>>>>>If it's Palin vs. Obama in 2012 just give her a cigarette and a blindfold. He is about a thousand times smarter than her.
>>>>
>>>>Since you are the arbiter of bad writing you know it should be "smarter than she".
>>>
>>>Smarter than her is correct - the alternative is smarter than she is!!!!!!!
>>
>>I don't agree. I do understand that in usage it is common, but "He is smarter than" is then followed by a noun clause in the comparison where the subject cannot be in objective case, no? The "is" is therefore implied.
>>
>>It is certainly the way I was taught in school ( and taught it in school ). Is there a reason to believe than her is correct ? Perhaps it is one of those things where there is some controversy among grammarians but if there is I'm unaware of it.
>
>She is smarter than is followed by the accusative - in this case her - the 'is' is never implied
>
>The only exception is when you follow the object by a verb - then you use the nominative - in this case she is - this is my preferred expression
>
>So to quote the words of the song (slightly modified to make the point)
>
>You can do anything better than I can
>
>You can do anything better than me

I found an article very similar to what I was taught in school (by Jack Lynch, Professor in the English department of the Newark campus of Rutgers University):

from: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/t.html

Than I versus Than Me.

Than, as used in comparatives, has traditionally been considered a conjunction; as such, if you're comparing subjects, the pronouns after than should take the "subjective case." In other words, "He's taller than I," not "He's taller than me"; "She's smarter than he," not "She's smarter than him." If, on the other hand, you're comparing direct or indirect objects, the pronouns should be objective: "I've never worked with a more difficult client than him."

There are some advantages to this traditional state of affairs. If you observe this distinction, you can be more precise in some comparisons. Consider these two sentences:

* He has more friends than I. (His total number of friends is higher than my total number of friends.)
* He has more friends than me. (I'm not his only friend; he has others.)

The problem, though, is that in all but the most formal contexts, "than I" sounds stuffy, even unidiomatic. Most people, in most contexts, treat than as a preposition, and put all following pronouns in the objective case, whether the things being compared are subjects or objects. "He's taller than me" sounds more natural to most native English speakers.

This isn't a recent development: people have been treating than as a preposition for centuries. Consider the following from big-name English and American writers:

* Matthew Prior, Better Answer: "For thou art a girl as much brighter than her,/ As he was a poet sublimer than me."
* Samuel Richardson's Clarissa, 1.10.58, "I am fitter for this world than you, you for the next than me."
* Lord Byron's letter of 2 November 1804, "Lord Delawarr is considerably younger than me."
* Robert Southey, Well of St. Keyne, 51: "She had been wiser than me,/ For she took a bottle to Church."
* William Faulkner's Reivers, 4.82: "Let Lucius get out . . . He's younger than me and stouter too for his size."

So what should you do? I don't have a good answer, other than the most general advice possible: try to size up your audience, and figure out whether they're likely to be happier with the traditional or the familiar usage. [Entry added 3 Jan. 2005.]