"Because I say so." Can't argue with that.
Dan Quayle earned a J.D. in law school. He was chairman of the National Space Council, where several acquaintances of mine--names you might even know--worked with him years ago, and found him quite intelligent and more articulate than his reputation.
He was declared an idiot by his political enemies and their media partners, for no other objective reason than "because they said so."
That's really all it takes nowadays, doesn't it? As Papa says, "If you see it in the paper, it's so."