Rove lite -- the pastel version of US distrust of learning

Hey, this is almost liveblogging: I just heard Harper on the radio, he really needs a dye job, his rightwing roots are showing.

Of Dion he just said, "You may be a professor, but you haven't been able to teach the Canadian public."

Right wing dogwhistle translation: "You are one of those snobbish useless smart people. Who cares what you think?"

The dogwhistle comment is a phrase or idea innocent in itself but targeting an idea which most people would dislike, but a few targeted people recognize in its hidden form. In the US several words, for instance "academic", are used to label someone uselessly intellectual.

Harper's no slouch as far as education goes, wiki tells us.

"...He graduated [high school] at the top of his class with a 95.7% average, and was a member of his school's team on Reach for the Top... at the University of Calgary, he completed a Bachelor's degree in economics. He later returned there to earn a Master's degree in economics, completed in 1993. Harper has kept strong links to the University of Calgary, and often guest-lectured there. "

However, Dion is also not a slouch. You may want to make a comparison:

"He studied political science at Université Laval .... He obtained BA and MA degrees in 1977 and 1979 respectively (his master's thesis presented an analysis of the evolution of Parti Québécois electoral strategies)...

Dion spent four years in Paris...studying public administration under the tutelage of noted sociologist Michel Crozier. ...After receiving a doctorate in sociology Dion worked briefly as a teaching assistant at the Université de Moncton in 1984 before moving on to the Université de Montréal to assume an assistant professor position. Dion taught at the Université de Montréal from 1984 to January 1996, specializing in the study of public administration and organizational analysis and theory, and was a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C...

Between 1987 and 1995, Dion published a number of books and articles on political science, public administration and management. A collection of Dion's speeches and writings on Canadian unity was published under the title Straight Talk Dion was also a guest scholar at the Laboratoire d'économie publique de Paris from 1994 to 1995, a co-editor of the Canadian Journal of Political Science from 1990 to 1993, and a research fellow at the Canadian Centre for Management Development (now part of the Canada School of Public Service) from 1990 to 1991.

See that? How wasteful to study and teach public policy, politics, sociology etc when all you really need to be PM is a master's from the U of Calgary and an awful lot of duct tape for the caucus.

Mr. Harper keeps trying to float the little tactic boats that have worked so well in the USA (for a given value of "worked"). I am glad to say that I think he is not having as much luck with them as he might like.