Posted on 12/21/2010 3:07:28 AM PST by Scanian
Since Obama first stepped on the national stage, pundits have fallen all over each other in a race to declare that Obama is special type of genius. Tom Shales of the WaPo recently called Obama "the smartest kid in the class." Billionaire Julian Robertson claimed, "Obama, from all I read, thinks that on every occasion that he is the smartest person in the room. And I think he often probably is. ..."
Robertson may be half-right. Obama apparently does consider himself the smartest person in every room. According to Peter Baker of the NYT, "One prominent Democratic lawmaker told me Obama's problem is that he is not insecure -- he always believes he is the smartest person in any room and never feels the sense of panic. ... [Emphasis added.]"
How do Shales, Robertson, and even Obama know that the president is the smartest kid in the class or the smartest guy in the room? There is an interesting and little-discussed quandary (in logic it is called an aporia) in the assertion that person X, whoever that might be, is the smartest person in the room.
Before we examine this problem, let's set down some parameters. What do these people mean by "smartest"? Since the discussion is about politics, it is fairly safe to assume that "smartest" does not refer to some standard test for intelligence.
Thinking it through, Obama's admirers cannot be referring to his IQ. In terms of IQ, Obama is clearly not the smartest person in any room he enters. The fact of the matter is that Obama's IQ scores have not been made public. Guesses by enthusiasts of his IQ range from 140 to 170 [i]. Obama's detractors calculate a much lower IQ.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
If O is the smartest person in the room, what does that tell you about everybody else in the room?................
You are only as good as your supporting cast. Choose well!
Yep. He's the smartest Wee Wee in the room all right. No doubt in my mind at all.
I had to look up the meaning of the word aporia, and this is what I got
Logic, Philosophy . a difficulty encountered in establishing the theoretical truth of a proposition, created by the presence of evidence both for and against it.
I see the major problem with the article in that definition. I can find no evidence that obama is intelligent at all. The only evidence that obama is smart and intelligent has been made from whole cloth by the media and the left. Yes, he is savvy, and a very good speech reader. Anytime ANYTHING is put in front of him that takes any semblance of intelligence, or common sense, he is tripped up and looks like a complete buffoon. If not for machinations of a compliant media and the blind ideology of his followers the man would have been run out of politics long ago.
Kerry’s IQ was lower than Bush’s and they spun it by hiding the fact until the bitter end.
I agree with Rush. Baraq is the LEAST qualified person in ANY room. Kind of takes one to back t William F. Buckley’s comment about the Bronx (was it the Bronx?) telephone directory. Just run your finger down the list of names and you’ll find more qualified people.
I think it wwas Boston because he was making the point that he’d rather be governed by the first couple hundred people in the phone book than by the Harvard faculty.
Someone bashing IQ tests almost certainly can’t do very good on them.
I have never taken an IQ test. Why should I?
Peter Sellers starred in the movie in the early 1980s--Being There--that comically portrayed this very phenomenon.
They are very good at testing the upper bounds of your problem solving abilities. Don’t do any online ones though, it has to be a real timed one.
I would say Barry is about average intelligence. If you have ever watched one of his inteviews on TV its apparent that he is not a deep thinker. The guy cannot spit out a cogent paragraph without a teleprompter. Not a sign of brilliance. This is the guy who has pushed one failing policy after another for the past 2 years. He is committed since childhood to the Communist manifesto and he has an agenda of destroying the US capitalist systema and replacing it with Communism or statism. Thats it. Its very simple. We just need to stop him and very soon.
I still don’t see the “why”. Problems are fun. Crosswords, brain-teasers, etc... sure. But why take an IQ test?
The fact of the matter is that Obama’s IQ scores have not been made public. Guesses by enthusiasts of his IQ range from 140 to 170 [i]. Obama’s detractors calculate a much lower IQ.
Yo Obama, no problemo.
Release your SAT scores and the matching IQ scores are all easily available for all to see and posted online.
Bet it’s way way way lower than 140.
Bet he can’t even get into Mensa.
Not to mention the 9999 club.
The guy is a skilled actor NOT a genius.
I dismiss out of hand the idea that any leftist can be the smartest person in the room. If much of your brain is consumed by Marxist-redistributionist-get even with your own country thinking, then you clearly are not the smartest person in the room. There are positive mental attributes and negative mental attributes. Obama has quite a bit of the latter. Having too many negative mental attributes detracts severely from your overall knowledge quotient.
I was in that! Only, by the time I got started, they had changed it to Odyssey of the Mind. Great times!!!!
...pundits have fallen all over each other in a race to declare that Obama is special type of genius.And for pundits read partisan media shills. Thanks Scanian.
He's the dumbest person in the room.
Yeah, where ARE those Transcripts?... hmmm.
ARROGANCE does not = SKILLS, INTELLIGENCE.
Bambam’s the perfected outcome of the SELF-ESTEEM MOVEMENT in EDUCATION.
Let’s worry for the country...
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