Across the internet forums and chatrooms are exploding with people ranting about our president-elect. It is getting really funny some of the stuff people are saying. It got me thinking, sure we must have had some pretty dim presidents, maybe there is one in the murky past that can out dumb "dum"ya?
I have not been on this earth long, but from what I have heard President Ford sounds like a good nomination.
What have you heard?
That’s possible, but he wasn’t elected to office, so I wouldn’t count him. It’s not like anyone voted Ford into office.
Mostly bad jokes about brain damage from playing football and falling down stairs. I just nominated him to get the ball rolling, prove me wrong if you wish. I think I was in fourth grade when Reagan was elected, so I really don’t remember Ford, just the SNL re-runs.
Well, some Senators did…
Anyways, as far as ‘unintelligent’ presidents go, it’s a damned hard call to make. There were lots of presidents who were considered ‘dim bulbs’ who were uneducated but masters of politics- LBJ and Truman, for example. There were lots of presidents who were considered lacking in brains but making up for it in other qualities- Grant was seen as an idiot drunkard, but he had guts and determination; Harding was a lightweight but looked pretty for the cameras. Heck, one could even argue that JFK or Reagan wasn’t nearly as bright as people imagined- they just had good writers for their speeches (and Kennedy had good ghostwriters for his books).
To add to that, just because a President is smart doesn’t mean he’ll do well. Consider Wilson and Carter, probably the two smartest men to serve as President during the 20th Cenutry; and, arguably, two of the biggest failures as Presidents. Wilson got us involved in the futility that was World War One, then watched his vision of a New Europe and a New Morality get destroyed by petty bickering home and abroad; one could even argue that his incompetence helped bring about World War Two. Carter was brilliant, but was a micro-manager, and many of his great ideas for programs (such as energy policy) were broken by a combination of his desire to push hard on the details and his inability to convince other politicians or the public that his ideas were worthwhile.
So were there Presidents stupider than W? Depends upon how you define “stupid”.
I hate to say it, but stupid is as stupid does. We’ll just have to wait and see.
It’s odd how ready some people are to assume that George W. Bush is a moron. For the record, he has a bachelor’s degree from Yale and an MBA from Harvard (yes, I suppose Daddy COULD have pulled some strings to get him in, but Daddy didn’t pass the tests for him). What credentials do his detractors have?
I mean, when I see Jay Leno and David Letterman (two AUTHENTIC morons- it’s EMBARRASSING to watch Jay or Dave interview an author, and try to pretend they’ve ever read a book) dusting off old Polish jokes and inserting George W. Bush’s name, I have to wonder… what qualifies THEM to make jokes about ANYBODY’s intelligence?
Moreover, both the major Presdential candidates were pigeonholed early: Al Gore was pigeonholed as “Brilliant but a little on the stiff boring side” and Bush was pigeonholed as “a nice guy, not too bright, a party animal.”
But BOTH candidates’ college transcripts are available, and there is NOTHING in Al Gore’s record to indicate that he’s an intellectual giant. His grades were pathetic, FAR worse than Bush’s! And his pitiful grades at divinity school and law school show that his academic deficiencies were NOT a mere product of his youth.
For that matter, John McCain finished at the BOTTOM of his class at Navy, but nobody seems to hold that against him.
Ronald Reagan.
I swear, that man’s Alzheimers must’ve started a long time before it was reported in the papers. Like, 1980 or so.
The only person who even comes near the idiocy of Dubya is Dan Quayle. I mean, it really shouldn’t take that much genuis to spell potato.
Amen Astorian.
I’ve got the feeling that if someone followed me around 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and recorded every utterance, it wouldn’t be so difficult, by selectively reporting parts of what I said, to make me out to be an idiot or a brainbox. I get the feeling that this is what has happened to Bush and it has been decided beforehand that he’s thick.
Well now, let’s see, I suppose Dubya’s daddy could have controlled his entire life. He could have interceded for him at every step of the game, convinced his party that his moronic son was the best candidate. I doubt it. I also doubt that he could have convinced the National Guard to let his son strap an F-16 to his ass and fly around Texas just for his political career. I wonder how many of Dubya’s detractors have the skills to pilot one of these pocket-rockets, or the balls. I have met several fighter-jet pilots, none of which were slack-jawed, booger-eatin’ morons like some would like to believe “Dubya” is. Call your National Guard and see what qualifications they recquire just to let you SIT in one of their fighters. Let’s give the man a chance, he is the president like it or not. If he screws up, you can feel righteous and swagger about telling your friends what a moron he is and that you knew it all along. What qualifications do you have to call anyone a moron, let alone the president? I’m not saying he is the best thing since sliced bread, but I do believe alot of people have bought a bill of goods from the popular press, that probably wasn’t accurate about either candidate.
Just in case you are wondering, Dubya intentionaly did not tell his parents he had sent in his application to Yale so that they would not try to interfere. Granted, they could have seen Bush on the application and taken him because of it but if you believe that is the case, you only have an incorrect sterotypical view of how the admissions boards work at these schools.
Anyway, you would have to concede(I love that world) that Gore’s dad could have just as easily gotten him into school, since his dad was further along in his political carreer than Bush’s.
Bush is not stupid. Gore is not boring(his concession speach showed this). I have always held that these two sterotypes are just something the media made up. Bush stumbles over his words when he is in front of cameras and Gore has a monotone drawl in his voice. Does every President have to be a Ronald Reagen or Bill Clinton in front of the camera? I think both of these guys are smart enough to be President.
Dumbest President? Unpopular as this view is, I don’t really think any have been dumb; they have all been intelligent in different areas. Except Clinton. Kidding!!!