'Smart' doesn't always go hand in hand with likable. I've known a lot of 'smart' people who were jerks. Cece is arrogant, a trait that often does go with 'smart'. Not always by any means (look at all the guys on this show) but also look at Sanjay.
Anyway, Cece HAS gotten far. How she acts obviously works for her. It may not end up working for her on this show, in the end, but even up to now it has. I doubt she's ever had anything crushing or thought provoking occur to her. She's never had to question how she acts or wonder if se should change.
She's obviously cunning. Eventually her behavior will come back and bite her in the arse though.

Cece probably does have some smarts under that skull of hers but she is also depending too much on her "looks" which will eventually fade and not work to her benefit....so that act in itself is not very smart. What Cece does will not always work and her accomplishment on a reality show will not reflect on her accomplishments outside in the real world. I think alot of Cece's and Nate's ability to stay in the game has mainly been because 1.) they've won alot and 2.) Nate has been so darn likable that others may not have wanted to punish him for his partner's actions.

I think it needs to be pointed out that Nate has won almost all of their challenges. The only challenege I remember Cece winning was the boat challenge and that was as much dumb luck finding the key as it was Megan being even more stupid in not knowing how to operate a walkie talkie. If you look back at the author interview and space tour, Cece really stunk it up because she didn't know what she was doing.

Saw in a TVGuide interview that it was SCOOTER that messedup with the walki -- not Megan.

Scooter was holding down the wrong button.

Can't find the link...

She may be smarter than she is letting on, but she's still not community college material.

Plus, I see a lot of people resisting her 'adorable pout.' It is gross.

Arkie butters my popcorn.