Popular folklore though has it that Bush is the dumbest American president in history, and one urban legend placed his IQ at a sub-normal 91. A former political rival famously described him as being "born with a silver foot in his mouth."
Posted on 10/26/2004 6:40:13 AM PDT by stockpirate
Washington: President Bush is not a bozo; in fact, he may be a near-brainiac.
An American researcher has challenged popular belief and water cooler jokes about Bush's cerebral limitations by arguing - on the basis of available records - that he is not only smart but has a higher IQ than his rival John Kerry.
Based on various academic and military school records including his SAT score (1206), conservative columnist Steve Sailer has calculated that Bush's IQ is between 125 and 130.
That would put him in the "very superior intelligence" category and in the 95th percentile, which means only one out of 20 people would score higher.
In comparison, similar (but not same) records and tests suggest John Kerry's IQ is only around 120, says Sailer in a commentary on the conservative blog www.vdare.com.
Sailer looked at school records and tests both men took when there were enrolling into the US military at age 22 and extrapolated the results to arrive his conclusion
They provide no evidence that Kerry is smarter. If anything, Bush is smarter than Kerry," he concluded.
Popular folklore though has it that Bush is the dumbest American president in history, and one urban legend placed his IQ at a sub-normal 91. A former political rival famously described him as being "born with a silver foot in his mouth."
Sailer rubbishes such reports, pointing out that Bush has two Ivy League degrees (although he got a C average at Yale), while Kerry not only did not graduate with honors from Yale, but went on to do law at the rather more modest Boston College.
Sailor also suggests that Kerry, who was two years Bush's senior at Yale, got in when admission was less meritocratic.
Yale tightened up entrance requirements later, he says, revealing that the "sudden arrival of so many brainy, bookish, leftwing nobodies may be a major reason Bush became so alienated from Yale during his later years there."
Alma Mater to Kerry and Bush both, Yale University, incidentally, is named after Elihu Yale, an English merchant who was the East India Company's Governor of Madras in 1687 when he was tapped for funds to start the university.
Sailer describes the difference between Bush and Kerry in two words: Bush is competitive and Kerry is ambitious.
Bush, by nature and by upbringing in the hyper-rivalrous Bush-Walker clan, is driven by a need to win. For Kerry, in contrast, being President is the end, the goal of the last 45 years of his life.
Sailer however acknowledges that Kerry would probably beat Bush on a current events quiz, "since Bush has never seemed particularly interested in learning about the duties of his job (as opposed to winning and keeping his job, at which he shows great cunning)."
In contrast, "Kerry has been fascinated by the Presidency since his adolescence."
Republican blogs rejoiced at the word of the US President's high IQ, although some conservative quarters are happy to let Kerry bask in the glory of being an intellectual.
"The only election Bush ever lost was a 1978 Congressional race in the Texas Panhandle, where his opponent made fun of Bush for having degrees from Yale and Harvard," writes Sailer.
"Bush resolved never to get out-dumbed again."
PING
No surprise here. I believe he also scored higher than albore.
Note to Press: If you want to see Kerry blowup, ask him about his IQ being lower than GWs. He is so arrogant the question alone will cause him to lose his composure...
"Sailer however acknowledges that Kerry would probably beat Bush on a current events quiz . . ."
Gee, I don't know about that. At a speech last night Kerry was still hitting Bush about the so-called missing ammo, even after NBC debunked the story!
bttt for later ......
I think W's biggest advantage is that he doesn't think he smarter than everyone else.
Kerry on the other hand...
>>>I think W's biggest advantage is that he doesn't think he smarter than everyone else. <<<
True. And W also realizes that being smarter than somebody else in no way makes you a better person.
>>>Kerry on the other hand...<<<
Exactly.
and in the 1st debate good ol pop quiz kerry wasn't sure of the 1st w.t.c. bombing saying something like 1992 or somewhere about there.
BTTT
Republican blogs rejoiced at the word of the US President's high IQ, although some conservative quarters are happy to let Kerry bask in the glory of being an intellectual.
*****
Republican blogs rejoiced at finally seeing some one refute in print the canard that GWB is not intelligent.
Anyone who has earned an MBA from Harvard knows that only merit will get one no matter who one's father is.
Anyone who has learned to fly a jet fighter aircraft knows the same thing.
It seems to me that the people who have shown their lack of reasoning ability are those who professed to believe that Bush was not intelligent.
Steve Sailor was on FOX this morning talking about it.
F-102, Vietnam & George W. Bush
"...Even in peacetime conditions, F-102 pilots risked their lives on every flight. Only highly-qualified pilot candidates were accepted for Delta Dagger training because it was such a challenging aircraft to fly and left little room for mistakes. According to the Air Force Safety Center , the lifetime Class A accident rate for the F-102 was 13.69 mishaps per 100,000 flight hours, much higher than the average for today's combat aircraft. For example, the F-16 has an accident rate of 4.14, the S-3 is at 2.6, the F-15 at 2.47, the F-18 at 4.9, and the F-117 at 4.07. Even the AV-8B, regarded as the most dangerous aircraft in service today, has an accident rate of only 11.05 mishaps per 100,000 flight hours. The F-102 claimed the lives of many pilots, including a number stationed at Ellington during Bush's tenure. Of the 875 F-102A production models that entered service, 259 were lost in accidents that killed 70 Air Force and ANG pilots."
Source: http://www.lincolnheritage.org/About_Us/Resources/Weekly_Magazine/New_Articles/F-102__Vietnam___George_W__Bus/f-102__vietnam___george_w__bus.html
Recently, I visited the South Dakota Air & Space Museum at Ellsworth AFB, Rapid City. A F-106 Delta Dart Simulator is there and open to the public so that you can sit in the cockpit. F-106 was originally designated F-102B. As a pilot I can appreciate the complexity of the aircraft that G.W. flew.
A somewhat different skill level than driving a boat!
Popular folklore though has it that Bush is the dumbest American president in history, and one urban legend placed his IQ at a sub-normal 91. A former political rival famously described him as being "born with a silver foot in his mouth."
And here is how low the Democrats have sunk:
In one swing, they manage a Three-fer: Offending Bush,
Bush voters and the mentally handicapped.Click on the pic to see the FR thread this came from.
This is not good. We don't like smart presidents anymore, not after Clinton.
If memory serves, this was Ann Richards speaking at the 1988 Democrat convention in regards to Bush 41, not GW.
Liberals are simple and predictable, actually: they are chronically bored and so value verbal wittiness and quick subject changes. Anybody who is witty and snitty is smart.
So they write shows like "West Wing", where the smart people pace about enganging in witty repartee. We know they are right in their socialism because they out-talk the monosyballic Republicans.
The apex of the liberal idea of intelligence is the dinner party populated by Manhatten gays: quick, saucy wit, wordplay, self-conscious naughtiness. All of liberal popular culture is striving for the gay dinner party.
And they love candidates like Bill Clinton, who according to their own pundits had no discernible core beliefs but can talk for HOURS in complete paragraphs about ANY SUBJECT (think Fidel Castro). Let Clinton get going and the groupies edge up in their seats, their eyes get a far-away look, and they lose track of time. Clinton is a god to them. (Side note: can ANYBODY tell you anything Clinton ever said in a speech? ANYTHING?)
And so they think Kerry is smart, because he talks. (He actually only talks well in short, set pieces. On the stump, where he has to expand on his sound bites, he is by all acounts intolerable -- and in an interview he telegraphs his discomfort to all.)
So the left wing defines intelligence as one dimension from among many possible dimensions, and in the end they are just another languid Long Island scene from a Fitzgerald novel: retire from dinner to a witty and yet weary crocquet match on the lawn.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Texas, denim people who couldn't care less how to pronounce "strategy" are making and executing it.
ping
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