>>14
What do you mean "you don't?" A major part of who a person is is reflected in the people they choose to associate with. It's the same with a person's upbringing and what they believe. There's something to be said about character in trying to accept a person or idea despite the negative perceptions from other people (many other people?) but at the same time you can't reject that same stigma's influence bleeding over. That's belittling. It's ignoring basic concepts of human judgment and value systems; even you just demonstrated it: you associated an idea with idiocy (and then you went further).
>>15
Wouldn't that be worse, suggesting that the President doesn't even pay attention to whose influence is thrown in front of him until the very moment they walk on stage?