How smart is Bush?

Question

All politics aside, does anybody actually think that Bush is an intelligent person?

Answer 1

Bush is not intelligent. He is not retarded, but he sure aint no Nobel Prize winner either. He is akin to a cab driver suddenly placed in charge of a freight train. He knows what a freight train looks like and maybe a little about what it does, but he isnt qualified to be the engineer.

Answer 2

Bush was not a great speaker but he was quite intelligent. Much more so than people give him credit for. He never bragged about his achievements but preferred to allow people to underestimate him.

At a minimum I hope you will test your own assumptions and thinking about our former President. I offer a few questions to help that process.
•Upon what do you base your view of President Bush’s intellect? How much is it shaped by the conventional wisdom about him? How much by verbal miscues highlighted by the press?
•Do you discount your estimate of his intellect because he’s from Texas or because of his accent? Because he’s an athlete and a ranch owner? Because he never advertises that he went to Yale and Harvard?
•This is a hard one, for liberals only. Do you assume that he is unintelligent because he made policy choices with which you disagree? If so, your logic may be backwards. “I disagree with choice X that President Bush made. No intelligent person could conclude X, therefore President Bush is unintelligent.” Might it be possible that an intelligent, thoughtful conservative with different values and priorities than your own might have reached a different conclusion than you? Do you really think your policy views derive only from your intellect?

And finally, if you base your view of President Bush’s intellect on a public image and caricature shaped by late night comedians, op-ed writers, TV pundits, and Twitter, is that a smart thing for you to do?

Answer 3

He's not too bright... but he has some smart people around him. They make him seem more intelligent by not letting Bush have many live and impromptu speaking engagements... He hardly does any press conferences, and the ones which are open-ended almost always ended in disaster. They carefully choose where he will speak, and carefully choose who he speaks in front of, making sure he has that thunderous applause. No President in the modern media era has been as hidden from scrutiny as much as George Bush. Sticking to the same story all the time and not explaining your answers does NOT make you a smart person. Maybe just a smart politician.

Answer 4

No because Daddy Bush paid for him to go to Yale.
Bush Jr. didn't actually have the wit or knowledge, let alone common sense to get into an Ivy League school.

Go Figure.

Answer 5

Bush's IQ is reported to be 91.

His inability to offer dignified, literate speech and responsible decisions based on reason indicates he is NOT an intelligent person.

Answer 6

Well, today the average American's IQ is 90. (which is sad, since it was 100 twenty years ago) Bush is clearly below average. I would have to guess his IQ to be around 80.

Mind you, this is post cocaine and booze caused brain damage. It's totally possible his IQ was perhaps even as high as 85 or 86 prior to that.

Answer 7

On a scale of 1 -10 he rates a solid negative 5 for IQ.

Answer 8

Not at all, he has some people around him that are but they are evil. But he cannot even wing it at press conferences. To hear him speak he even messes up the script. Some where I have read that he has an estimated IQ of about 92. That is not a fact but I have seen it many times.

Answer 9

Smarter than most people and all his opponents
He's been elected 2 times to President
How many times has his opponents been elected President?

Answer 10

He received a Bachelors Degree from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. So, yeah. I think he is.