[cynwoody]

Blogger Steve Sailer claims McCain's IQ was measured at 133 by the Navy after he got back from Hanoi. He also pegs Richard Nixon at 143 and John Kennedy at 119. He doesn't have a number for GWB, but he claims GWB's GPA at Yale was higher than John Kerry's. And of course we know GWB got into Harvard Business School, whereas Kerry only qualified for Boston College Law School.

Sailer doesn't offer a number for Obama, but the commenters discuss it. One comment, taking issue with another's estimate of 120, remarked:

Law school grades are incredibly correlated with IQ. It's nothing like grades in college classes. It would be incredibly difficult for someone with a 120 IQ to be Magna at HLS as Obama was.

Don't have the numbers for Obama's class, but Harvard has always been an elite law school. The most recent LSAT data reports a 25th/75th percentile split of 169-175. A 169 is 97.55 and a 175 is 99.67. Those are percentiles of people who take the LSAT; ie, college graduates planning on going to law school. Law school grades are strictly curved and based on hihgly g-loaded blindly graded "issue spotting" exams. I really cannot emphasize enough how different this is from simply getting As as a political science undergrad.

Obama was in the top quarter of his class at ruthlessly competitive Harvard Law School. It's impossible to argue he's not very bright. He's not just eloquent or charismatic.

[Jo Nuvark]

I saw the Steve Sailer blog as well.

I’m just sayin’... if he has an IQ
score, why not just report it?

[freespirited]

I am not sure the LSAT data tell you much. Bambi was probably a legacy admit. (His father was a Harvard alum).