On competitiveness.

This quote from Matthew Dowd, in talking about President Obama's competitive nature:

"Nobody likes to be in the room with someone who thinks they’re the smartest person in the room."

I do not think this is true at all.

If I can be allowed to paint broad strokes, the people who would not want to be in that room are those who are noncompetitive, or otherwise think lesser of themselves.  Regardless of one's actual intelligence level, the lower one's self-confidence is, the less likely one would want to be in such an intense room.

After all, lots of smart people flock to TED and Davos.  And just about everyone speaking at Davos, thinks that he or she is the smartest person in the room, right?