By: Eduardo Casanova - Rómulo Gallegos was a great intellectual, but a very bad politician. Overthrow was left a few months after being elected president more than one of his followers heard him say he was too straight, too inflexible to be political. In 1962 and 1963 I spent in body and soul to promote the candidacy of another great intellectual, Arturo Uslar Pietri. At his request, his son and I invested Arturito long time to negotiate with people AD-Opposition (or AD-ARS), URD and FDP support the possibility that an independent candidate to face Raul Leoni, which was what had a better chance of winning. It was not possible, and in my house was founded on the Independent Pro National Front (the Bell) and his first directive was led by a triumvirate of Antonio Requena, Pedro Segnini La Cruz and myself. I had to lead the youth Uslar, bore virtually all the weight of the campaign, and I asked efforts Gastón Carvallo, I got the support of Teodoro Petkoff and Freddy Munoz (one prisoner and one hidden), which allowed us to have the Communist Youth and penetrate with absolute efficiency the neighborhoods of Caracas and major cities, which was crucial to the surprising success as a candidate Arturo Uslar Pietri. It was my first and only political success in life. At the end of the day, despite my youth, and was then an intellectual. However, towards the end of the campaign (the campaign of the bell) and I had not realized that Arthur had been an excellent candidate but it would be a very bad President. Fortunately, the elections were won by Raúl Leoni, who had very little intellectual but it was a very good President. Possibly the best ever in Venezuela despite the abuses committed by military and police during his five years. After the bell this year I realized that I could never be political, and therefore, at the beginning of government Leoni, searched and managed to enter the Foreign Service and forgot about political activism. Some time later I got to know Rómulo Betancourt, who in his youth dreamed of being a writer and intellectual, and I heard him say that his success was because it was a full-time politician, who in the 1930's chose the path of politics and completely left behind those dreams juveniles to publish stories, poems, essays and even novels. Rafael Caldera did not leave completely aside the dream of being an intellectual, and therefore did not become a truly good politician. His "sorry" to Chavez and the resounding failure of his second term to prove it. And in general, great scholars are not good politicians (Ramón J. Velásquez is another case to show what I show). Pundits may be good but not good politicians. To say do not do too much damage to anyone, but to act as politicians can negatively affect the lives of many people with wrong decisions. Because finally, after all, when a politician governs affects many people with their decisions. If it is good policy, its decisions tend to be good. If it is bad policy, its decisions are often poor. In that, without doubt, Lenin was right: the intellectuals are bad politicians. Maybe because they think too. In contrast to the military, politicians who are terrible because they think, because thinking is not taught to obey and command and, usually, their decisions are usually bad. We'll talk soon.
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