JUAN WILLIAMS says that Sarah Palin can’t stand on the same intellectual stage as Barack Obama. He offers no evidence, however, for the proposition that Obama is particularly bright, and I can’t say I see a big difference. 
 
 Obama’s former colleague Richard Epstein says: 
 
 
 
 I like Obama but I reject the suggestion that he is an intellectual. He is an activist merely mimicking the mannerisms of an intellectual. 
 
 Personally, I think Richard Epstein’s a better judge of who’s intellectual than Juan Williams is. But I think most of the press — for whom the phrase “an activist merely mimicking the mannerisms of an intellectual” may also apply — is easier to fool. ||||| Well, this is likely to end the conservative love affair with Juan Williams that started after he was fired by NPR: 
 
 Fox News contributor Juan Williams said Sunday that Sarah Palin “can’t stand on the intellectual stage” with President Obama. 
 
 Williams, in his role as an analyst on Fox News Sunday, was breaking down the Republican presidential field, which he saw as weak. 
 
 “There’s nobody out there, except for Sarah Palin, who can absolutely dominate the stage, and she can’t stand on the intellectual stage with Obama,” Williams said. ||||| Juan Williams hit out at Sarah Palin on "Fox News Sunday," saying she could not match President Obama intellectually. 
 
 Williams was speaking about the potential Republican presidential candidates for the 2012 elections, and decrying them as "weak." He mocked the idea that someone like Indiana Congressman Mike Pence could go head to head with Obama. 
 
 "There is nobody out there except for Sarah Palin who could absolutely dominate the stage and she can't stand on the intellectual stage with Obama," Williams concluded. 
 
 This prompted a chorus of "oooohhhs" from the rest of the panel.
– Conservatives rushed to Juan Williams’ aid when NPR fired him—but now, he’s taking heat from the right for saying Sarah Palin “can’t stand on an intellectual stage with Obama.” On Fox News Sunday, the onetime NPR commentator said the field of Republican candidates was “weak,” and Palin was the only charismatic one—but she lacked the intellectual credentials to face the president. “This is likely to end the conservative love affair with Juan Williams,” notes Doug Mataconis at Outside the Beltway. But who’s to say Obama is an intellectual, anyway? asks Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit, noting that a former University of Chicago colleague has called the president “an activist merely mimicking the mannerisms of an intellectual.” On the other hand, “Some might say Williams is picking up where Karl Rove left off and is merely voicing reality too many GOPers are unwilling to speak up about,” writes Glynnis MacNicol at Business Insider. See the Williams video at the Huffington Post.