ARNOLD KLING
August 14, 2011
The Top Political Contributors
August 11, 2011
Gender and the New Commanding Heights
August 11, 2011
Jamie Galbraith Makes an Assumption
August 11, 2011
Macroeconometrics: The Science of Hubris
August 10, 2011
Real and Nominal Bond Yields
BRYAN CAPLAN
August 14, 2011
The Effect of Thumb Sucking on Income
August 12, 2011
The Voice of Cold, Hard Truth to All Would-Be Educators
August 12, 2011
Ability, Morality, and Prosperity: A Paper and a Report
August 11, 2011
The Theory of Time and Frittering
August 10, 2011
Male Variance and the Remnants of the Gender Gap
DAVID HENDERSON
August 9, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken", Part Two
August 8, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken"
August 5, 2011
James Bovard on the Peace Corps
August 4, 2011
Summers Way Off on FDR and 1941
August 3, 2011
The "Amazon" Tax
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I couldn't access the psychology paper, but I remember that Steve Sailer wrote about Bush's likely IQ and compared it to Kerry's: http://isteve.blogspot.com/2005/06/my-article-on-john-f-kerrys-iq.html
Here are a few of my articles:
Does IQ Matter in a President?
http://isteve.blogspot.com/2005/06/my-article-on-john-f-kerrys-iq.html
It's a pretty good general introduction to the quesion, putting it in a broad historical perspective.
Bush's Brain:
http://www.amconmag.com/2004_12_06/feature.html
Popular introduction to the Bush vs. Kerry IQ controversy.
"Kerry's IQ likely lower than Bush's"
http://www.vdare.com/sailer/kerry_iq_lower.htm
This offers the full explanation of the rather complex methodology I used.
I always thought of 130 as low.
I'll swear I remember that JFK had a measured IQ of 119. Steve?
One could easily argue that early presidents get rated as smart simply because they were political successful, and vice versa.
To which I would add: "politically successful" by the leftish standards of those who are rating "smartness."
JFK was measured at 119 in high school.
Probably the most assured figures we have are for Al Gore, who was measured at 133 and 134 at the beginning and end of high school, and whose SAT score equivalized to a few points higher in IQ. He later smoked a lot of dope in grad school, but seems to have been pretty sober since then, so there was probably little long term damage. So Gore was up around the 99th percentile, but not the 99.9th percentile.
I've seen 143 for Nixon, which sounds plausible (he didn't have all that much else going for him other than brains and determination), but I don't recall where. When I did a Google search in 2004 to find out where that number comes from, most of the references went back to an article I wrote in 1999, but I don't have my notes for it anymore.
Who knows if being intelligent is even beneficial to doing a good job?
For the JFK thing, I wouldn't be suprised. The civil right and moon thing that JFK advanced were great, but I really question whether he was competent in regards to foreign policy (he did seem to have decent economic policy positions, based my very superficial understanding).
I always admired Kennedy. Strangely enough, one thing that really lowered my opinion of him was a fictional movie. Maybe it was Kevin Cosnter's fault, but the way they portayed him in 13 Days, bumbling his through way through strategic thinking, made me embarrassed for him.
You'll have noticed that the JFK figure makes a nonsense of their argument in the second para you quote. How come? And as for "estimates" for early Preidents: obvious rubbish.
Bush is clever.
Being a member of Mensa I know about IQ - it makes no sense. The ultimate human aim is "happiness". What we call Intelligence should get us closer to that. Having a high IQ gets you nowhere near there - it can actually hinder your happiness aspirations.
So - to sum it up - we call Intelligence the wrong thing. Intelligence is what Bush has, because he clearly is happy.
IQ is not as important as wisdom. For example, take Al Gore (high IQ) and global warming. To paraphrase Orwell, some ideas are so stupid only intellectuals (high IQ) could believe them. Orwell was on to something: Very smart people can often lack wisdom. Why? Arrogance. Arrogance can make geniuses believe and do stupid things. Widsom is hard to define, but one of its components is humility. Another is morality. (That leaves Clinton, the Rhodes scholar, out). It involves the ability to recognize truth from fiction and an understanding of human nature. On the other hand, people of average intelligence can have a great deal of wisdom.
The problem with wisdom is it takes a small measure in order to recognize it.
Based purely on his actions, Bush is not very smart. Examine his Budget deficit, economic policy, foreign policy, torture memos, etc.
He, after all, lambasted Clinton/Gore, during the 2000 campaign, for NATION BUILDING. What is he doing in Iraq ? He said " I do not want to be the ugly American abroad."
Who knows if being intelligent is even beneficial to doing a good job?
"single best predictor of job performance"