IQ Spectrum with Palin in Doubledigitville
IQ is not without its biases, but it’s terrific for a broad-strokes comparison. I want smart competent people in leadership positions. It’s a complex world.
There’s a lot of discussion about the candidates’ IQ scores, but I’ve only found good evidence for McCain and Palin (see links). The other scores are unverified and from multiple sources - please send any better figures/links in the comments and I will gladly update this. I’m throwing in some others for fun.
- >200 - “Unmeasurable genius”
- 180-200 - Highest genius
- 165-179 - High genius
- 155-164 - Genius (e.g., Nobel Prize winners)
- 145-154 - Genius (e.g., professors)
- 135-144 - Highly gifted (e.g., intellectuals)
- 125-134 - Gifted (e.g., post-graduate students)
- 115-124 - Above average (e.g., university students)
- Over 140 - Genius or near genius
- Garry Kasparov - IQ 190
- Ludwig Wittgenstein - IQ 190
- Voltaire - IQ 190
- Leonardo da Vinci - IQ 180
- Lord Byron - IQ 180
- Michelangelo - IQ 180
- James Woods - IQ 180
- George Friedrich Handel - IQ 170
- Stephen W. Hawking - IQ >160
- Bill Clinton - IQ 159-182
- Barack Obama - IQ 148-172
- Plato - IQ 170
- Galileo - IQ 165
- Ludwig van Beethoven - IQ 165
- Charles Darwin - IQ 165
- Charlotte Bronte - IQ 165
- Jonathan Swift - IQ 155
- Sharon Stone - IQ 154
- Abraham Lincoln - IQ 150
- Franklin D. Roosevelt - IQ 147
- Joe Biden - IQ 146
- Richard Nixon - IQ 143
- 120 - 140 - Very superior intelligence
- Hillary Clinton - IQ 140
- Madonna - IQ 140
- Harry Truman - IQ 132
- George W - IQ 91-134
- John McCain - IQ 133
- Jodie Foster - IQ 132
- Nicole Kidman - IQ 132
- Dwight D. Eisenhower - IQ 122
- 110 - 119 - Superior intelligence
- 90 - 109 - Normal or average intelligence
- Ronald Reagan - IQ 105
- 80 - 89 - Dullness
- 70 - 79 - Borderline deficiency
- 50-70 - Mild mental retardation
- 35-50 - Moderate mental retardation
- 20-35 - Severe mental retardation
- IQ < 20 - Profound mental retardation
- A score of 132 equals the top 2%
- A score of 134 equals the top 1%
- 50% of IQ scores fall between 90 and 110
- 70% of IQ scores fall between 85 and 115
- 95% of IQ scores fall between 70 and 130
- 99.5% of IQ scores fall between 60 and 140
- A score of 68 equals the bottom 2%
- A score of 66 equals the bottom 1%
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8 comments
To suggest that Joe Biden, a man who famously said that Obama would bring to western Pennsylvania ‘a three-letter word: jobs, j-o-b-s, jobs’, who doesn’t know the difference between pecs and abs, and who told a paraplegic senator in a wheelchair to ’stand up Joe, let ‘em see ya’ is a genius, while Sarah Palin suffers from Forrest-Gump level retardation, is at best deeply biased and at worst slanderous.
Those are the scores I found - sorry. I think if you compare their educational backgrounds, you’ll see a substantial difference. There’s plenty of discussion about the meaning of IQ, and I do think Palin is talented in connecting with certain kinds of audiences. She’s an overachiever.
Very interesting and totally believable!
Not one of those politicians has an IQ over 140, even the score of 143 for Nixon has been debunked. Its the top two percent that are considered “gifted” according to these tests, not the IQ score (which is different for different tests). The most laughable part of your list is that the majority of the geniuses you list not only never took IQ tests, but died hundreds of years before they were ever even conceived.
Based on her academic performance, Palin’s IQ would be on the high end of average. If she had an IQ as low as you suggest she would barely be able to read English and would not be able to drive a car. Also, Joe Biden has brain damage and was nearly expelled from college for plagiarism; hardly in league with Plato and Hawking.
I would not be surprised if either of the Clintons had IQs higher than 120, and would be surprised if Obama’s was less than 130. However, none of these politicians is a genius. They would be the first to admit it.
As I mention in the post itself, the scores are from various sources (although unlike some others, I’m not taking them from ads). The older ones are of course estimated by subject matter experts. Sarah Palin had an atrocious academic record. Bill Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar. Genius-level IQ tends to be a liability for American politicians, since we are anti-intellectual as a culture - so no, I don’t think anyone brags about it. On the other side of the spectrum, someone can be a bit dim and still have a practical intelligence in other areas. You didn’t list any sources for your statements - please do.
Just when I think I have seen all the stupidity on the net, I stuble across your blog and find that you have plagerixed a lot of my work from The Kids IQ Test Center, most of which you took from the IQ of famous people.
But on the Obama thing, that IQ of 148-172 is absolutely
ridiculous!
When I did the research for Obama’s IQ way back in May 2008, I could find nothing of acadenic acheivent. No GPA’s and certainly no IQ Scores.
So I did the best that I could with the information that I have on hand that stated most people graduating from Harvard have 172 - 178 on their LSAT.
Since I know that MENSA accepts people into membership with more than 200 approved tests.
After crunching numbers, I initially estimated his IQ at 140 and quite possibly higher.
And then then as the runoff for President of the USA rolled around, I began to notice a huge lag in knowledge when he was not doing a scripted event.
He hesitated quite a bit and before he would speak he would never answer a simple question with a simple response.
When he went to a Roast for him and John McCain he read the words of the pages very slowly and never demonstrated any spontaneity whatsoever.
So, I went back to my website: http://www.kids-iq-tests.com/d-prez.html, and lowered his score to about 130.
To be honest, I do not think that he has the smarts to get into MENSA.
His whole administration will be made up of former Clinton staffers and he is doing his best to surround himself with the best b/c truth be known, he really does not know what the hell he is doing.
But he was elected president and I’ll support him until he screws up.
I bet that since my opinion is just the opposite of yours, I be you will not even allow this post to get through.
Einstein had an IQ of 160, Stephan Hawking and Bill Gates both have IQ’s that register in the 160’s and you want me to believe that hes has an IQ as high as 172?
Not only do you plagiarize the work of others, you do a piss/poor job at speculating a persons real IQ
How did you come about such a high IQ? Was it that hoax on the net that The Washington Post declared Obama is a genius?
However, if that was what you bought into then you were nothing but suckers. I searched the Post and even called looking for such a story and I was told, what you read was a hoax.
I am letting your comment through, although it could be said to break the commenting policy on this site.
I didn’t plagiarize anyone, and I’m not even sure how someone could be said to plagiarize an IQ score.
My sources were varied, but did not include your site. Perhaps one of the other sites had a common source? Some of it was from Wikipedia, some was from a Psychological journal, and there were a couple of other sites that I has a reasonable trust level for as well. None of this is my own speculation, since I am not qualified to estimate someone’s IQ score. Nor, I suspect, are you. You might be interested in discussions like this one:
http://www.topix.com/forum/source/go-erie/T81C8EBK80A2O91QT
I do see that there has been some discussion about the Palin scores, for example:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Documentation-on-Sarah-Pal-by-K-R-Sea rle-081014-452.html
I am willing to concede that my sources might have been hoaxed. Just show me the link for the correct information.
John McCain’s score is apparently from his medical records, so that would seem pretty authoritative.
As for Obama, if nothing else, a Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna cum laude suggests that he is pretty darn smart, and you just don’t have that job at the Harvard Law Review unless you’re top notch. It’s a very competitive position. McCain was near the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy. Bush only got 1206 on his SATs, with a C average at Yale.
I posted the range of what I found online from the best sources I could find, but as I said in the post, they are unverified. I was just interested in the broad strokes anyway.
Some of your online discussions would suggest that you have a stake in believing that Barack Obama isn’t very smart. But that’s not a reason to come here and attack me.
One IQ your missing is Al Gore, he was tested at 133 and 134(he took two tests) http://crm114.com/algore/reportcard.html ….those are confirmed. Just type in “al gore, IQ” in any search engine, they where from his school documents. Most of the IQ’s are estimates however. Based on SAT scores generally.
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