He’s sharp as a whip

This malaphor was heard on “Hardball” with Chris Matthews.  Political pundit Charles Cook was describing former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards, now elderly, whom he saw recently.  This is a congruent conflation of “smart as a whip” and “sharp as a tack”, both meaning to be very intelligent.  Both idioms contain the same number of words, and “sharp” and “smart” have similar sounds.  I can see where these metaphor can be easily mixed.  A big shout out to “my ol’ pal” Beatrice Zablocki for hearing this one and passing it on!