Presidential IQ By Chris Bowers

[Demeter]

OpEdNews

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_chris_bo_070530_presidential_iq.htm


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May 30, 2007

Presidential IQ

By Chris Bowers


A political scientist friend of mine sent me an article yesterday that attempts to estimate the IQ of 42 of the 43 Presidents of the United States. You can read the entire article here, including the convoluted methodology. I would rather just cut to the chase and post the amusing results, ranked from highest to lowest:

Estimated Presidential IQ Range, Age 18-26. Source: Dean Keith Simonton, UC Davis
J. Q. Adams: 165-175
Jefferson: 150-160
Kennedy: 148-160
Clinton: 147-159
Carter: 144-157
J. Adams: 145-155
Wilson: 144-155
Madison: 135-160
T. Roosevelt: 142-153
Garfield: 141-152
Arthur: 141-152
F. Roosevelt: 140-151
Lincoln: 140-150
Filmore: 137-149
Tyler: 137-148
Pierce: 136-147
Hayes: 136-146
W. Harrison: 136-146
Van Buren: 135-146
B. Harrison: 134-145
Eisenhower: 134-145
Cleveland: 133-144
Nixon: 133-143
Polk: 133-143
McKinley: 133-143
Bush Sr.: 133-143
Jackson: 130-145
Washington: 135-140
Hoover: 132-143
Regan: 132-142
Coolidge: 131-142
LBJ: 131-141
Ford: 130-140
Truman: 130-140
Taft: 130-140
A. Johnson: 129-140
Buchannan: 129-140
Taylor: 129-140
Harding: 128-140
Bush Jr.: 129-139
Monroe: 128-139
Grant: 125-130
The paper actually goes down to a decimal point, allowing for tiebreakers. Also, if you remove John Quincy Adams, the range is fairly narrow, only 27-28 points from Grant to Jefferson at each's median. The paper also claims to have an extremely accurate methodology, and that there is a correspondence between intelligence and performance in the Presidency. Somehow, back in 2000, that completely backfired on Gore, who was widely considered to be much smarter than Bush. However, Bush somehow seemed to still win personality points more than Gore. Perhaps, now that people are sick of Bush and consider him a failure, we need to start pushing "gravitas" as an important characteristic of a chief executive. Also, I wonder which current Democratic candidate is the "smartest."




Authors Website: MYDD.com

Authors Bio: Chris Bowers is a blogger for MyDD. His focus is polling and analysis of the political blogosphere. He tends towards data-driven analysis, such as his partisan index, a ranking of how far each state in the United States leans towards a political party. Bowers is also a member of the Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee, representing the 8th district of the Pennsylvania State Senate, and a resident of Philadelphia. Bowers is known among progressive bloggers as a particularly strong supporter of organized labor, and as a former labor organizer. Bowers has overseen netroots surveys that he says demonstrate that progressive Internet activists are driven more by partisanship and pragmatism than far-left ideology, and that show bloggers are influential on rank and file Democrats. He has also argued that bloggers may have the ability to reduce Hillary Clinton's popularity among Democrats. (from wikipedia)

[liberal N proud]

1. I would believe the numbers if bu$h wasn't listed so high

Bush Jr.: 129-139 too high
I realize that is still 3rd lowest of all presidents. I know that living with a child whose IQ is in the genius range 130+ bu$h does not demonstrate any traits of a genius

[deadmessengers]

2. again?!

This was posted yesterday, and was pretty awesomely debunked in that thread.

[whistle]

3. Bush Jr. does not have an IQ of 129-139 no way in hell!

[greyghost]

8. Absolutely NO FRIGGIN WAY! n/t

[Captain Hilts]

4. This is a bunch of hooey. Franklin Pierce's IQ. Really! nt

[yurbud]

5. I would put Bush at 110-115 tops, and at the low end, about the same as Koko, the signing gorilla

[greyghost]

7. You are being kind. n/t

[yurbud]

12. I read a letter he wrote to Yale explaining how to do an Enron scam

that takes a little bit of sophistication.

maybe it was ghost written though.

[yurbud]

6. W couldn't pass IDIOCRACY IQ test: If you have one bucket with 5 gallons in it, and one with 2 glns,

how many buckets do you have?

[whistle]

13. Dah....5 gallons of what? Moonshine?

[greyghost]

9. Jefferson was the smartest pres. hands down. n/t

[rpannier]

11. IQ and scholarship do not necessarily go hand-in-hand

John Adams was very smart, but if you read his diaries, he was also rather paranoid and many psychiatrists who have studied his work think he was bi-polar as well.
Jefferson was very smart, he was very well educated, but his scholarship does not necessarily mean he was the smartest.

[whistle]

14. IQ stands for intelligence quotient and as such it is simply ...

...the ratio of tested mental age to chronological age, usually expressed as a quotient multiplied by 100. So an IQ of 129-139 simply means that someone at a certain age when tested demonstrates by the test results they showed has the accumulated knowledge that would be 29% to 39% greater than the range of other adults tested at that age.

GW who is now 60 years old would show by his test results then he may be mentally above par with his age group and because of his experiences perhaps slightly better, but emotionally he shows he thinks and acts about 17!

Also, these comparisons are not made on the basis of actual IQ test results since I doubt that GW has been tested since he entered college or at the latest when he applied for his national guard reserve duty. Much of these IQ comparisons of past presidents are really performed on an arbitrary basis using sources such as letters, papers, articles, speeches, books, diaries, memoir's and other written records composed by previous presidents which reflect the knowledge and understanding that these men supposedly had at various periods in their lives and careers.

George W. Bush is not a man of letters. He is not well read, in fact it appears that he reads very little. I'm not aware of any writing he has done including books, articles, papers or even speeches which he himself composed, outlined and actually wrote out. So, I seriously doubt if any recent evidence exists by which Shrub* could be compared to anyone other than his extemporaneous comments and off the top of his head statements which he makes at press conferences, debates and other public forums. The evidence which we do witness of Dubya in these situations shows him to be dimwitted, unorganized, often uncertain about his comprehension, not in control or without a clear grasp of facts and almost always incoherent and inarticulate in his expression. I would not come right out and call George W. an idiot, but I don't believe many would disagree that GW does demonstrate that he has a marked lack of intellectual acuity.

George Walker Bush just isn't that smart and so I doubt if he is even in the same league as virtually all presidents who have come before him. I can only hope that America does not find itself saddled with another individual as president who is so lacking in both apparent peer intelligence as well as lacking in an ability, capacity, or skill to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of one's self, of others, and of groups, or what is referred to as emotional intelligence

[rpannier]

15. I don't disagree with you

But my remarks were in response to the posters comment that Thomas Jefferson was the smartest. I was pointing out to him that Jefferson, while a very intelligent person, may not have had the highest IQ as other things affect how much scholarship and the quality of that scholarship.


I was not addressing Bush

[whistle]

17. NP, but do you also agree that Bush has an extremely immature emotional

...intelligence? I think he stopped growing emotionally when he got involved with drugs and alcohol in his teens. Since it appears that the pressures of the presidency have really proven to be way beyond anything Shrub* can handle effectively except to withdraw, he seems to have reverted back to an adolescent-teenage emotional state. That is what makes him so dangerous. He appears to be completely impulsive and is likely to do anything without consideration of the consequences on him and others.

[greyghost]

19. When one compares Jeffersons...

accomplishments to the other presidents it's even clearer that he was "the man."

I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House - with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.
John F. Kennedy

[TomClash]

10. IQ stands for Intelligence Quotient for all the Presidents except Bush

, , , for him it's Idiot Quotient! :hi:

[Mass]

16. IQs by themselves reflect very little. Judging people by their IQ is another

weakness of this country.

[enki23]

18. oh wow, what a load of horseshit.

the idiot used the stanford-binet mental age/chronological age, which applicable to children in the best of circumstances, and applied it to adults where it doesn't apply at all. that's for starters. *actual* adult IQ tests are not really quotients. they're based on normal distribution around a mean. the main one, the WAIS, cannot reliably discriminate beyond about 130, or approximately two standard deviations above the mean. the mean is assigned a value of about 100, and a standard deviation is about 15. if any adult claims to possess an IQ much above 130, you can laugh at them outright. it's probably a step or two *worse* than claiming to be a card-carrying member of MENSA.

second, there are methods of estimating IQ, usually used for things like estimating premorbid IQ. to estimate the patient's IQ before a head injury, stroke, dementia, etc.those methods would in no way be useful for something like this. they wouldn't have nearly the requisite accuracy, whether they were precise or not.