Media elites and pointy-headed leftwing intellectuals are having spasms this morning over Sarah Palin. What set them off this time? A liberal blogger discovered that Gov. Palin had written some “cheat” notes on her hand to use during her speech at the Tea Party convention this weekend. Every commentator in the country is using the incident to denounce her as stupid, non-intellectual, un-presidential and unserious. By the way, the “reminders” on her palm were “Energy,” “Cut taxes” and “Lift America’s spirits.” Oh the horror!

Of course most of the media talking heads continue to think that Obama is just the smartest, coolest guy that has ever occupied the Oval Office. Most of them thought it was silly when we raised questions about why our Harvard-educated president couldn’t say “Good morning” without his co-president – the Teleprompter. And even with the teleprompter, Obama manages to display serious ignorance. In a speech last week, he told a story about a Navy corpsman apparently not realizing that the “p” and the “s” in “corpsman” are silent. Twice, with the teleprompter, Obama pronounced the word as “corpse man.” Now there’s a job I wouldn’t want.

The media and the Left desperately want America to think that only liberals are smart. I remember how Reagan was mocked unmercifully because he used note cards during his speeches. The media had nothing but contempt for Dan Quayle. And, of course, George W. Bush was constantly presented as a buffoon.

“Poor little stupid Sarah Palin,” they are all saying. She wrote “Energy” on her hand to remind herself to bring up the need for more drilling. She wrote “Cut taxes” because she believes that is how to get our economy moving. She wrote “Lift America’s spirit” because she knows America needs inspiration.

Our president doesn’t write notes on his palm. He “knows” that limiting drilling is a great idea while we grow more dependent on people who hate us. He “knows” that raising taxes on families and small businesses is just the thing to do when the economy is on the ropes. And he is too busy apologizing for America’s sins and bashing businesses to think about lifting our spirits.

So who is the stupid one?

According to Emily Douglas, editor of The Nation, a leftwing magazine, Americans need to reduce consumption to save the planet, and the way to do that is to make things more expensive. Douglas toldCNSNews.com, “Yeah, I think things should be more expensive… If goods are more expensive, it stands to reason that Americans will buy less of them.”

To any rational person, Douglas’ idea is economic insanity. What she fails to appreciate is that there are jobs and families attached to the goods and services that people buy. But to many liberals, what is bad for the economy and your job is good for the environment. Unbelievably, her “logic” has become mainstream thinking in Washington.

According to the Heritage Foundation, in introducing his cap and trade bill in the Senate, John Kerry (D-MA) made this astounding statement: “The United States has already this year alone achieved a six percent reduction in emissions simply because of the downturn in the economy, so we are effectively saying we need to go another 14 percent.”

Kerry is conceding that a strong economy means increased carbon emissions. But, remember, consumption (economic activity) is bad. So, to meet the goal of his cap and trade bill – a 20% reduction in carbon emissions – we should make the recession three times as bad. How can government raise prices to stop consumption? Tax energy.

America’s struggling economy does not need one more tax, but that’s exactly what cap and trade is. You can read more about cap and trade in my weekly Human Events column.