Since the early days of his first presidential campaign, Democratic hit men and women have challenged George W. Bush on his alleged poor intellect.
The generalization was that sure, Bush might be a folksy, down-home, warm guy but come on – when it comes to brains, he got left behind.
In fact, a phony claim from the non-existent "Lovenstein Institute" which circulated on the Internet in 2001 and was eventually included in leftist Gary Trudeau's "Doonesbury" comic strip pegged the president's I.Q. at 91, the lowest of any modern-day president.
Never mind that the young George W. Bush mastered both Yale and fighter planes, and managed to succeed in a number of business ventures, which included the successful purchase and sale of Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers.
Now, Bush bashers should get ready to wince, moan and groan: The New York Times reports Bush is not only a brainy guy, but may actually be smarter than the other Yale-educated presidential candidate John Kerry.
The Times quoted Steve Sailer, a columnist for immigration reform Web magazine Vdare.com, who is also adept at estimating a person's I.Q., and has done so for many presidents in the past.
In the 2000 presidential race, Sailer estimated Democrat Al Gore's I.Q. to be 10 points higher than Bush's score, which figured to be around the mid-120s.
Reports the Times: "Mr. Bush's score on the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test at age 22 again suggests that his I.Q was the mid-120's, putting Mr. Bush in about the 95th percentile of the population, according to Mr. Sailer. Mr. Kerry's I.Q. was about 120, in the 91st percentile, according to Mr. Sailer's extrapolation of his score at age 22 on the Navy Officer Qualification Test."
Sailer's analysis was called credible by Linda Gottfredson, an I.Q. expert at the University of Delaware. She told the Times she wasn't surprised at the results or that so many people had assumed that Mr. Kerry was smarter.
"People will often be misled into thinking someone is brighter if he says something complicated they can't understand," she said.
We won't hold our breath waiting for the president's detractors to apologize.
Report: President Bush Has Lowest IQ of All Presidents of Past 50 Years
If late night TV comedy is an indicator, then there has never been as widespread a perception that a president is not intellectually qualified for the position he holds as there is with President GW Bush.
In a report published Monday, the Lovenstein Institute of Scranton, Pennsylvania, detailed its findings of a four-month study of the intelligence quotient of President George W. Bush.
Since 1973, the Lovenstein Institute has published its research to the education community on each new president, which includes the famous "IQ" report among others.
According to statements in the report, there have been twelve presidents over the past 50 years, from F. D. Roosevelt to G. W. Bush who were all rated based on scholarly achievements, writings that they alone produced without aid of staff, their ability to speak with clarity, and several other psychological factors which were then scored in the Swanson/Crain system of intelligence ranking.
The study determined the following IQs of each president as accurate to within five percentage points:
147 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D)
132 Harry Truman (D)
122 Dwight D. Eisenhower (R)
174 John F. Kennedy (D)
126 Lyndon B. Johnson (D)
155 Richard M. Nixon (R)
121 Gerald Ford (R)
175 James E. Carter (D)
105 Ronald Reagan (R)
098 George HW Bush (R)
182 William J. Clinton (D)
091 George W. Bush (R)
The six Republican presidents of the past 50 years had an average IQ of 115.5, with President Nixon having the highest IQ, at 155.
President G. W. Bush was rated the lowest of all the Republicans with an IQ of 91. The six Democrat presidents had IQs with an average of 156, with President Clinton having the highest IQ, at 182. President Lyndon B. Johnson was rated the lowest of all the Democrats with an IQ of 126.
No president other than Carter (D) has released his actual IQ, 176.
Among comments made concerning the specific testing of President G. W. Bush, his low ratings were due to his apparent difficulty to command the English language in public statements, his limited use of vocabulary (6,500 words for Bush versus an average of 11,000 words for other presidents), his lack of scholarly achievements other than a basic MBA, and an absence of any body of work which could be studied on an intellectual basis. The complete report documents the methods and procedures used to arrive at these ratings, including depth of sentence structure and voice stress confidence analysis.
"All the Presidents prior to George W. Bush had a least one book under their belt, and most had written several white papers during their education or early careers. Not so with President Bush," Dr. Lovenstein said. "He has no published works or writings, so in many ways that made it more difficult to arrive at an assessment. We had to rely more heavily on transcripts of his unscripted public speaking."
The Lovenstein Institute of Scranton, Pennsylvania, think-tank includes high-caliber historians, psychiatrists, sociologists, scientists in human behavior, and psychologists. Among their ranks are Dr. Werner R. Lovenstein, world-renowned sociologist, and Professor Patricia F. Dilliams, a world-respected psychiatrist.
This study was commissioned on February 13, 2001, and released on July 9, 2001, to subscribing member universities and organizations within the education community.
I won't retract it since I didn't write it, but I will admit it was originally satire. It doesn't change the fact that Bush is still dumb as a tree trunk.
Wow, you sound just like Kerry, talk lies and bullshit then when you get caught you deflect it. Now if you respond you will say something disparaging about Bush.
Maybe you should run for President (for the Dem's that is)
well using me as a comparison - I scored mid 120's as an 11 year old... not that I understood the significance of the test when I got it... I'm sure I'd do better now, but by how much who knows....
So that makes me above average intelligence but not enough to make Mensa.... based upon the IQ formulas - which does not measure wisdom, or smartness, simply the ability to solve a series of problems quickly....
Now - from all I have seen and heard from President Bush and those closest to him - I would not say there was a comparison - he is not only brighter, but smarter than I am. I wouldn't trust myself to hold his position...
If someone bombed my country I'd be "give me that damn red button - take this you assholes!"
He is smarter than that.
Kerry on the other hand - is not smart. He lies impulsively to agree with whichever side he needs support from. He is intelligent enough to pull it off so that many people buy it - but not smart enough to know that in the end - and likely on voting day - the voters will look to see what actions backed up the words.... and there Bush is head and shoulders above Kerry. Bush did what he said he'd do, Kerry has been the most liberal voting senator of all current Senators - and that's what people will vote on - not what he says.
Anyone who thinks Bush is a dummy is a lot dummer than they think Bush is.
If you want high IQ - claw back Clinton or Carter - both were impotent as leaders... so much for IQ then.
If someone bombed my country I'd be "give me that damn red button - take this you assholes!"
He is smarter than that.
But Torquie, he did push the button. Twice. And one time it was the wrong country. Maybe it wasn't the nuke button, but it was a "button" none the less.
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