Let’s not forget that even very intelligent people can be incredibly self-deluded and make dumb mistakes.
In my country, Kenji Fujimori (prez. Fujimori’s son) is painful to listen to. I’ve never Heard string three sentences that sounded logical. It’s like he’s permanently in front of a telempromter that’s incorrectly set up.
The OP doesn’t say that.
Indeed, the very title says the opposite.
Hank Johnson, GA
He also tried to explain the need for Employee Unions through the lense of the MMA And then he tried to apologize for his use of the term "midget."Link is blank, but just that firstname spelling… (ok, so that’s his mother’s fault; still).
I think this may have been what you were talking about. There is a video but also an article, and the video doesn’t autostream.
Thankyou, yes it is 
First link still works for me, but maybe it is country-specific? I am often unable to watch linked videos people post because the site detects I’m not in America and stonewalls me … perhaps that can also happen in reverse.
There was his reply to questions about drug use in his college days: “When I was young and foolish, I was young and foolish.” That’s – dang, that’s a masterpiece.
Was that W, or Yogi Berra?
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It was W.
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But, yes, the whole point is that it’s obvious to the level of Yogi-ism: he starts off with a quick “When I was young and foolish,” which makes you think he’s putting an excuse out there right before admitting something – and then he just repeats himself, because the excuse you were about to use as mitigation is all he actually admits.
And here, in print, the best part is lost: he’s replying, conversationally, to a spoken question; there should be a flat ‘no’, or a long list of offenses, or some hemming and hawing about refusing to answer; he instead breaks up the call-and-response rhythm with a quip that (a) explains why he should maybe get a pass on what’s coming and then (b) goes off in a different direction. I’d say it’s up there with septuagenarian Reagan’s well-rehearsed line about not making age an issue in the campaign, because he will not exploit, for political purposes, his opponent’s youth and inexperience: you start to nod when you think it’s going one way, and then, wait, what?
(Oh, it’s a gossamer thing; to dissect it is to destroy it.)
I don’t really agree but I would also ask, is there much difference? Mental laziness leads to lack of curiosity and therefore lack of knowledge and eventually it’s hard to tell the difference from innate stupidity. Bush “got by in life” only because his family was wealthy – he failed at everything he did, but it didn’t matter because he could just go on to fail at something else including, eventually, the most disastrous presidency in memory. The man could barely speak coherently – there were books and calendars produced featuring his spectacular bloopers.
I think when people claim that Bush was much brighter than his image they’re misled either by his political instincts that helped get effective strategists around him like Karl Rove, or by the fact that his personality was genial and as a manager he was supportive and loyal. Bush wasn’t evil. He was a nice well-meaning dumbass who was inadvertently responsible for tremendous harm, much like a pleasant little monkey at the controls of a bulldozer.
For other examples one can hardly go lower or get funnier than Michelle Bachmann or Sarah Palin. There’s also James Inhofe, the venerable Senator from Oklahoma who serves humanity by exposing the climate science hoax. It’s clearly not a problem because only God controls the climate, and who you gonna trust, God or silly scientists?
Average is a really low bar to overcome. Anyone who can deliver a coherent campaign speech or handle a basic debate or Q&A without getting mixed up is probably above average. Palin comes close to failing at both of these, but I think even she is above average.
The only nominated candidate who I think would fit the bill of being likely below average would beAlvin Greene. And even he managed to get a BA degree, something which is something only about 30% of the US population managed to do.
“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”
I am a veteran of a highly rated MBA program. I wouldn’t get too crazy using an MBA as proof of intelligence. If I was going to choose one adjective to describe my classmates, it would be “ambitious” not “intelligent.”
I don’t have any cites, but I’ve heard and read over the years that former congressman Patrick Kennedy was pretty dim.
Patrick’s had drug and alcohol problems, based in bipolar disorder, but has been a mainstream progressive politically with no major intelligence-related gaffes publicly.
RFK Jr., on the other hand, was one of the early leaders of the anti-vaxxers, and has warned of the dangers to America of the NAFTA Highway.
I think quote #2 answers quote #1 (both emphases mine). Sarah Palin is an imbecile with the intelligence of a turnip, but she does have ambition. She lost no time in parlaying the VP nomination into an orgy of personal gain, managing to embarrass the McCain campaign with her entire family’s yokel hillbilly antics.
Yes, “average” is a very very low bar, but Palin is so stupid that even Fox News had to get rid of her, and that’s a network that counts imbeciles as their primary demographic. Katie Couric exposed Palin as a complete idiot and charlatan in that famous interview, and all Couric was doing was just trying to establish some basic background facts.
Well, you can be addicted to drugs, a drunk, bi-polar and a progressive ally with no public gaffes and still be lacking in intelligence. From what I understand, he was really good at reading things out-loud that others wrote for him, but not much else. Again, I have no cites, but this is what I’ve heard from people within the left-wing political community.
RFK Jr, on the other hand, went to Harvard and has a law degree. Not saying he hasn’t come out majorly on the wrong side of issues, but he doesn’t necessarily fit what the OP is looking for, intelligence-wise.
Yet still be smarter and accomplish more than a guy who
Maybe that says more about Ivy culture and being from The Right Sort of Family and all that than about native intelligence, or about empathy or commitment or recognition of one’s being part of society etc., if a guy as stupid-sounding as RFK Jr. or as intellectually lazy as GWB can make it in that environment.
So I don’t get it, are you saying Patrick Kennedy is *not *dumb? Or just not as dumb as you perceive RFK Jr?
There is no basis other than the rumors you refer to to suggest Patrick is any less than of average intelligence, or that his difficulties in performing as a public servant are based in his native intelligence rather than his affliction or addictions. But RFK Jr’s positions are inarguably fucking stupid and are therefore difficult to reconcile with his having at least average intelligence.
Fair enough?