who hate and fear the Taliban.  We are engaging and employing villagers here who often live just a couple of hundred meters away from Taliban positions.  Know that every day, the US Marines are making progress on moving forward a culture that has neither running water nor electricity, that hasn't progressed in 2,000 years. I wish I could be with you at the TTP Rendezvous this November in Washington.  But I will still be here with my Marines.  Thank you all so very much once again. Ethos anthropos daemon 1st Lt. Brandon H. Wheeler United States Marine Corps Afghanistan

Democrats in swing districts were hoping President Barack Hussein Obama would do something to distract attention from the souring economy.  But this isn't what they had in mind. On Friday the 13th (a remarkably appropriate date), the president waded into the controversy over plans to build a mosque and Moslem community center two blocks from where the World Trade Center once stood.  In prepared remarks, Mr. Obama gave what both supporters and opponents interpreted as a ringing endorsement of the project. Mr. Obama's "forceful" speech expressing strong support for Cordoba House "will go down as one of the finest moments of his presidency," predicted Greg Sargent of the Washington Post. The president displayed great courage, Mr. Sargent said, because most Americans oppose construction of a mosque at that site. Alas for Mr. Sargent, Mr. Obama's finest hour lasted for only a few hours.   Then it was quickly back to Amateur Hour for this increasingly pathetic president.

It's the sort of ad we expect to see many Republican challengers running variations of this fall.  In it, the candidate decries illegal immigration and -- showing photos of President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- declares his independence from "the Washington crowd." But it isn't a Republican who is running this particular ad.  It's an incumbent Democrat, Rep. Joe Donnelly of Indiana. Rep. Donnelly is in his second term.  He voted for Obamacare and for the failed stimulus.  He's a part of "the Washington crowd" he criticizes.  His ad is disingenuous, and smacks of desperation. "Can you imagine the polling this guy is seeing, to put out an ad like that in early August?" wondered an amazed poster at the Free Republic website.

In what he imagines is a flattering profile of the president and his aides,  Todd Purdum of Vanity Fair noted Barack Obama typically gets to the Oval Office about 9:30 a.m.  That is, about three hours later than did President Bush. His aides told Mr. Purdum the president works late into the evening.  But not all those hours are spent on affairs of state. "While President Obama's wife and younger daughter were conducting international relations in Majorca ... the commander in chief was at home hosting a fantasy camp for himself," wrote Dana Milbank of the Washington Post Tuesday (8/10). Mr. Obama is living well at our expense. But he's a piker compared to his wife. Some are calling her "Michelle Antoinette" after her vacation this month at a resort in Spain where room rates begin at $330 a night. Gossip in the National Enquirer about a "feud" between the first lady and second lady Jill Biden has fueled suspicion Michelle Obama has regal pretensions. "What's got her seething is that Jill doesn't seem to treat Michelle with the reverence the first lady expects," the Enquirer's source said.  Reverence?  Reverence that commoners must show to royalty?