VirusHead

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
• Sarah Palin – IQ 82
• 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%

There is much to say, but I’m not in the mood.

• Barack Obama – Has my vote. He’ll be terrific, and we need him – and a Democratic Congress, too.
• Teddy Kennedy – Captain, my captain, my forever Senator.
• Hillary Clinton – Strong, inspiring, gracious.
• Bill Clinton – Love that man. ‘Nuff said.
• Joe Biden – Trustworthy. Talk to the people, Joe. And relax.
• John McCain – Has turned his back on what made him worthy of respect.
• Sarah Palin – Bad choice for women and everyone else. Much to say, but the word is oil.
• See Bush bail, See Cheney bail (from the Republican Convention)
• Pseudo-Christians, quit praying for God to hate the people that you hate.
• Susan Eisenhower – Expressed my own view more clearly than anyone else, so here are her words:

REMARKS BY SUSAN EISENHOWER AT THE 2008 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION – INVESCO FIELD AT MILE HIGH, DENVER, COLORADO AUGUST 28, 2008

I stand before you tonight not as a Republican or a Democrat, but as an American. The Eisenhowers came to this great country in the 18th century, settling first amid the hills of Pennsylvania and later on the plains of Kansas. Like many of your ancestors, they built our nation and served it in times of national crisis and war.

I grew up in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania where my parents and grandparents, Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower, chose to live after Ike’s retirement as Supreme Commander, Europe, and as President of the United States. It was also in Gettysburg where Abraham Lincoln gave his historic address.

On the killing fields of Pickett’s Charge our country came of age and assured our nation would survive as one.

Yet today the divisions in our country are deep and wide. Our cohesiveness as a nation is strained by multiple crises in finance and credit; energy and health care.

At the same time, we have knowingly saddled our children and grandchildren with a staggering debt. This is a moral failing – not just a financial one.

Overseas, our credibility is at an all time low. We must restore our international leadership position and the leverage that goes with it.

But rather than focus on the critical strategic issues, our national discourse has turned into a petty squabble.

Too many people in power have failed us. Belligerence has become a substitute for strength; stubbornness a substitute for leadership; and impulsive action has replaced measured and thoughtful response.

Once during the Eisenhower administration, Ike was under fire from his critics for moving too slowly in responding to political pressure. After a visit to the Oval Office by Robert Frost, the famous American poet sent the president a note of support. “The strong,” he wrote, “are saying nothing until they see.”

I believe that Barack Obama has the energy, but more importantly, the temperament, to run this country and provide the leadership we need. He knows that we can either advance on the distant hills of hope– or retreat to the garrisons of fear. He can mobilize and inspire all of us to show up for duty. Discipline will be required; as will compromise, flexibility and quiet strength.

The task before our next President will be overwhelming. But no undertaking can be more critical than bringing about a sense of national unity and purpose, built on mutual respect and bi-partisanship.

Unless we squarely face our challenges, as Americans—together– we risk losing the priceless heritage bestowed on us by the sweat and the sacrifice of our forbearers. If we do not pull together, we could lose the America that has been an inspiration to the world.

On December 1, 1862, in his Annual Message to Congress, Abraham Lincoln immortalized this thought when he said: “We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.”

Let us respond this November to President Lincoln’s challenge. Let us restore the hope, and bring the change, that our nation so desperately needs.

Yes we can!

Ok, Don Imus was in the wrong, like Limbaugh with his feminazis, and Ann Coulter with whatever s/he has said this week, and all the other blowhards who are regularly hateful – and with more ooomph behind it.

Actually I think the guy was trying to be “cool” and he was the wrong guy, talking about the wrong women, at the exact wrong time. Of course, he has said a lot of nasty things in the past, and had even vowed to stop, so both public opinion and the voice of the marketplace have now spoken.

(By the by, let’s not pretend those young men at Duke are pillars of society, even if the charges have been dropped. It was a pretty unsavory scene – and a common one for the college sports community.)

Imus does do some good work in service to others, though, and that should be factored into moral judgments as well – as it seems to do rather easily for Sharpton and Jackson. Although they have been leading the attack (on the basis of race), they both have histories of inappropriate remarks of their own. For them to lead the moral outrage response on this is about as hypocritical as Newt Gingrich and Bob Barr attacking Clinton on grounds of sexual morality.

I’m always interested in what motivates someone to throw the first stone.

Here’s what is continuing to bother me about the coverage.

Everybody’s talking about race – what about gender? The sexism across all our communities – black, white, everybody – seems (pretty much) to go unquestioned.

Imus’s remarks were not only about a heavily racially-coded form of hairstyle with a cultural history. They were also sexist – a form of prejudice, contempt, and domination against women.

He called them whores! – or “ho’s” – and yet the pundits make no room for a feminist to speak on that issue.

The coach and the women on the team made the point, but who in the media will pick it up? Is it ok to call accomplished young women whores, but just not to do so in a racially-tinged way? Is that the message?

I don’t always agree with Bill Clinton, but he sure cheered me up today. I was starting to think he’d completely lost his mind, hanging about with the Bushes.

CLINTON: Now, I will answer all those things on the merits, but first I want to talk about the context in which this arises. I’m being asked this on the FOX network. ABC just had a right- wing conservative run in their little “Pathway to 9/11,” falsely claiming it was based on the 9/11 Commission report, with three things asserted against me directly contradicted by the 9/11 Commission report.

And I think it’s very interesting that all the conservative Republicans, who now say I didn’t do enough, claimed that I was too obsessed with bin Laden. All of President Bush’s neo-cons thought I was too obsessed with bin Laden. They had no meetings on bin Laden for nine months after I left office. All the right-wingers who now say I didn’t do enough said I did too much — same people.

They were all trying to get me to withdraw from Somalia in 1993 the next day after we were involved in “Black Hawk down,” and I refused to do it and stayed six months and had an orderly transfer to the United Nations.

OK, now let’s look at all the criticisms: Black Hawk down, Somalia. There is not a living soul in the world who thought that Usama bin Laden had anything to do with Black Hawk down or was paying any attention to it or even knew Al Qaeda was a growing concern in October of ‘93. …

Now, if you want to criticize me for one thing, you can criticize me for this: After the Cole, I had battle plans drawn to go into Afghanistan, overthrow the Taliban, and launch a full-scale attack search for bin Laden. But we needed basing rights in Uzbekistan, which we got after 9/11. The CIA and the FBI refused to certify that bin Laden was responsible while I was there. They refused to certify. So that meant I would’ve had to send a few hundred Special Forces in helicopters and refuel at night. Even the 9/11 Commission didn’t do that. Now, the 9/11 Commission was a political document, too. All I’m asking is, anybody who wants to say I didn’t do enough, you read Richard Clarke’s book.

That’s the difference in me and some, including all the right-wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try. They did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed. When I failed, I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy and the best guy in the country, Dick Clarke, who got demoted. So you did Fox’s bidding on this show. You did your nice little conservative hit job on me. What I want to know is … how many people in the Bush administration you asked this question of. I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked, “Why didn’t you do anything about the Cole?” I want to know how many you asked, “Why did you fire Dick Clarke?”

I had responsibility for trying to protect this country. I tried and I failed to get Bin Laden. I regret it but I did try. And I did everything I thought I responsibly could. The entire military was against sending special forces into Afghanistan and refueling by helicopter and no one thought we could do it otherwise…We could not get the CIA and the FBI to certify that Al Qaeda was responsible while I was President. Until I left office. And yet I get asked about this all the time and they had three times as much time to get him as I did and no one ever asks them about this. I think that’s strange.

The whole transcript is here.

‘Bout time, Bill.

Kudos, thanks, and a kiss anytime. You’re the man. Just seeing you argue again lit up my world today.

Where on earth can we find another like him? Who has what it will take to turn this country around?

In the words of an English teacher at Wellesley College…

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

Oh beautiful, for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
‘Til all success be nobleness
And ev’ry gain divine!

Oh beautiful, for patriot’s dream
That sees beyond the years!
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail?
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives.
~Dorothy Thompson

Our defense is in the spirit which prized liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism at your own doors.
~Abraham Lincoln

We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.
~William Faulkner

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.
~Abraham Lincoln

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself.
~Thomas Paine

Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed – else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.
~Dwight D. Eisenhower

There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.
~William J. Clinton

I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom.
~Simone de Beauvoir

Where liberty dwells, there is my country.
~Benjamin Franklin