A Feb. 17 article by Susan Jacoby in The Washington Post called "The Dumbing of America" makes some good points. She says Americans are in "serious intellectual trouble."

She theorizes

the inability to concentrate for long periods of time—as distinct from brief reading hits for information on the Web—seems to me intimately related to the inability of the public to remember even recent news events.

Maybe it's my obsessive Web browsing, rather than my age, that makes me forget some things! I kind of like having the excuse of a younger person rather than an older person. She continues

It is not surprising, for example, that less has been heard from the presidential candidates about the Iraq war in the later stages of the primary campaign than in the earlier ones, simply because there have been fewer video reports of violence in Iraq. Candidates, like voters, emphasize the latest news, not necessarily the most important news.

No wonder negative political ads work.

I've been a little depressed today by Hillary Clinton's wins in Ohio and Texas. The ignorance that put George Bush into the White House in 2000 and 2004 seems to be taking over again. Generalizing here, voters seem to be way too lazy about gathering information about the candidates. I'm afraid they're basing their decisions on what they hear from Rush Limbaugh on their co-workers' radios and what they can't avoid in candidates' TV commercials.

Unfortunately politicians and their corporate backers know this and exploit it, and we all have to live with the results.