Posner's Critique of PI

   Posner's critique of Public Intellectuals, although extreme, does provide some valuable agruments worthy of acknowledgement.  Do I agree that ALL Public Intellectual's are careless with facts and rash in their predictions as Posner states? No. But his critique that PI's predictions lack accountability and aren't held to tight scrutiny is justified, especially in the case of Public Intellectuals of the past.   This makes you wonder if some PI's are providing predictions based of valid data and trends or just merely making extreme predictions to get a reaction from people and draw attention to their work.  This is somewhat different today though. With all the new outlets available for both the intellectuals and the Public Sphere, debates and comments can pop up on the internet even before the public intellectual is done speaking.  Additionally, the public now has access to nearly anything and everything that has ever been said or done in the public arena so those individuals making predictions or providing controversial opinions need to worry now more than ever about losing credibility.
    Posner's arguement about PI's lack of influence is also an interesting one.  I don't agree with the notion that they don't have influence but I would argue that their influence is restricted to those in the public sphere characteristics and beliefs similar to that intellectual.  This is great for the elitists and informed older white male segmentation (that both Jacobs and Posner would agree make up the public intellectual masses)  but what about the rest of the Public Sphere?  Individuals or groups that don't connect with a public intellectual are much more likely to make that decision based off a candidate's personality rather than their policies.  I've heard of people that had no knowledge of a candidates interests or policies but voted for them because they thought that they were better looking than the other candidate.  This failure to influence and reach out to all individuals in the public sphere is not due to the failure of public intellectuals but rather the lack of diversity in the PI field.