Excellent point. Do you think the basic premise, that intelligent people flock to intellectually interesting things (but that those things change over time) is reasonable?

It seems to me that when our system of government was new it really was the most interesting thing going on so it attracted a lot of super smart people. Now, not so much. Of course part of it is that politicians have figured out it's easier to get elected if you pander to the lowest common denominator, but that still doesn't explain why a good percentage of them don't know how to use email.