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QotD: Celebrity Historian Dubs Obama a Genius, Without Evidence
Beschloss: “This is a guy [Obama] whose IQ is off the charts.”
Imus: “Well, what is his IQ?”
Beschloss: “Pardon?”
Imus: “What is his IQ?”
Beschloss: “Uh, I would say it’s probably — he’s probably the smartest guy ever to become president.”
The author of the article where I found this quote then comments, “On what actual evidence did “historian” Beschloss base his assertion? The SAT scores Obama refused to release? The college transcripts he also kept private? Any existing IQ scores he withheld?”
It’s revealing that Beschloss was unprepared for the most straightforward response to his statement. Imus’s “Well, what is his IQ?” is not a gotcha question. Beschloss viewed his comment as so obviously correct that he was nonplussed by Imus asking for details. Why does Bescholss view Obama as a genius? Is it because he repeated Leftist shibboleths that Beschloss thinks are the epitome of intelligence. Had Beschloss ever seen Obama struggle off Teleprompter? Beschloss is obviously a lazy expert.
In the age of Trump, many people are no longer willing to listen to such people, even if they claim to be conservative cognoscenti.
Published in Group Writing
In any event, high IQ isn’t everything.
A high school friend was extremely high IQ, but later when he became a parent, he could not understand why a diaper needed a plastic outer layer.
There are a lot of factors that I would rate more important for a US President than high IQ.
Being intelligent doesn’t mean you get things right. It just means you’re capable of more convoluted ways of being wrong.
I still go back to the idea that a guy with such a wide streak of narcissism would have produced his transcripts quickly and smartly if they showed him scoring 90+ percentile, in, well, anything.
The fact that he refused to provide transcripts, and there are zero publications of his during his law review tenure, tells you exactly who he is.
Next question.
But if that happened to Obama, the result would be less than 100.
Which is what leads to expressions such as “An idea so ridiculous, only someone with a Ph.D could believe it.”
I seem to recall that the PSAT was used to identify National Merit semi-finalists, and you became a finalist if your SAT was high enough. Mine was high enough.
I test well. That is all that means.
Elitist all think they’re smarter than us common folk. They praise each other and look down at us.
It is fairly well known how the tests have changed, such that qualifications for Mensa or The Triple Nine Society take into consideration what year the tests were taken. As for standardized IQ tests, yes, they are out there. Jordan Peterson discusses them frequently.
That’s how I wound up at the University of Chicago. They wanted their scores skewed upwards. And they had a really hot admissions recruiter.
This needs to be framed and posted in every university classroom.
Over the Ph.Ds’ dead bodies.
https://dilbert.com/strip/2019-01-21
You say that as if that would somehow be an obstacle.
Hey! 😎
You should surround yourself with layers and layers of cheerleaders to stay safe.
Done!
Has anyone read the writing of President Jefferson who could also play the violin and design buildings? How does Obama (or any modern President for that matter) even begin to compare to Jefferson?
Herbert Hoover compares fairly well. Nixon financed his first congressional campaign by playing poker. If that is not on the same scale, it’s close enough for me. Actually, Trump fares pretty well, building buildings, becoming a reality TV star, etc.
Mike’s in there somewhere, but we’re pretty sure he’s safe.
Nope. Too much peril.
People love people who are smart!
I had a consultant working for our team who had a PhD. She was smart!
And…we let her go. Because she couldn’t deliver quality work. In fact, she couldn’t deliver much at all, except what we specifically didn’t ask for, and she dropped a lot of details, and couldn’t manage her own tasks, which is 101 in business.
I liked her a lot. But even simple things she couldn’t seem to manage to complete. It was weird. But she was smart!
Just ask her.
During the 2016 Presidential campaign I saw an article announcing that Hillary, if elected, would be the smartest president ever — by IQ. Oh, the narrative.
The Smartest Candidate Ever would have spent a weekend in Wisconsin.
It’s too bad that the Russkies stole all her maps.
Reminds me of what a fellow once said was his Irish mother’s favorite saying when it came to people like this. She was fond of saying “that he was educated beyond his intelligence.”
This calls for the Dilbert strip again.
https://dilbert.com/strip/2019-01-21
I believe it was President Garfield who could write Greek with his left hand while writing the same thing in Latin with his right hand.
That’s nothing. President Clinton could speak out of both sides of his mouth at the same time.
While his cigar was doing something else entirely!