Bauer is a dolt

The comparison of SC's poor to "stray animals" by SC Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer is old news.  It may be what earned him only 12% of the vote in the gubenatorial primary here despite his huge name recognition advantage.  But in looking back at something else he said at the same meeting as the now-infamous remarks, I genuinely wonder how people this dumb gain so much power and influence:

Bauer went on, and he claimed, "I can show you a bar graph where free and reduced lunch has the worst test scores in the state of South Carolina," adding, "You show me the school that has the highest free and reduced lunch, and I'll show you the worst test scores, folks. It's there, period."

Let's leave aside for the moment the politics of this statement.  Bauer is right:  the painfully obvious fact is that poverty is correlated to poorer educational outcomes.  But he's an idiot in the way he links them:  the correlation between poverty and low test scores is not caused by allowing poor children to receive free lunch.  It's one thing to not have an IQ of 140, and quite another to be so completely clueless about the logical fallacy being committed here (cum hoc ergo propter hoc).

How anyone could graduate from college -- just a USC business bachelor's degree, but still -- and display this stunning a lack of critical thinking skills is amazing.  How that same person could go on to be the second most powerful person in state government is criminal.