Happy Birthday H.L. Mencken

The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.

The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

--H.L. Mencken, September 12, 1880 - January 29, 1956
Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920, in an article titled, "Bayard vs. Lionheart".

Reprinted in the H.L. Mencken collection, "On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe". Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-801-85342-7 (p. 21).

Special thanks to Keith Olbermann for featuring the above quote on his show "Countdown",September 12, 2007