Quite a few readers were annoyed by my post about Tomasky’s quiz. They took me as endorsing Tomasky’s argument behind the quiz. This is understandable as I didn’t say anything negative about it. But, just for the record, no I don’t agree with Tomasky. While I do think it’s bad that John Edwards didn’t know who James Q. Wilson is, I don’t think a presidential contender needs to know a fraction of the things on that quiz to be a good president. Indeed, the James Q. Wilson thing is very different than a lot of the knowledge necessary for that quiz. Wilson has been a central figure in many public policy arguments over the last 20 years. Most of the questions on that quiz amount to geek trivia. I like that sort of thing, which is why I liked the quiz. But I think it’s ludicrous to suggest that a great president, or even a culturally literate person, would automatically know what Fauvism is.