printAlan Bock is a little late in concluding that Barack Obama is cunning rather than clever. Still, what Bock says bears repeating:
“Barack Obama is just not that smart. It should hardly come as a surprise. He undoubtedly has an IQ slightly higher than normal or he wouldn’t have made it through college and law school (though it might be interesting to see his transcripts, which to my knowledge he hasn’t released yet). But in retrospect what he seems to have displayed throughout his career is cunning rather than anything resembling real learning.”
On February 15, 2009, I wrote:
“In his fascinating book, America’s Half-Blood Prince: Barack Obama’s Story of Race and Inheritance, Steve Sailer comments on the intelligence of Obama versus that of his Ivy-League, physicist half-brother. Unless I misunderstood the IQ Ace, he believed these values would be comparable.
“I disagree. Granted, I assert this based on gut, not numbers. But since Steve, I believe, did not provide a citation for that particular snippet, I’m willing to bet that Obama is unable to master the level of abstraction required by a, presumably, top physicist such as his half-brother. I can do law; I can’t do physics, astrophysics–or design, calculate, and calibrate the stuff that goes into a cell phone. I don’t buy the theory of differing, but equal, intelligence. Such intelligence egalitarianism in just a PC way of elevating more common, attainable abilities. There are many more lawyers than physicists.”
I suspect that a lot of Obama’s cunning is a result of people deferring to him all along the way as he is a perfect example of a recepient of favoritism as he is a protected member of the left and the pc cultural elite. The guy is an obvious front for other forces.
He’s an affirmative action beneficiary.
I’m sure his professors simply gave him inflated grades, because of the fact that he had to “overcame adversity.”
Some observations:
(1) I made a similar comment that there was no evidence that Michelle was brilliant and the response was – “She made Princeton” – so one should assume that “Princeton equals smart” with no other evidence which is just as prejudicial as “Black equals dumb”.
(2) 1977 Nobel Laureate Phillip Anderson and many other geniuses are downright inarticulate – TELEPROMPTEROLOGY is not intelligence!
(3) However, intelligence does not equal “great politician” – ask
John Quincy Adams or Herbert Hoover.
(4) Sometimes, in the case of Wilson and Nixon, intelligence leads to arrogant paranoia.
(5) Democrats love to claim great intelligence
– perhaps to justify their generally stupid statist philosophy which only they can appreciate its brilliance:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Presidential_IQ_hoax
(6) Believe me; I have met physicists even dumber than myself! What galls me is when some of these idiotic snake-oil salesmen (I met one last week claiming how his “cough drop” can “cure cancer” – with no supporting data!) are getting $ 40 million of funding while I can’t get $ 100,000 to actually measure the phenomenon and publish results!
(7) Most Presidents have their intellectual Svengalis operating behind the scene – e.g.
Rove, Emanuel, etc. Kristol may act in that capacity for Sarah Palin!
Two words.
Wise Latina.
To imply as many have done that receiving a degree from an Ivy League college no longer impresses anyone that I am aware of. If anything, it has come to mean snobbishness and elitism. I actually trust a used-car salesman more that I do one of pedigreed personas. As far as Kristol possibly acting as Palin’s Svengalis, that makes sense…they’re both neo-cons thus pro-war & pro the military/industrial complex.
It’s true what Robert Taylor says about Ivy League universities.
Years ago I met a guy in Austin, Texas. He was a student at UT Austin. He said he was an American Indian from the Rio Grande Valley. He said he had been accepted to Harvard’s medical school.
But most interesting of all was the fact that he did not take exams! Or at least in the conventional fashion.
Thanks to “test anxiety” the professors allowed him to take tests orally. That is, it was a verbal Q&A session!
Now, does any reader want to go to a doctor who has suffered from “test anxiety,” and who might not really know a thing?
Taking exams orally is a highly subjective experience.
Are we to believe that the almighty pursuit of a “diverse” student body had nothing to do with this?
Did Ted Kennedy like to drink and drive?
IQ requires common sense to be effective. I have not seen either in the last two administrations. The future doesn’t look any better either.
“… There are many more lawyers than physicists.”
Just how much do physicists get paid?