The 10 Smartest (and the Dumbest) Presidents in America’s History

[kpete]

Last edited Mon Mar 2, 2015, 11:58 AM - Edit history (3)

Dunce Caps:

George W. Bush

No one can really be surprised at Bush 43’s presence on the Dumbest President roster, can they? After all, when entire books are compiled of “Bushisms”, his reputation precedes (and follows) him. He was a “C” student at Yale, where he no doubt was accepted due to his wealthy and distinguished political family, and no sane person would have predicted great things from him. Yet, as George W. said, “They misunderestimated me.” Despite dodging the Vietnam War by joining the Air Force Reserve, and failing at numerous businesses, he somehow parlayed ineptitude into becoming, first, a do-nothing governor of Texas (where the governor, by state law, literally does almost nothing), and then 43rdPresident of the United States. As President, he enjoyed vacations, taking 879 days of leisure time, more than two years of his tenure. He also disregarded the threat from Al Quaeda, screwed up the search for Osama bin Laden, blundered into the Iraqi War, checked out on Hurricane Katrina, presided over the beginning of the Great Recession, and generally managed to drive the country into deeper debt than ever before.

In the immortal words of George W.:

"I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office."

Washington, D.C., May 12, 2008 http://www.msnbc.com/the-ed-show/how-will-you-remember-george-w-bush

the others:
http://www.alternet.org/some-presidents-werent-firing-all-cylinders

[Jim Lane]

1. This is a very subjective ranking.

The linked Alternet article refers to this article in The Guardian, which analyzed State of the Union addresses by appropriate education level, using an objective measure of readability. It's not clear, however, to what extent the Alternet author actually used those rankings, as opposed to personal preference.

The Guardian analysis shows a clear overall trend of decline from Washington through Obama. In fact, taking the average readability level of each President's State of the Union addresses, the five lowest, reading from the bottom up, are George H.W. Bush, Obama, Clinton, Lyndon Johnson, and George W. Bush.

I don't think this tells us anything about each individual's intelligence. It tells us that, in a democracy, politicians tend to pitch their speeches to the people they're trying to reach, and the American public has gone steadily down in its ability and/or willingness to follow a speech that requires some knowledge and attention.