The Economist profiles McCain:

It is hard to name another politician who is such a mediocre public speaker, and yet so effective. His speechwriter, Mark Salter, prepares him elegant texts that he stumbles through like a man of homely tastes choking on nouvelle cuisine. His voice has no range; he stresses the wrong words. Yet people listen, because they think he means what he says.

He projects the blokeish persona of a man who used to drink too much, crash planes and chase women. On the campaign trail, he wolfs culturally significant junk food—“Pronto Pup” deep-fried hot dogs in Grand Haven, Michigan, or “concrete” frozen custard in St Louis, Missouri—with apparent relish. He has a stock of awful jokes, which he repeats so often that his staff have the punchlines printed on T-shirts. Unlike his more nuanced opponent, he couches straightforward convictions in simple terms. And he salts his message with earthy anecdotes and self-deprecating asides.

Mr McCain is at his best taking questions from unscreened voters, something most politicians seldom dare to do. He seems empathetic, albeit in a gruff, grandfatherly way; and crucially, unlike most politicians, he lets dissatisfied questioners ask follow-up questions until they run out of puff.

Mr McCain’s unusual openness helps to explain why journalists, even ones who don’t warm to Republicans, often make an exception for him. Whereas Mr Obama tosses only sporadic crumbs to the hordes of scribblers who follow him, Mr McCain spends hours at the back of the bus blabbing with them. Other politicians seek to minimise gaffes by never voluntarily saying an unscripted word. Mr McCain takes the opposite approach. By opening up, he lets reporters see how he thinks and what he knows. As a result, hacks tend to cut him some slack, for example when he confused Sunni terrorists with Shia ones. Any journalist who has spent time with him knows he knows the difference.

The downside of Mr McCain’s openness, of course, is that it exposes his weaknesses as well as his strengths. He knows a lot about geopolitics, but embarrassingly little about economics. He is intelligent, but not as intelligent as his opponent.

How does one measure intelligence? By glibness? College scores?

Bill Clinton is praised for his intelligence, for his ability to rattle off encyclopedic details of policies etc. But he couldn’t make a decision. Is that smart?

What does Obama know of economics? He’s promised to cut taxes for 95% of Americans (half of whom already pay nearly nothing) and promised to offer universal health care while cutting the premiums of those already with health insurance. How?

Obama didn’t know that raising capital gains taxes reduces revenues. This is smart?