When I was a kid, before school, I’d pour myself a bowl of Cap’n Crunch and watch TBS.  Back in those days, TBS rotated classic comedy shows in their morning schedule, and so I’ve seen more episodes of Gilligan’s Island, Bewitched, and Andy Griffith than I care to admit.

Recently, though, I’ve had The Beverly Hillbillies on the brain.  I vaguely recall an episode (which Google handily tells me is titled “The Great Crawdad Hunt”) in which a couple of guys think that the Clampetts are geniuses in disguise.  An investigator sent to look in on the Clampetts finds a bunch of Jethro’s cipherin’, and brings back a few pages, excited by his find.

Sledge: And the boy, he’s a regular Einstein!
Lucas: Greater! Greater! He invented a new system of mathematics. Why, two and two come out five for him.

I have this sense that this episode is an allegory for our current political class.  The unforced errors are endless.  Bowing, tax evasion, mistranslated “reset” buttons, giving DVD’s to foreign heads of state, etc.  This doesn’t even mention the larger policy issues.  And in spite of all the mistakes, we’re endlessly reassured that everything’s fine and they know what they’re doing.

In other words, they aren’t clueless; they’ve invented a new kind of math! 

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