If you’ve been watching the Democratic Convention this week you’ve probably gotten an earful from the pundits on how the Obamas need to sound more like regular Joes. The talking heads keep pounding away at how they need to dispel their “elitist” image. They both went to Harvard for god’s sake! How horrible!

The big problem, and lots of so-called experts have hammered away at this, is they are both too damn articulate. It makes people nervous.

Am I living in the Twilight Zone?

What happened to respecting and revering intelligent people?

Both my parents, who were immigrants and could barely speak English when they arrived in the U.S., always stressed how important it was to educate yourself and become well spoken.

While it may be unfashionable in the political sphere these days to look too smart, I’m here to tell you you better take off your dunce cap when you have an interview for a job.

When hiring managers go out for drinks you know what they talk about? The dummy they interviewed that week who couldn’t put two words together. I’m not talking about people with an accent, but born and raised Americans who don’t think they need to invest time in growing their brains by reading the newspaper, or the Web, to find out what’s happening in the world. It’s a global marketplace! Look that up if you have to.

Who do you think is going to want to hire you if you can’t add value to a company?

Even burger flippers looking to move up the food chain should be honing their skills, taking classes, reading and keeping their minds sharp.

Why? People may not mind having a dummy as a president but they don’t want to hire a dummy for their company. This isn’t government folks. Heads will roll in the business world if a dummy screws up…usually.

And in today’s economy, you want to look and sound as smart as possible if you want to land the gig.

I came across this great list of interview speech tips on Monster’s UK site.

Here’s are some of the highlights:

Non-words: Filler words such as “um,” “ah,” “you know”, “OK” or “like” tell the interviewer you’re not prepared. A better strategy is to think before you speak, taking pauses and breaths when you lose your train of thought. Everybody utters an occasional “um,” but don’t let it start every sentence.

Grammatical Errors: The interviewer may question your education when you use incorrect grammar or slang. Expressions such as “ain’t” “she don’t,” “me and my mate “so I goes to him” aren’t appropriate. Be sure you speak in complete sentences and that tenses agree. The interview is not the venue for regional expressions or informality.

Sloppy Speech: Slurring words together or dropping their endings impairs the clarity of your message. To avoid slurring and increase understanding, speak slowly during an interview. Make a list of commonly mispronounced words, and practice saying them into a tape recorder before the interview. Some common incorrect pronunciations include “init” for “isn’t it”,” “wiv” for “with” and “somethink” for “something.” And of course avoid swearing.

Yes, no swearing. Those English are so elitist.