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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsThe smartest presidents
I was wondering about this on my way home from work today, and musing that Obama surely is one of the smartest men to ever have been president.
I found this list online, but it was made in 2006 and thus doesn't include Dim Son or Obama: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-15-smartest-us-presidents-of-all-time-2015-3?op=1/#john-adams-15
Oh man, * would surely be on a list of the lowest 15.
Any surprises on that list? Who would you put on a list of the lowest 15, besides GWB?
First Speaker
(4,858 posts)...Adams had the highest IQ, and he was a disastrous president. So, in my opinion, was Wilson. Hoover--not on the list--was a very bright man. Obviously, Dubya would finish dead last on this list...and he, of course, was a catastrophe. Ford and Reagan would be pretty low, and they'd both be low-middle on my rankings of Presidents. Harding would probably be second-dumbest--and he was a noted failure. The toughest case would be Grant. Many of his contemporaries thought he was an idiot, and that his Presidency was a total failure--but idiots don't lead great armies to victory in war, and his stock as President has been rising steadily.
rurallib
(62,415 posts)And Hoover for that matter. Hoover was pretty freaking smart.
Smart obviously doesn't = success, although before he became president Hoover organized massive relief for Europe.
The not so smart - Bush, Bush, Reagan, Jackson, Andrew Johnson, van Buren. Just kind of spit-ballin' here.
jmowreader
(50,557 posts)This was made in 2006.
Hayduke Bomgarte
(1,965 posts)I've been long convinced that his entire Presidency was scripted by his owners and handlers. All they needed was a grade B actor, and Raygun fit the bill perfectly.
To be dimwitted enough to let oneself be manipulated in such fashion has to be qualification for a place in the to 15, if not the top 5.
Wolf Frankula
(3,600 posts)the Pythagorean Theorem.
And Dick Cheney, who was president without being elected President.
Wolf