Bill Press gets taken in by Lovenstein IQ hoax

billpresssshow.com ^ | July 18, 2006 | Bill Press

[lowbridge]

From the page of Bill Press' podcast website:

July 18, 2006 Parting Shot

Nate wrote this at 8:56 am:

In six years in the White House, George W. Bush has screwed up so many things, you have to wonder: Is he unlucky or incompetent?

Well, now we know.

Thanks to the Lovenstein Institute of Scranton, Pennsylvania, which just released a study of the IQ of twelve American presidents, over the last 50 years. And the results are – well, not surprising.

The average IQ of six Republican presidents – Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush 41, and Bush 43 – was 115.5. President Nixon topped the list, at 155.

The average IQ of six Democratic presidents – Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, and Clinton – was 156. With President Clinton leading the class at 182.

The smartest president of the last 50 years?

You guessed it: Bill Clinton, with his 182 IQ.

The least intelligent president of the last 50 years?

You guessed it again: George W. Bush, with his rock bottom IQ of 91: seven points lower than his Daddy.

So now we know. Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Social Security, Medicare, Stem Cells, FEMA, the deficit, immigration…

The reason George Bush has screwed up in so many areas the last six years.

He’s not just incompetent. He’s just plain dumb – the dumbest president in the last 50 years. And, probably, the dumbest president ever!

That’s my parting shot for today. I’m Bill Press.

*****************************

(Yes, his article also accepts readers comments)

Also archived on google

Be sure to get screen caps before he censors it! :-)

[Fiji Hill]

The Lovenstein Institute is supposedly named for the "world renowned" Dr. Werner R. Lovenstein. However, I just did a quickie search of EBSCO Academic Elite, an online database of scholarly literature, and the only Lovenstein that I could come up with was a musician. If the good doctor is so world renowned, one would think that he would generate more hits.

[Edgerunner]

Thanx, and is it sweet (me no like bill press)

[MikeA]

What a dope. Obviously it is the always abusive and ad hominem Bill Press who isn't so bright getting caught up in a long debunked Internet hoax.

Additionally, the New York Times had a piece just prior to the 2004 elections showing an expert on IQ testing believes based on Bush's SAT scores, Al Gore's SAT scores and John Kerry's officer competency exams all of which can be extrapolated into determining IQ according to the expert, and he found using this method that Bush's IQ is around 125, Kerry's 120 and Al Gore's about 115. Read it and weep: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/24/politics/campaign/24points.html?ex=1256356800&en=50a1bcbb16e7cf21&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland

[Brad from Tennessee]

This is reminiscent of Bill Moyers' column on former Secretary of the Interior James Watt. Moyers, relying on third generation satire posted on a left-wing blog as fact, quoted Watt as saying: "When the last tree has been felled, Christ will return."

Moyers was forced into making a public apology to Watt for this libel.

[4rcane]

i seem to recall pre-2004 election, info were published that Bush had high 120s IQ and Kerry had low 120s IQ

[MikeA]

You are right. Here it is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/24/politics/campaign/24points.html?ex=1256356800&en=50a1bcbb16e7cf21&ei=5090&partner=rssuserlans

[Echo Talon]

More like 80.

"Stupid is as stupid does."

Well... I have taken a few different IQ tests..
I get 130-145 so...

[evets]

My IQ is infinity.

[henbane]

And Bill Press's IQ is what??

Separated at birth?

[DBrow]

BDS? What's that?

[bruinbirdman]

"How far did baby bill make it through school?"

I understand that not only did the 482 IQ president get impeached, he was also disbarred.

When we refer to him as the Impeached President we should make it the Impeached and Disbarred President.

yitbps

[HawaiianGecko]

LOL, one would have to have a low IQ to believe that GWB has one of 91.  It's just not rational thinking at all.

 

[MikeA]

And even if this were true, I still value good judgment and good character in a leader over theoretical intelligence and book smarts any day. Clinton had no sense of judgment, and a deeply flawed character. Whatever Bush's failings, he is possessed I believe of impeccable judgment and good character. Those two things to me are FAR more valuable in a leadership than someone being able to determine which shape doesn't fit in with the other 4 or at what point 2 trains traveling from opposing directions at two different speeds will meet up.

[Mordacious]

It shows that Clinton's reported 182 IQ is at the 99.999985 percentile, or 5.13 sigma for the statisticians. Methinks BC's intellect is just a tad overstated.

It could be accurate. Afterall, Einstein's IQ was 165 and we all know that Slick Willie is smarter than Einstein ;)

[Common Tator]

but all of them except Ford were gifted.

Ford was a gifted athlete. He was on the Michigan Football team that won the national championship. He was voted Michigan's most valuable player. The media played him as awkward and uncoordinated. How many most valuable players on the Michigan Football team do you think were uncoordinated?

Ford went to Yale Law School where he graduated 3rd in his class and won a phi beta kappa key.

There is no way a he could be gifted ... could he?

[Personal Responsibility]

All the things they got away with can be attributed to the evil genius of Karl Rove. He's so smart! His IQ is probably a hundred bazillion billion!

[Billthedrill]

Cool it, everybody! I just sent Press an email from Nigeria and I'm gonna get rich!

[griswold3]

Bush Derangement Syndrome. It clouds any critical thought a Lib may have.

[DBrow]

Snopes is not wrong that often, but will frequently take the Democrat side. They debunked ALL of the Clinton Body Count and were quite kind to John Kerry. I can't think of exact examples. There are many Democrat urban legends that are not on Snopes at all, poke about and you'll see.. I think Jimmy Carter and the Attack Rabbit is not there.

I look at Snopes like I look at Wikepedia and the NYTimes, and approach each article thinking, what if this were true...Then seek independent corroboration.

[steve-b]

Savor the irony of someone insulting another's intelligence while being taken in by a hoax.

Remember this classic example?

A renowned psychiatrist from UC Irvine was duped into squandering at least $1.3 million of his family's fortune on a Nigeria Internet scam, according to a lawsuit recently filed by his son.

...Louis Gottschalk, a neuroscientist, is the founding chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at UCI College of Medicine. He gained national prominence by announcing in 1987 that President Reagan had been suffering from diminished mental ability as early as 1980.

He came to this conclusion by using the Gottschalk-Gleser scales, an internationally used diagnostic tool he helped develop for charting impairments in brain function, to measure speech patterns in Reagan's 1980 and 1984 presidential debates....