It’s no wonder the “low-information” voter is confused. The media presents prominent individuals as experts, analysts and pundits who often lack the experience, education, erudition, breadth of information and, sadly, active brain cells to fulfill these roles competently. Meanwhile, much of the public lacks the tools and ability to distinguish legitimate authorities whose opinions are at least worthy of being taken seriously from the fake variety, as with the opinionated dolts of “The View,” officially a news program, remember.

I was forced to think about this toxic phenomenon when I read that Bill Maher proclaimed on his HBO political punditry/ comedy show that a President Biden -Nikki Haley ticket would be the perfect solution to the current Democratic Party dilemma as it prepares to face Adolf Hitler…excuse me, Donald Trump…in the upcoming election. Maher said Haley would be a “good fit” because she is a “woman of color.” “I know it’s crazy to think that she could run with Biden, but that’s my dream, a unity ticket. And then he would, I think, definitely win,” Maher said.

Good thinking, Bill: you’re an idiot. Worse than that, you’re a hypocrite.

The news media publicizes Maher’s various statements and opinions along with his debates with the slumming pols and journalists he has on his show as if what Maher thinks is enlightening. The comic, who has frequently said that he seldom reads, is legitimately quotable on exactly one issue: the necessity of letting comedians and humorists make jokes on any topic and satirize any position without facing “cancellation.” Maher’s a stand-up comedian, this is his field, and I accept his expertise on that controversy

His “perfect ticket” brainstorm, however, stands as powerful evidence that Maher’s political analysis is no better than that of the average drunk at the end of the bar, and it is irresponsible for HBO to promote Maher as anything more. Of course, Maher himself, one of the most smugly obnoxious comic of my lifetime, is convinced that he’s brilliant. But iff that’s so, why would he make such an ignorant suggestion as a Biden-Haley ticket?

Let’s look at what he’s suggesting and why. Maher says such a ticket would win…because of the VP on the ticket. Bill “don’t know much about history.” There may have been one or two Vice-Presidential candidates in our history who materially helped a President get elected—maybe. If so, that was accomplished by flipping a single state where the running mate was “a favorite son,” like Texas in 1960. It is very unlikely that Haley could flip South Carolina where she served as governor: Trump got 55% of the vote in 2020, and the state has gone more conclusively Republican in each of the last three Presidential elections. Just because she campaigned on an “I hate Donald Trump” platform (after fawning over him during his entire term in office) doesn’t mean that the Trump-dubious Republicans who voted for her will migrate to the Biden camp en masse. Many of them, perhaps even most, will either stay home on election day or hold their noses and vote for Donald Trump.

No successful Presidential ticket has included a member of the opposing party as Veep since 1864, when Lincoln tapped anti-slavery Democrat Andrew Johnson as his running mate—and didn’t that work out well! Even the most blandly loyal Democrats realize that Biden will be fighting actuarial tables in his second term, meaning that whoever is Vice-President will have the best chance of becoming President since Harry Truman ran with FDR when the President was dying of heart disease. And Bill thinks Democrats will happily vote to make a conservative Republican President? Good thinking there, Sparky.

Then there is the practical problem that dumping Biden’s current DEI Vice-President is certain to infuriate a substantial number of blacks and women in the Democratic base even if she is a hopeless boob. Maher’s answer is that Haley is “of color,” but she still isn’t Black Like Kamala, and that’s what matters to Democratic compensatory discrimination fans.

Bill’s hypocrisy with this silly recommendation is especially telling. He claims to be a libertarian, but no true libertarian would countenance either Biden, Haley, or the increasingly totalitarian and anti-free speech Democratic Party. By any rational analysis, Trump is far closer to libertarian principles—not that he recognizes the value of principles—than Biden, Haley or the Democrats. Haley announced that she wants to require certification of social media users until she backed off: she’s as untrustworthy as Trump, just in different ways. Is Bill really in favor of governments using partisan prosecutors to hamstring its opposition? For all his obnoxious rhetoric, Trump has never given a speech as menacing as Biden’s Reichstag spectacle. I suppose Maher is in favor of open borders and we know he likes drugs; he’s probably also made plenty of use of the abortion option during the promiscuous sex-life he so frequently boasts about. But those conceits just mean he’s a progressive Democrat posing as a libertarian. And that’s what he is. People shouldn’t be influenced by “experts” who misrepresent their beliefs. Real experts made stupid by bias—like all the lawyers and professors who were certain that the 14th Amendment mandated banning Trump from the ballot—are bad enough.

The truth is that Bill Maher frequently doesn’t know what he’s talking about. If he’s making jokes, that’s well and good. If he’s engaging in punditry, however, that makes him an imposter.