I don't think Kamala is nearly as stupid as she seems.

I think she's got a mix of two things feeding into that perception. One is the obvious Dunning-Kruger malady she suffers from, where she thinks she's significantly smarter than she is. The other is related, in that she thinks that average Americans are significantly dumber than they are, just rubes who can't handle their own lives who need to be lead and molded by technocrats who can smooth out inequalities and direct a better world from above. It feels like this belief in a sort of elite trickle-down competence is even central to how she sees the world and what's needed to civilize it.

Seems to me she starts of with a sophomoric understanding of a lot of topics that she thinks is profound, and then she tries to over-simplify the issue so her half-wit audience can have a better chance at understanding her brilliance. I'm sure on some issues, she's smarter than the average bear, but when you combine her overinflated sense of her own understanding with her disdain for the plebes? It's like in her mind she's constantly talking to an elementary classroom despite presenting to an audience of adults. It comes across like a child who didn't study trying to wing a lecture to a grownup instead of the condescension she thinks smarter people might detect in her delivery.

I've got a relatively smart teenager (who like most teenagers assumes they know more than their parents and teachers), and those are Kamala vibes right there.