Im sure most of us recall the debates about President Obama not releasing his grades, his selection to the presidency of the law review, from Harvard Law School Magna Cum Laude,...
Always an interesting, if not enlightening, debate.
Well, many will get a kick out of this WSJ piece called Is Obama Smart?
1. "I think I'm a better speech writer than my speech writers," he reportedly told an aide in 2008. "I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I'll tell you right now that I'm . . . a better political director than my political director."
2. On another occasionat the 2004 Democratic conventionMr. Obama explained to a Chicago Tribune reporter that "I'm LeBron, baby. I can play at this level. I got game."
3. How many times have we heard it said that Mr. Obama is the smartest president ever? Even when he's criticized, his failures are usually chalked up to his supposed brilliance. Liberals say he's too cerebral for the Beltway rough-and-tumble; conservatives often seem to think his blunders, foreign and domestic, are all part of a cunning scheme to turn the U.S. into a combination of Finland, Cuba and Saudi Arabia.
4. I don't buy it. I just think the president isn't very bright.
5. Socrates taught that wisdom begins in the recognition of how little we know. Mr. Obama is perpetually intent on telling us how much he knows. Aristotle wrote that the type of intelligence most needed in politics is prudence, which in turn requires experience. Mr. Obama came to office with no experience. Plutarch warned that flattery "makes itself an obstacle and pestilence to great houses and great affairs." Today's White House, more so than any in memory, is stuffed with flatterers.
6. Much is made of the president's rhetorical gifts. This is the sort of thing that can be credited only by people who think that a command of English syntax is a mark of great intellectual distinction. Can anyone recall a memorable phrase from one of Mr. Obama's big speeches that didn't amount to cliché?
7. Then there is Mr. Obama as political tactician. He makes predictions that prove false. He makes promises he cannot honor. He raises expectations he cannot meet. He reneges on commitments made in private. He surrenders positions staked in public. He is absent from issues in which he has a duty to be involved.
8. Mr. Obama, by contrast, appears to consider himself immune from error. Perhaps this explains why he has now doubled down on Heckuva Job Geithner. It also explains his insulting and politically inept habit of suggestingwhether the issue is health care, or Arab-Israeli peace, or change we can believe in at some point in God's good timethat the fault always lies in the failure of his audiences to listen attentively. It doesn't. In politics, a failure of communication is always the fault of the communicator.
9. Stupid is as stupid does, said the great philosopher Forrest Gump. The presidency of Barack Obama is a case study in stupid does.
Stephens: Is Obama Smart? - WSJ.com
Remember this?
November 11, 2008
Historian Michael Beschloss was interviewed Monday on Don Imus radio show and he made the claim that President-elect Obamas IQ is off the charts and that he is the smartest president we have ever had. Here is the meat of the conversation:
Quote:
Historian Michael Beschloss: Yeah. Even aside from the fact of electing the first African American President and whatever ones partisan views this is a guy whose IQ is off the charts I mean you cannot say that he is anything but a very serious and capable leader and you know You and I have talked about this for years
Imus: Well. What is his IQ?
Historian Michael Beschloss: our system doesnt allow those people to become President, those people meaning people THAT smart and THAT capable
Imus: What is his IQ?
Historian Michael Beschloss: Pardon?
Imus: What is his IQ?
Historian Michael Beschloss: Uh. I would say its probably - hes probably the smartest guy ever to become President.
Schadenfreude: my guilty pleasure.
So...does this analysis bleed over onto his erstwhile supporters???
Always an interesting, if not enlightening, debate.
Well, many will get a kick out of this WSJ piece called Is Obama Smart?
1. "I think I'm a better speech writer than my speech writers," he reportedly told an aide in 2008. "I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I'll tell you right now that I'm . . . a better political director than my political director."
2. On another occasionat the 2004 Democratic conventionMr. Obama explained to a Chicago Tribune reporter that "I'm LeBron, baby. I can play at this level. I got game."
3. How many times have we heard it said that Mr. Obama is the smartest president ever? Even when he's criticized, his failures are usually chalked up to his supposed brilliance. Liberals say he's too cerebral for the Beltway rough-and-tumble; conservatives often seem to think his blunders, foreign and domestic, are all part of a cunning scheme to turn the U.S. into a combination of Finland, Cuba and Saudi Arabia.
4. I don't buy it. I just think the president isn't very bright.
5. Socrates taught that wisdom begins in the recognition of how little we know. Mr. Obama is perpetually intent on telling us how much he knows. Aristotle wrote that the type of intelligence most needed in politics is prudence, which in turn requires experience. Mr. Obama came to office with no experience. Plutarch warned that flattery "makes itself an obstacle and pestilence to great houses and great affairs." Today's White House, more so than any in memory, is stuffed with flatterers.
6. Much is made of the president's rhetorical gifts. This is the sort of thing that can be credited only by people who think that a command of English syntax is a mark of great intellectual distinction. Can anyone recall a memorable phrase from one of Mr. Obama's big speeches that didn't amount to cliché?
7. Then there is Mr. Obama as political tactician. He makes predictions that prove false. He makes promises he cannot honor. He raises expectations he cannot meet. He reneges on commitments made in private. He surrenders positions staked in public. He is absent from issues in which he has a duty to be involved.
8. Mr. Obama, by contrast, appears to consider himself immune from error. Perhaps this explains why he has now doubled down on Heckuva Job Geithner. It also explains his insulting and politically inept habit of suggestingwhether the issue is health care, or Arab-Israeli peace, or change we can believe in at some point in God's good timethat the fault always lies in the failure of his audiences to listen attentively. It doesn't. In politics, a failure of communication is always the fault of the communicator.
9. Stupid is as stupid does, said the great philosopher Forrest Gump. The presidency of Barack Obama is a case study in stupid does.
Stephens: Is Obama Smart? - WSJ.com
Remember this?
November 11, 2008
Historian Michael Beschloss was interviewed Monday on Don Imus radio show and he made the claim that President-elect Obamas IQ is off the charts and that he is the smartest president we have ever had. Here is the meat of the conversation:
Quote:
Historian Michael Beschloss: Yeah. Even aside from the fact of electing the first African American President and whatever ones partisan views this is a guy whose IQ is off the charts I mean you cannot say that he is anything but a very serious and capable leader and you know You and I have talked about this for years
Imus: Well. What is his IQ?
Historian Michael Beschloss: our system doesnt allow those people to become President, those people meaning people THAT smart and THAT capable
Imus: What is his IQ?
Historian Michael Beschloss: Pardon?
Imus: What is his IQ?
Historian Michael Beschloss: Uh. I would say its probably - hes probably the smartest guy ever to become President.
Schadenfreude: my guilty pleasure.
So...does this analysis bleed over onto his erstwhile supporters???
