Reply Tue 26 Oct, 2004 05:36 am
Apparently, the gift of gab isn't the best possible indication of IQ:


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/898432.cms


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.
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Wilso
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Oct, 2004 05:54 am
This has got to be sham. I'd be surprised if the shrub even had a double digit IQ. It's not just the dribbling moron's inability to string together more than four words at a time, you just have to look into his eyes. There's nothing there.
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edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Oct, 2004 05:56 am
I gotta go with Wilso on this one. Apparently Bush has proven it doesn't take brains to be president, just handlers and a wire.
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JustWonders
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Oct, 2004 05:58 am
Actually I saw something similar to this on either factcheck.org or snopes.com (whichever) only they listed Bush's SAT as 1280 (based on changes since he took it, I think).

Wasn't important enough to me to save it, merely confirmed my suspicions.
0 Replies
 
ebrown p
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Oct, 2004 06:12 am
Let's just say that when Bush move from Washington DC back to Texas, the average IQ of both places will increase significantly.
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squinney
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Oct, 2004 06:26 am
Love it, ebrown_p!

Hardly a comparison worth even writing about. Surprised it was pusblished.
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dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Oct, 2004 06:33 am
Aargh - these constructed IQ things are drivel whether aimed at Bush, or Kerry, or anyone else.

Seems to be a whole industry of psychologists with no ethics, or other folk with no credentials, purporting to do this with various public figures...
0 Replies
 
FreeDuck
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Oct, 2004 06:42 am
IQ tests and SAT scores are not really related at all. SAT tests are supposed to be a measure of whether you've learned enough in high school to be successful in college. IQ tests measure things like spacial reasoning, or the ability to learn. I don't know how anyone could make a guess as to someone's IQ based on SAT scores.

Either way, it doesn't much matter. Whatever Bush had for an IQ before his drinking/drugs days is probably not the same IQ he has today...
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Foxfyre
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Oct, 2004 07:05 am
Then again, George Bush has quietly smiled as he has been 'misunderestimated' again and again. His academic record is superior to that of Gore or Kerry. I think history will be kind to George Bush despite the discordant caterwauling from the left.
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FreeDuck
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Oct, 2004 07:06 am
Foxfyre wrote:
His academic record is superior to that of Gore or Kerry.


Is that true?
0 Replies
 
Foxfyre
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Oct, 2004 07:12 am
I believe so Freeduck. I've seen it posted elsewhere. Too lazy to go hunt it up though.
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stanlen
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Oct, 2004 07:12 am
Kerry's IQ is fine............It is his lack of integrity that should concern us.
0 Replies
 
Foxfyre
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Oct, 2004 07:20 am
Yes Kerry has above-average intelligence as does George W. Bush. However, GWB's ineptness in various areas has been honest mistakes backed by obvious conviction that does not change. You can count on one hand deviations from his original convictions, and these have all been of necessity rather than politically motivated.

John Kerry has not shown to have any conviction about anything other than personal self-promotion.
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dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Oct, 2004 07:28 am
Hang on:

Bush: http://www.brainyencyclopedia.com/encyclopedia/g/ge/george_w__bush.html#Personal life and education

George W. Bush was born in New Haven, Connecticut to parents George and Barbara Bush, and grew up in Midland and Houston, Texas. He has four younger siblings: Jeb, Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy. A younger sister, Robin, died of leukemia in 1953 at the age of three.

Like his father, Bush was educated at Phillips Academy (Andover) (September 1961-June 1964) and Yale University (September 1964-May 1968). While at Yale he joined Delta Kappa Epsilon (where he was president from October 1965 until graduation), and the Skull and Bones society. He played baseball during his freshman year and rugby during his junior and senior years. He received a bachelor's degree in history in 1968, attaining a GPA of 2.35. Although he had an SAT score of 1206, 200 points below that of the average Yale freshman in 1970, he benefited from an admissions policy that gave preference to the children of alumni (his score was at roughly the 70th percentile nationwide).

Immediately after graduating from Yale, Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard. In 1970, he was certified to fly and became pilot of an F-102 Delta Dagger, an interceptor fighter jet. Bush received favorable reports from his superiors and was promoted to First Lieutenant. In 1972 he was granted a transfer to Alabama in order to work as political director in the Senate campaign of Winton M. Blount. During this same year Bush did not take a mandatory annual physical exam required for flight certification, as a result he lost his flight credentials. In September 1973 he received permission to end his six-year commitment six months early in order to attend Harvard. He transferred to inactive reserve status shortly before being honorably discharged on October 1, 1973. Throughout his political career, critics have questioned whether or not he fulfilled his service. See: George W. Bush military service controversy.

Bush entered Harvard Business School in 1973. He was awarded a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in 1975, making him the first U.S. president to hold an MBA degree.


Gore: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore#Academic_record

Academic record
On March 21, 2000, The Washington Post reported that in his second year at Harvard, Gore earned a D in one science course, a C-minus in introductory economics, and two C-pluses and a B-minus in other, unspecified courses and during his junior year, Gore earned a B, B-plus, and an A-minus in three government courses. (See United States academic grade.)

During the 2000 Presidential campaign, critics pointed out that this evidence seemed to contradict the popular perception that George W. Bush was the less intelligent of the two candidates. Gore failed five of the eight classes he took over three semesters at Vanderbilt Divinity School, and he never completed his degree at Vanderbilt Law School.

In rebuttal, Gore defenders noted that on IQ tests taken in 1961 and 1964, Gore scored 133 and 134 respectively, which placed him above the 95th percentile in the general population. Prior to his attending Harvard, Gore graduated from St. Albans ranked 25th in a class of 51, and scored 1355 on his SAT, well above average. Gore also graduated from Harvard cum laude with his senior thesis, "The Impact of Television on the Conduct of the Presidency, 1947-1969."

His sophomore year was his worst year, academically, and was not representative of his college career. Gore was working at the Tennessean, and also dealing with his recently born baby daughter, during his time at Vanderbilt Divinity school. Under such conditions, it was perhaps understandable, Gore's allies stated, that Gore would not prioritize his studies.

Gore left Vanderbilt Law School because he decided to run for Congress instead. It was therefore unfair, Gore supporters asserted, to accuse Gore of being an academic failure for not completing his law degree.

Therefore, Gore advocates claimed, it was reasonable to assume that Gore was intelligent and academically successful, although perhaps not exceptionally so.

I can't find Kerry! But going to Boston Law School seems to be considered bad?
0 Replies
 
Ticomaya
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Oct, 2004 07:54 am
According to this guy, Kerry's IQ is likely lower than Bush's.


And the NY Times even published a story about it.
0 Replies
 
Foxfyre
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Oct, 2004 07:59 am
Naw, the editors just overlooked it in the column Smile

Welcome to A2K Ticomaya. Don your bullet proof vest and wade right in. Smile
0 Replies
 
Ticomaya
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Oct, 2004 08:04 am
Foxfyre wrote:
Naw, the editors just overlooked it in the column


lol. Must be what happened.

Thanks for the welcome. I'm enjoying the broad range of views that are presented here. And everyone's very polite. Very Happy
0 Replies
 
Foxfyre
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Oct, 2004 08:06 am
Well, don't depend on the 'polite' part to be happy here as sooner or later somebody won't be. But you'll find company for just about any political, religious, social, philosophical, or scientific point of view that can be held. Smile
0 Replies
 
timberlandko
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Oct, 2004 08:10 am
Foxfyre wrote:
And everyone's very polite.


Nah, not everyone. But those who typically aren't generally don't stick around very long.
0 Replies
 
Wilso
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Oct, 2004 09:09 am
Foxfyre wrote:
Then again, George Bush has quietly smiled as he has been 'misunderestimated' again and again. His academic record is superior to that of Gore or Kerry. I think history will be kind to George Bush despite the discordant caterwauling from the left.


Your trust and naivety has soared completely beyond belief. Democrats don't see Kerry or any other politician as saviors. But the adulation with which you right wingers seem to hold that moronic brain dead freak sits somewhere between pathetic and disgusting. I think you lot are the one's who need IQ tests if you can't see this mass murdering fascist puppet of big business for the worthless piece of scum he really is.
0 Replies
 
 

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