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The most intelligent president of all-time is most likely Thomas Jefferson. The most intelligent political figure of all time? Probably Alexander Hamilton.
But just because someone is smart, doesn't make them a good person. Nor does it mean they will ever do great things.
Alexander Hamilton was a scumbag and was killed in a duel.
As for presidents. I don't know enough about all of the presidents to have an opinion. But I do think Woodrow Wilson was very intelligent. I recognize that Bill Clinton is highly intelligent.
Even though I hate him, I think Abraham Lincoln was very intelligent. Nixon was intelligent.
But really, looking at all these "intelligent" men, why should I like them?
Bill Clinton has no morals. Nixon was a lying manipulative scumbag. Woodrow Wilson handed the country to the banks, and manipulated us into a war which he declared repeatedly he would keep us out of. Abraham Lincoln was a lying tyrant scumbag. Whose pride led to the deaths of nearly a million Americans. And Thomas Jefferson owned slaves.
So, who really gives a crap? Why is this even a question?
I guess that depends on what happens when there is no telelprompter. Be interesting to see Obama try a 30 minute speech with nothing but note cards.
IQ is important but the smartest kid in our class had his nose buried in a physics books starting around 4th grade. By the time he was in middle school there was nothing they could teach him even at the HS. I'm sure there was plenty of stuff he could of taught them. His writing looked like a second graders even in HS and I'm pretty sure he barely got by or failed all the other classes. We'd be in history class and he'd be reading physics. I think they just left him go once we were in the later grades. Last itme I saw him a few years back he still had that odd shuffling walk looking at the ground and mumbling to himself. For all I know he solved how to time travel but he'd never in a million years be a leader.
The Time for Choosing speech was impressive but I think his 1976 impromptu speech at the Republican National Convention was even more impressive. I'm pretty sure it was memorized but that's not what makes it impressive to me (even if it was about 6 minutes straight). What makes it impressive to me is that in 6 minutes he pretty much showed everyone at the convention that voted for Ford that they had elected the wrong person.
Of course there was a lot more going on behind the scenes too.
There were a lot of us who thought Ronald Reagan was clown and everytime he opened his mouth he proved it. They really wanted us to believe that Ronald Reagan did not approve the selling of weapons to terrorists in Lebanon and Iran and laundering the money and running drugs through Panama to fund other terroroists in Nicaragua and El Salvador. That it was all done by a low level staffer a Marine Col. on the National Security Staff. They must of thought the American people were pretty stupid. You know what they were RIGHT!!!!
It is a myth that FDR and his policies prolonged the Depression. When FDR became President in March 1933 the GDP of the American economy had shrunk by 50% since 1929 and the DJIA the measure of major corprorate stocks had lost 90% of its value compared to its high in 1929. Also the collapse of the financial system destroyed about 10, 000 banks and savings and loans and since their was no FBIC FSLDIC anyone who had anything in the way of an account had absolutely nothing when the institution failed. The so-called Great Recession of 2007-9 was a pin prick compared to the near death experience America was facing in 1933. By 1937 New Deal policies had resulted in the US economy producing a GDP of 90% of that in 1929 and likewise the NYSE DJIA was also near 1929 levels. So in 4 years FDR had doubled the size of the American economy something no 20th Century President has done. The value of American capital as reprsented by the NYSE was increased 800% in the same 4 years.( A smart Boston businessman who made a small fortune in rum running from Canada and Cuba bought a lot of distressed stocks and when the market recovered he became seriously rich, his second eldest son became the President of the USA in 1961) Unemployment was still 15% but when he was sworn in in 1933 its was over 25% and in some ethnic groups it was near 60% (give yourself a cookie if you can guess which ethnic group it was) . In 1937, the nation slipped back into a recession that caused a 10% contraction in the US economy before another huge stimulous called War spending (both tho foreign customers and to the US War Department and Department of the Navy kicked in 1938-9 and took America to prosperity. The hickup in 1937 was caused by the GOP dominated Supreme Court who declared the National Recovery Act unconstitutional because it took control of private property to rebuild US companies that were bankrupt. In other words a company being reconstructed by the National Reconcruction Finance Corp. was under Federal government management until the Agency concluded the firm was a viable company again.
Quote:
Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, initiated in early 1933, did include a number of new federal programs aimed at generating recovery. For example, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) hired the unemployed to work on government building projects, and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) gave large payments to farmers. However, the actual increases in government spending and the government budget deficit were small relative to the size of the economy. This is especially apparent when state government budget deficits are included, because those deficits actually declined at the same time that the federal deficit rose. As a result, the new spending programs initiated by the New Deal had little direct expansionary effect on the economy. Whether they may nevertheless have had positive effects on consumer and business sentiment remains an open question. United States military spending related to World War II was not large enough to appreciably affect total spending and output until 1941.
Forthcoming in the Encyclopædia Britannica
Christina D. Romer
December 20, 2003
actually i would put FDR in the same category as reagan and jfk as being able to communicate and inspire people. remember he did keep the people hopeful through the depression, despite his policies that extended the depression.
JFK inspired people because they believed Camelot actually existed. If they had known what a bumbling fool Kennedy was and how absolutely atrocious his morals were the whole country would have turned green from everyone puking all over themselves.
Reagan was an *actor* -- memorizing lines is a major part of the job. Doesn't mean a thing. I've know a few dumb-as-a-brick actors who could memorize a whole Shakespeare play.
As for your '30 minute speech' metric, in the first 3 months of his presidency, Obama went to a meeting of the GOP House caucus, answered every question off the cuff and gave a speech without a teleprompter. He was so impressive they've never dared to repeat the exercise.
And Obama is so smart that he was able to bring people who disagree on just about everything so that they could get things done...
Oh, wait, that was Reagan. Obama resorted to name calling, race baiting, fear mongering, classism and populism. You know, the tried and true method for people who don't know how to lead but love to dictate.
You disqualify Nixon, but praise Obama's intelligence?
I'd bet my 401K that if Obama were to release his grades they wouldn't be near Nixon's.
Nixon got offered scholarships to Harvard and Yale on his own merits out of high school - There is no way Obama could have went to Harvard or Yale undergrad - let alone on a full ride. Nixon had to turn them down as his brother was severely sick (would soon die) and his family was poor and needed him to work for them. So he went to a local college, Whittier on scholarship, where he graduated 2nd in his class. He then won a scholarship to Duke Law School (prestigious) where he graduated 2nd in his class. Who used their law degree to win cases between the two? Not Obama.
I'd rank Nixon as smarter than Obama and it isn't that close.
Eisenhower was also very talented at figuring out individuals and making them work for him in the army and as president. He was really the only person that could make the allies function anywhere where it needed to be between all of the generals and countries. He constantly sold him self short to be under-estimated.
If Richard Nixon was so smart why does he rank as a FAILED PRESIDENT and the only man in American history who was such a bad judge of character that his VP choice Sprio T Agnew was tried for corruption and bribery as MD Governor and as part of his Nola Contendary Deal had to resign the Vice Presidency, Virtually all of his White House Senior Staff apart from Kissinger were all convicted of felonies and served Jail time. Nixon himself had to resign to forstall impeachment and conviction (the day he resigned the House Committee had already reported 4 Articles of Impeachment voted by a bipartisan majority of the House Judiciary Committee. Richard Nixon either was profoundly ignorant or suffered from a severe mental disorder that he hid from the American people.
If Richard Nixon was so smart why does he rank as a FAILED PRESIDENT and the only man in American history who was such a bad judge of character that his VP choice Sprio T Agnew was tried for corruption and bribery as MD Governor and as part of his Nola Contendary Deal had to resign the Vice Presidency, Virtually all of his White House Senior Staff apart from Kissinger were all convicted of felonies and served Jail time. Nixon himself had to resign to forstall impeachment and conviction (the day he resigned the House Committee had already reported 4 Articles of Impeachment voted by a bipartisan majority of the House Judiciary Committee. Richard Nixon either was profoundly ignorant or suffered from a severe mental disorder that he hid from the American people.
Are you honestly saying that IQ = Success as a president?
What kind of logic is that? So if Stephen Hawking were president, he would be guaranteed to be successful? Give me a break.
John Sununu literally has an IQ that tested in the 99.9999th percentile. He qualified for the MEGA society, which trumps the MENSA society in IQ requirements. Yet, some people see him as a failed governor that accomplished nothing of note and had scandals.
Did you think your statement through?
Nixon had plenty of accomplishments other than his corruption that caused him to fail. Detente, opening China, SALT, EPA environmental regulations, 1st effective federal affirmative action program, etc...
Furthermore, you completely evaded the facts that Nixon was of high intelligence. He didn't get into Yale like GWB from family connections and wealth. Nixon was from a relatively poor family and earned full rides to both Harvard and Yale...they don't do that for every poor kid coming out of high school. Nixon graduated 2nd in his class of Whittier on scholarship - a good school. He then earned a full ride to prestigious Duke University Law School where he graduated 2nd in his class. From High School to his bachelors degree to his Law Degree he never finished below 2nd in his class and won scholarships the whole way.
Nixon achieved immediate success as a lawyer. Quit due to WWII, even though he was exempt from the draft (born a Quaker) and went to the Officer Candidate School, where he performed exceedingly well. He was known for being highly efficient and intelligent and won commendations for such.
To suggest that Nixon was not smart is to say that you don't care about evidence, because gosh darn it, he is a (liberal) Republican that had scandals.
Last edited by michiganmoon; 07-16-2014 at 10:27 PM..
One of Americas greatest Presidents was once decribed by a close advisor as having a second rate mind but a first rate personality! The man was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, another great White House occupant was once decribed by his Secretary of State as being a simpleton who needed to have everything repeated to him before he could grasp a subject. This was William Seward's take on Abraham Lincoln. Another great US President was regarded by his parties statesmen as being so uncontrolable that he was not qualified to be President of the USA or even the Governor of New York and that he was a clear and present danger to his party that they tried to bury him in the obscurity of the Vice Presidency. An assasins bullet put this man Theodore Roosevelt into the White House in 1901. Americans tend to shy away from men considered too smart, too clever or too ambitious when chosing a President. We have been luck that we have not voted a Mussolini, Hitler, Lenin, Napoleon, Bolivar, Robespiere, Cromwell,or Julius Caesar into the highest office in the land.
That was William Seward's take on Lincoln when they were political rivals and Seward was trying to usurp President Lincoln's powers and have an effective take over of control. Seward was torn apart after his 1860 convention loss to Lincoln. So it is best to take those words with a grain of salt.
He certainly changed his tune on Lincoln's intelligence after they patched up their differences.
Intellect was prized more highly 200 years ago than it is now.
Even so, all the Presidents since Bush #1 were all highly educated in very fine universities. Bush #2 may have appeared to be non-intellectual, but his main leisure activity in the evenings as President was reading history.
I think the smartest Presidents were Wilson and Cleveland. Both were much more highly educated than most people of their eras, and Cleveland was a very singular patriot. He is the only President who was elected twice non-consecutively, was the only one to win the popular vote 3 times, and the only President who formerly served as Sheriff, Mayor, and Governor before being elected President. No other President had similar bottom to top experience in government.
Wilson was much more a visionary than any other President post-Civil War. He was a deep lifetime scholar, and was the only 20th century President who could have gone toe to toe with any of the founding fathers in that regard. Even though he's well remembered a a scholar, his political skills were very keen, and they propelled him from the Governor's office of New Jersey to the Presidency in 2 years, and he won at a time when Republicans had long dominated the White House.
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