How smart do you think I think they are? ;-)

I lived down there for 10 years, you know, and my impression is that the average American is about as smart as the average German was in the late 30's or as the average Iranian or Canadian or Frenchman or Englishman or anyone else is right now. Smart people can easily be fooled by bad governments, and they can easily be fooled by a well-orchestrated media campaign. They believe whatever they hear most often from the authoritative sources they take for granted.

I hear more blather about Ahmadinejad these days than I do about any other foreign "bad guy" in our media, so, yes, I think that he is the reigning bogeyman right now, not Osama Bin Laden. And the reason for that is that the primary present strategic planning is being aimed at Iran.