# Should your highest-ranking elected leader be "brilliant?"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-your-highest-ranking-elected-leader-be-brilliant/619918>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 25, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-your-highest-ranking-elected-leader-be-brilliant/619918 "2012-04-25T16:52:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 5

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**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-your-highest-ranking-elected-leader-be-brilliant/619918/5 "2012-04-25T17:08:28Z")

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> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#):
>
> Could you please post the context to the quote in the OP?

[The full exchange is in this post.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15002323&postcount=188)

> [@Obama's college transcripts](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-college-transcripts/619492/182):
>
> Well, my only comment is to say one of the many reasons I disfavor affirmative action is because it allows the inference that Obama, clearly a brilliant man, needed some sort of boost to get by.

> [@Obama's college transcripts](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamas-college-transcripts/619492/188):
>
> I suspect that “clearly a brilliant man” might be a bit overstating it, from what I’ve seen, but I’ve not followed him closely enough to say that you’re wrong. In any event, he’s clearly smart enough to be POTUS, so I don’t think his intelligence is an issue. (If anything, I think being brilliant might be more of a negative in a president than a positive, FWIW.)

I don’t think context makes it any less baffling.

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