Kerry's a Genius...NOT!!!

Both Bush and Kerry attended Yale undergrad, Bush had a 77 average his first 3 years until they switched over to a new system in his senior year. Kerry had a 76 overall. So much for Kerry being the bright one....

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-kerry-grades,1,5122603.story?coll=chi-news-hed

 

Personally, I've long thought that both Gore and Kerry lost because the American people are afraid to vote for someone more intelligent than themselves. And you gotta admit that the last two Democratic prez cands' intelligence came off as arrogance. But I've come up with a new theory. Maybe Prez Bush II ain't as dumb as he looks. Maybe he's even one highly intelligent dude, even if he does have the poor taste to be a Republican. Maybe, being the highly intelligent dude he is, Bush II realizes that the people will never vote for someone who is more intelligent than they. So maybe he just pretends to be as dumb as he looks, for political advantage, of course. Any thoughts?

 

Intellegent but cold blooded?

 

Re: Re: Kerry's a Genius...NOT!!!

Thats an interesting theory Ted! And in some ways, I believe you may be right. GWB painted himself as the guy "you want to have a beer with" although he does not drink because he is an alcoholic. During the last presidential run, I remember person after person saying, Gee, He just seems like a guy you could have over for a beer and super. Kerry is condescending.

I don't know about you, but I want somebody superior to me for President!

Take care Ted,

Abner

 

Re: Re: Re: Kerry's a Genius...NOT!!!

Gosh! If I had to have someone superior to me for my president, I might have to stop voting ... and after a perfect track record of voting in all seven presidential elections that I was legally qualified to vote in. Aw! (Insert tongue-in-cheek smiley here.)

But on a more serious note, I do think that the first and (up to now) last Republican presidents , A. Lincoln & G. Bush II, share one thing in common. Notwithstanding their differences in formal educations (the one had but one year of formal education "by littles" in the back-country schools of the time, the other had a prestigious Ivy League education), both are highly intelligent individuals and both understood the value of being able to communicate with the common man and make people think of them as "one of us." Gore and Kerry, whether for good, bad, or indifferent, presented their ideas as if "from on high." This is why the Demos have not been living at that really nice public housing unit on Pennsylvania Avenue for a couple of terms.

 

Re: Re: Re: Kerry's a Genius...NOT!!!

Too bad somebody didn't do too good a job communicating with all them guys with Confederate flags in their pickups!

 

Ted H.

You are exactly correct. Those of us who are on the Left often really come across as "knowing what's best for YOU, citizen, even if you're too prejudiced/ignorant/superstitious to see it for yourself!"

What's worse is that this image is not a false one; we really DO think we know best. (Personally, to a consioderable extent, I think we are probably right)

But we live in a democracy founded on the idea that the BEST decisions will in general be made by the MAJORITY and where we insist that the people govern themselves, taking whatever expert advice they think necessary.

It wasn't always this way. Truman didn't act this way; FDR didn't act this way, at least not in public and Eleanor kept him pretty firmly grounded.

But it's our NUMBER ONE problem today.

 

Well, I don't think Kerry is THAT dumb. He married a woman worth almost 1 billion .

On a more serious note, I don't think grades are that grade a predictor of intelligence. You can earn less-than-wonderful grades just because you are not focused, or are interested in other activities. I also think politics is more about having a coherent vision and a project, about listening to others, about reflecting on things before acting and being decisive once you've figured out what needs to be done.

I think Bush has a vision (corehent or otherwise) and he is VERY decisive. Whether he has the other skills(listening or reflecting) I don't know. I've read that he doesn't like to hear advisers telling him 'he's wrong.

IMHO, Kerry neither listens, nor is he decisive. This last trait cost him dearly on Election Day.

Outside the USA, many people(including me) perceive the Dems as rather soft in International Affairs, and Republicans rather tough (maybe Bush Sr. was an exception).

I can give you an example: Fidel Castro has NEVER provoked a rafters'crisis with a Republican president. He sent 125000 migrants(including 25000 inmates and mentally insane patients) to President Carter. He downed 2 airplanes with Americans inside in international waters in 1996, and sent nearly 60000 rafters in 1994, in both cases to President Clinton.

All Clinton did was sign the Helms-Burton Act, playing into Castro's hands. The downing of planes in international waters is an act of war. Having lived in Cuba for several years, i can tell you that Castro will shave his beard before downing American planes with a Republican president, PARTICULARLY GWB.

Both the Reagan and GWB Administration officially stated that, should Castro send an army of rafters to Florida during their mandates, they would consider it an act against national Security (ie an act of war).

So this rait plays heavily in favor of Republican candidates in times such as the ones we are living in.

I really cannot comment on the perception of Dems being arrogant, but I've heard this before. I've also heard(or read) that they attach to much weight to ideology, but I really don't know what is meant by that.

Perhaps someone can explain it to me.

 

Osborne:

Let me say as a registered Republican that I don't want you ever to go to work for the Democratic party, giving them advice in any capacity.

You're dangerous. Your introspection and astounding perspective mark you as a rare beast these days in your party. Were Hillary or John (Edwards or Kerry) or whomever to hire you as an advisor for their 2008 run, it could be very rough going for my boys.

 

The bright vs. not so bright debate has nothing to do with their grades. It's empirical. Kerry seems able to handle complex thoughts and the consideration of the many sides of any argument (some would say to the point of indecisiveness, but that's another thread), while Bush seems to need cue cards to recite his address. That, and he's made a lot of stupid, short-sighted, and dumb/vicious moves since taking office. Proof in the pudding, I guess.

 

Re: Re: Kerry's a Genius...NOT!!!

Are we saying that he flip-flops too much?

 

I had really never noticed how arrogant we Democrats really are in our naturally superior know-it-all top-down benevolence from on high ... until the Comeback Kid sued the cigarette companies.

 

Gee, I did better than they. I had a 3.00 GPA my last two years. Of course, I didn't graduate from Yale. Had I known I was going to be a locksmith today, I would have.

 

The big question is: Did he have to sign a pre-nup? And, if so, how much does he get if his arse's kicked to the curb?

 

Now there's another similarity between our earliest and (so far) most recent Republican presidents. The eminent Jim McPherson, Professor of Civil War History at Princeton University has a nice little book called _Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution_, which has a nice little chapter called "The Hedgehog and the Foxes," which says, "The fox knows many things but the hedgehog knows one big thing. ... The hedgehog is a thinker or leader who relates everything to a single central vision, a single universal organizing principle, while the fox pursues many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory."

 

Ted,

I agree. That chapter was brought out in our class. Lincoln was an amazing man and leader. He was able to be focused and to the point. McPherson brought this out elequently. Lincoln was very adament about keeping the Union together and never ever waivered from that premise. It is interesting that Lincoln's word usage changed as the war progressed. If you remember, he used the term union in the early part and spoke a "United States"at the end.

 

Are you Cons still smacking on Kerry?

I think we need to start a movement where we smack on Cheney - he is definitely the career politician who has never had a real job (and definitely dodged the draft).

 

It is in fact not empirical

You are making a statement based on opinion not on any fact. It was shown extensively during the election that Kerry never really passed a single original piece of legislation through any great effort of his own. If one wants to base anything on empirical factors it would show Kerry isn't all that bright.

Why are these pople being lauded for not listening to the masses when it is exactly that trait for which people criticise Bush?

 

Sorry? I meant to say that Truman and Roosevelt DID listen to the masses.

The only portrait on my office wall is an engraving of Lincoln from a photograph taken around the time of the Cooper Union speech.

One thing about Lincoln that his biographers seem to miss, or at least underemphasize, I think, is that he was an outstanding lawer. He did most of his work in the appellate courts; not for him the rough-and-tumble of trial practice, at least toward the end of his legal career.

This shows up, I think, in his actions as President. His justification for the Civil War was LEGAL, not political or moral. He wrote his speeches and proclaimations in a clear, direct style that reeks of good legal drafting in an age when flowery oratory was considered a form of entertainment. And he wrote with a careful attention to the possible legal effects of his words.

All of this without college OR law school!

 

1) Yes.

2) Nothing.