Blair: Bush is 'highly intelligent'

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Boris can be mistaken?
Let me write this date down.

What was I mistaken about?

[Kropotkin]

As an outsider the american systems for college applicatons seems like a real jungle. A system full of inequalities and counter-inequalities. Add to that all those different merits that are used for the selection and it makes a system that isn't fair for pretty much anyone in the end.

[SlowwHand]

Scoring has changed.

Never mind, let me mark this off the calendar.

I'm still steamed at myself over the "Chili" correction by you.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Kropotkin
As an outsider the american systems for college applicatons seems like a real jungle. A system full of inequalities and counter-inequalities. Add to that all those different merits that are used for the selection and it makes a system that isn't fair for pretty much anyone in the end.

Yeah, but unlike in most other industrialized states, you can always get into some college or university, and have the chance to transfer around. The US does a better job at Higher education that any other industrialized state.

[gsmoove23]

Originally posted by gunkulator
This whole "GWBush is a dummy" thing reminds me of the buzz and "common knowledge" that was kicking around 15 years ago that Bush Sr. was a "wimp". Dozens of pundits bemoaned the so-called "wimp factor" that supposedly plagued the elder Bush. Of course we now know the fate of that ex-Navy pilot shot down in the Pacific - hardly the story of a wimp.

Personally, none of us know GWB well enough to judge his intelligence. He isn't the best public speaker, and he has that deer-in-the-headlights look when he talks on TV. I disagree with many of his policies but that hardly makes him an imbecile.

The whole wimp thing was because Reagan called him one. Personally I think anyone who is willng to call a former head of the CIA a wimp a bit scary.

[Kropotkin]

Gepap: Well that pretty much goes for Sweden as well so that doesn't impress me.

In fact I'd say it's a bit too easy to get into college or the university around here.

[Ned]

Originally posted by Lefty Scaevola


Test standards have changed since then. Add about 80 to 150 points to pre 1980s SAT scores to get today"s equivilant, also real results, even absent rescaling, are, I believe, up today, as well many top schools being more selective. I recall being activiely recruited (on cold calls where I had not contacted them) and offered scholarships from top schools around the country just on account of my SAT scores (a bit higher than Gore's) which I had blanket released to any school interested.

Really, I had the same happen to me. My score was well above Gore's and also from the same timeframe, the '60s.

[The Vagabond]

Bush is a clever slacker with good instincts and guts. But perhaps it is good instincts that is the most important quality for a president.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Damn, I was wishing for more Fezzing .

Personally, I don't think Bush is an idiot at all. He isn't a great speaker, but I know many highly intelligent people who freeze up in front of people or a camera. He's a smart guy who knows what he wants and trys to go after it.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
What school did Blair go to?

As for high school I have no idea, but he went to St. John's College, Oxford for his degree, as did Cherie IIRC (who also vastly outscored him, she is one hell of a smart cookie)

Bush scored a 1206, Gore scored a 1355.

That's all it takes to become President of the US I thought they were all much higher than that. I thought 1200 was about average for a college graduate? Even with Lefty Scaevola's idea of adding 80-150, 1356 is still not fantastically high.

In Britain there seem to be many people who think Iain Duncan Smith is too dumb to lead the country, and he could probably get better than that (well, maybe not )

Originally posted by Ned
Yeah, it does look like neither Gore nor Bush are Yale material

That's what worries me, surely there are many candidates who would be better than both?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Drogue, the smartest, smartest people usually aren't the best leaders. In fact, a lot of them are very introverted and the rest don't want to be bothered by the BS of politics (and thus can't really navigate it).

[St Leo]

Bush is an 'm' short of being a Latter Day Saint.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Always count on St. Leo to say something less than intelligent .

[Japher]

What's an Ormon?

[Lancer]

Best president we've had in ages. This guy doesn't live by the polls like Clinton, saying something different everywhere he goes depending on who he's talking to. I got so sick of that wimp letting terrorists push us around. Bush has guts, and he has the BRAINS to take charge. Clinton just followed. Either the polls or his willie.