Well your negative opinion of their political beliefs does not automatically mean they are stupid.

LKJ, Bush Sr. may be smarter than FDR, but he's the only other contender (maybe Obama or Taft I guess).

Bush Sr. was the one who came to mind. I was going to question Taft being 20th century, but I see you're right.

Here is a study that estimates the IQ's of the Presidents. Jefferson is considered to be far and way the most intelligent.

http://www.ahealthymind.org/ans/libr...%20IQ%2006.pdf

That study rates Harding as the biggest knuckle-dragger as well. Not surprised Grant was down there near the bottom.

well it's always easier to just blame the current office holder, rather than place those actions in context of real world events in play.

I surmise the reason many go into economics is the complete separation from reality that can be created. It is the ultimate, assert your way to victory, with a scientific moniker attached.

Am I reading it wrong? It looks like John Quincy Adams scored even higher than Jefferson.

Chairman of the RNC on meet the press this morning to answer zero questions and simply repeat 'anything to defeat Obama’. Thanks for showing up dude.

His party's really got nuttin else do they?

lol

A wee bit myopic, are we? Romney is 'dreck' in any sort of way? Bright, supremely educated and ridiculously accomplished, this guy has been an enormous success in the private sector and is skillful enough as a politician to get elected as a Mormon in the most left leaning uber Catholic state in the nation.

Newt.... he only singlehandedly engineered a coup in the House , overturning the multidecade vice grip the dems of Tip O'neil/Jim Wright had over the house. He then pragmatically dealt with Clinton to shrink welfare and balance the budget. Newt may lead a questionable (certainly not by Clinton-esque standards) personal life, but as a conservative, yet pragmatic politician, he's quite formidable.



It is pretty clear, his policies and their results are fairly widely unliked:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epo...oval-1044.html

This mindless meme that the right views him as the Antichrist is pretty funny. While I am quite sure there are some that view him that way (just as there were some lefty wing nuts that viewed Bush in that fashion) and speaking only for myself, I loath his political philosophy, not the person.

His over reaching principle is the world is unjust and the function of government is to spread the wealth around. He isn't the Antichrist, merely what would be called a Euro-styled socialist. He'd make a wonderful king of Sweden. Didn't they vote him the Nobel Prize after like 5 minutes in office?

The guy reeks it out of every pore. And don't take my word for it... from Dreams from my Father pg. 55-56:


So the leader of the free world in the few months he worked in the capitalist private sector felt himself like a ****ing spy behind enemy lines!

I couldn't have made my case any more eloquently, myself.

That is why many on the right don't like his policies. It isn't because he is half white/half black. It is because his overreaching ambition is to turn America into a Euro-socialist utopia. I understand why the cheese eaters think that's great, but an awful lot in the middle and right aren't looking for overarching change to the society.

I looked at the first column "intellectual brilliance" where his Z score was the highest. But you are correct some of the other columns indicate John Q as the smartest. Not sure column is considered by the writers as best cause I am too lazy to reread the study.
So, in summary, Erik is correct and I am wrong. The casual readers of this subforum probably already concluded that to be true.

Reince Pribus.

"Hey honey I was thinking of some baby names what do you think of Jeffery, Jonathan or Jason? Yeah, your right Reince is the best one."

John Quincy Adams was a ****ing genius. End of story. That, and probably the finest statesman in the field of foreign affairs, ever.

JFK way too high in that survey, Nixon and Carter too low. Looks like that has JFK as the second smartest president ever. I find that really hard to believe.

compared to tim pawlenty and mitt romney? yes

he's not throwing red meat around everywhere, but he's bombastic and interesting.

Study was done by Ted Sorensen and Theodore White

They took the IQ test for him, too.

Phil, your statement most definitely says that obama is world class at presidential debates. Sorry dude.

yeah, I don't think you understood my post

Paul is polling well on electability contrary to my belief that he would under perform. Two polls released by Marist suggest Paul is more electable in both Iowa and New Hampshire (states that are up for grabs) then Gingrich. And more electable in Iowa then both romney and Gingrich.

Most of the country has no idea about Paul's sources of un-electability.

No, i said Obama is world class at being likeable.

BEING A GREAT DEBATOR IS A QUESTION OF LIKEABILITY WHILE DELIVERING THESE SOUNDBITES, SOMETHING OBAMA IS WORLD CLASS AT = OBAMA IS WORLD CLASS AT PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES.

You say:

1) Presidential debates aren't debates
2) PD's are about coming up with soundbites and being likable
3) Obama is world class at coming up with soundbites and being likable

Therefore you are saying Obama is world class at PDs. He hasn't been.

lol damn my pony.

your pony is less angry than mine tho

Why are we still talking about Obama's debate performances? They weren't great, but they were good enough.

As long as you're not Rick Perry out there, mediocre performances don't hurt that much.