Lawrence O'Donnell dismantles Ben Stein, who told Fox viewers that Nixon was smarter than BHO

[Scuba]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45755883/ns/msnbc_tv-the_last_word/#47471022



This is complete and utter destruction of Ben Stein and his helping Fox viewers that Barack Obama is not very smart. I did not know much of this backstory. Lawrence lays it all out.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Well, there's an obvious difference

between Nixon and Obama.

And I don't think I have to describe it.

[JNelson6563]

2. That was awesome!

Boy, he's great at takin' it to 'em.

Julie

[exboyfil]

3. Nixon was a paranoid nut

but he was a brilliant man (Duke Law School - LSAT of 163). He may be the smartest president since Calvin Coolidge. Jimmy Carter must also have been incredibly smart (top 10% of Naval Academy class, but I don't know what classes he took).

Has President Obama released his LSAT? That would be the best measure of intelligence. He did go to Harvard Law which indicates a high level of intelligence. He has done a good (not great) job as president. I do not think being the Law Review president means he had the highest IQ - he demonstrated the more important skills of handling the administration of a complex task.

That aside you have intelligence and you have wisdom. Also the ability to lead does not necessarily need a high intelligence, and, in general, you want a well rounded individual. Nixon was not well rounded - he would have been better as someone in a staff position with no authority (someone who could set aside). He could not handle executive power.

[Scuba]

4. I would argue that having a high IQ without wisdom does not equal "smart".

[zbdent]

6. Well, in 2004, we got an idea of what Repugs thought was "smart"

and the concept of "IQ" ...

[coalition_unwilling]

5. You're arguing that Nixon was "smarter" than FDR, HS Truman, JFK

and LBJ???

Nixon was 'brilliant' enough to employ scurrilous red-baiting in his first Senate campaign (against Helen Gahagan Douglas) and it only went downhill from there. Nixon is brilliant the way Satan in Paradise Lost or Iago in Othello are brilliant.

[ananda]

7. You can be brainsmart and heartstupid.

That's some of the GOP, but most of them these days are both brainstupid and heartstupid.

[coalition_unwilling]

8. Quaint and obsolete though it may be, I prefer the term 'evil' to

'heartstupid.'

It feels like fingernails on a chalkboard to say, "Dick Cheney is heartstupid."

[exboyfil]

9. Satan and Iago were both very smart as well

in some ways. I was trying to say IQ (what you would measure on the same aptitude test). Above a certain level that number really does not matter, and how you got that really high number may say more about your character and well roundedness than the number itself (hint to the National Merit scholarship people - a high score on one test is not a true measure of merit). I don't think FDR, Truman, LBJ, or even JFK could compete with Nixon on a LSAT test. I am not supporting what Ben Stein said. I was just looking at an objective measure. You look at the scholastics in school and the character of the individual (do you really see Kennedy ever opening a LSAT study book - Nixon on the other hand probably lived with such a book). At the end of the day all Nixon had was his smarts.

[whathehell]

10. Wisdom is bigger than "smart"

It's wider and more inclusive.

Who cares how FDR did or would do on the LSAT? -- Historians regard him as

the third greatest president in American history, following only Washington and Lincoln.

Experts say that intelligence only accounts for about 25 percent of success.