# What politicians past and/or present were ACTUALLY dumb? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [April 12, 2015, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475 "2015-04-12T05:22:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Oedipus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Oedipus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oedipus)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475/1 "2015-04-12T05:22:46Z")
Let me preface this by saying that most, most people who make it to the level that they do politically are not dumb people. Even people like Ted Cruz are Ivy League kids, so I doubt that they are legitimately dumb people. I really want to steer this away from a Bush/Quayle/Biden/Thatcher/Cameron/Abbott hate thread and focus on probable lesser known Congressmen/Senators who you genuinely think aren’t the sharpest knife in the drawer and quite possibly have their staff do most of their work for them. Have you met them in person? Followed them closely? Know for a fact daddy got them the backing and they really are a true Philistine in person? I wanna hear about it. And for the love of God, give some back-up to your answer. ---
**Author:** ![Oedipus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Oedipus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oedipus)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475/2 "2015-04-12T05:25:56Z")
I met Alma Adams, my new Congresswoman for North Carolina’s 12th, in person and listened to her talk at a county Democratic convention and I was less than impressed. I still don’t even remembered what she said, but I know that 4 people spoke that day and I really enjoyed listening to 3 of them. I don’t understand why she’s a Congresswoman and, to be honest, it’s people like her that make me aspire to politics and realize that I can do it if she can do it. I’m sure she’s a sweet lady, but my grandma’s a sweet lady and she ain’t no Congresswomen. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475/3 "2015-04-12T06:05:47Z")
Warren G. Harding was our only truly stupid President IMO. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475/4 "2015-04-12T06:10:41Z")
IMHO it is hard to beat James Buchanan when he referred to the territorial issue of slavery as “happily, a matter of but little practical importance.” And then he likely influenced the supreme court about how to render the Dred Scott Decision, and essentially fiddled while [del]Rome[/del] the Union burned on the way to Civil War. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475/5 "2015-04-12T11:28:23Z")
Who was the guy who thought Guam would tip over from the weight of our military bases? Politicians often get facts wrong, end up not knowing much about well, anything, but thinking an island can tip over is spectacular. ---
**Author:** ![Donald\_Rump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Donald\_Rump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donald_Rump)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475/6 "2015-04-12T12:19:15Z")
Yvette Clarke, representing the 9th district in Brooklyn. [Dumb as a stump](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/05/congresswoman-yvette-clarke-claims-slavery-still-around-1898-colbert-report_n_1857969.html). ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475/7 "2015-04-12T12:57:29Z")
He never actually got elected, but it’s hard to top this dude: [Jaymez Diaz](http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/liberal-candidates-meltdown-no-surprise-to-tony-abbott-20130806-2rb5a.html) ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475/8 "2015-04-12T16:02:45Z")
George W. Bush was, I believe, an utter moron, and Dick Cheney was the one running the show for 8 years. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475/9 "2015-04-12T16:13:21Z")
I don’t know if dumb’s the word, but Andrew Jackson was certainly ignorant. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475/10 "2015-04-12T16:13:37Z")
[Ronald Reagan](http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2004/06/not_even_a_hedgehog.html) was the Patron Saint of Stupidity. > [@](#): > > Ronald Reagan claimed that the Russian language had no word for “freedom.” (The word is “svoboda”; it’s quite well attested in Russian literature.) > Ronald Reagan said that intercontinental ballistic missiles (not that there are any non-ballistic missiles—a corruption of language that isn’t his fault) could be recalled once launched. > > Ronald Reagan was neither a fox nor a hedgehog. He was as dumb as a stump. He could have had anyone in the world to dinner, any night of the week, but took most of his meals on a White House TV tray. He had no friends, only cronies. His children didn’t like him all that much. He met his second wife—the one that you remember—because she needed to get off a Hollywood blacklist and he was the man to see. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475/11 "2015-04-12T16:17:35Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > George W. Bush was, I believe, an utter moron, and Dick Cheney was the one running the show for 8 years. I’ve never believed that. I think Bush was a pretty intelligent man. I feel his problem was mental laziness - he was smart enough to get by in life and he didn’t exert himself. ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475/12 "2015-04-12T16:18:41Z")
I would like to see one truly intelligent, insightful thing Bush ever said. People always say “I think he was actually smart,” but base that on…anything? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475/13 "2015-04-12T17:02:56Z")
Texas Congressman Louis Gohmert. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475/14 "2015-04-12T17:08:18Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’ve never believed that. I think Bush was a pretty intelligent man. I feel his problem was mental laziness - he was smart enough to get by in life and he didn’t exert himself. My theory is that he was very intelligent in “street smarts” for the political world. But that was essentially it, his laziness (that does not offer much of a practical difference from dumbness) also showed when the ones that helped him win appointed themselves to his cabinet. In more ways than one it looked as if Nixon had gotten back in power and Bush was just enabling things. And this reminded me that Nixon is also in the run for the dumbest politician title when we take his cabinet and plumber 🙂 choices into account, hard to think of a move like that that leaves such a legacy of under miners like Cheney to get into high levels of government and to come back again (under Bush) like a bad penny but with more power. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475/15 "2015-04-12T18:03:07Z")
Let’s not forget the twin paragons of folksy ignorance, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. Either they are truly as stupid as their quotes would indicate, or they are merely perfectly calibrated tuning forks that emit sounds that resonate with the most ignorant of the right wing. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475/16 "2015-04-12T18:18:36Z")
> [@Oedipus](#): > > I really want to steer this away from a Bush/Quayle/Biden/Thatcher/Cameron/Abbott hate thread How’s that working our for ya? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475/17 "2015-04-12T20:13:35Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > IMHO it is hard to beat James Buchanan when he referred to the territorial issue of slavery as “happily, a matter of but little practical importance.” > > And then he likely influenced the supreme court about how to render the Dred Scott Decision, and essentially fiddled while [del]Rome[/del] the Union burned on the way to Civil War. That’s clearly giving into wishful thinking, and trying a scheme that didn’t work (“Maybe if I get the Supreme Court to say that slavery is constitutionally protected, the issue will go away”), but I don’t think it’s stupidity. As for George W. Bush, [George W. Bush is smarter than you.](http://keithhennessey.com/2013/04/24/smarter/) ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475/18 "2015-04-12T20:19:11Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > I would like to see one truly intelligent, insightful thing Bush ever said. > > People always say “I think he was actually smart,” but base that on…anything? “The soft bigotry of low expectations”, although that was probably written by Karen Hughes. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475/19 "2015-04-12T20:37:11Z")
I just don’t think Truman was bright at all. Not a moron like Louie Gohmert, but somehow he Forrest Gumped his way to a pretty successful presidency. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475/20 "2015-04-12T20:53:54Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > I would like to see one truly intelligent, insightful thing Bush ever said. > > People always say “I think he was actually smart,” but base that on…anything? He got elected President. And then re-elected. That’s something very few people have succeeded in doing. And let’s not kid ourselves - that’s not something that gets handed to you by other people. And while you and I may think a lot of things he did as President were wrong, keep in mind he was able to do them. Bush was a pretty effective President in terms of getting the policies he wanted enacted into law. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-politicians-past-and-or-present-were-actually-dumb/717475.md?page=2)