But the admirable Mr. Bork – Like when he filed a personal injury lawsuit after falling off of a stage. If we had more supreme court justices like Bork, we could put a stop to that kind of outrageous tort law abuse!

Hey, wait a minute…

Jim

The elites in intelligence really don’t know any better what to do with our economy or with our foreign policy than those of average intelligence. A person with an IQ of 145 will absolutely not make a better leader than a person with an IQ of 115. In most cases, the arrogance of the highly intelligent leads them to make the worst possible errors.

Ronald Reagan was not stupid. George Bush is not stupid. Obama is not stupid. I have had it with the last 8 years of the stupid arguement.

The problem is way too much emphasis put on IQ. The thinking that someone who is clever therefore can see the best path has been proven over and over again to be false. Some of the most brilliant academics have been terribly wrong about many things. I really don’t want a rule by an intellectual elite.

I have no idea what Obama’s IQ is. We don’t even have any of his school records, so how can we even tell? But it doesn’t matter. What matters are his ideas, his policy positions, and whether he has any common sense. All he needs as far as smarts go is enough brains to figure out complex ideas. I think he’s got that, at least. But that doesn’t mean he will make good decisions, or lead this country in the right direction.

Nevertheless, ahem, since it seems to be an on-going problem.

And nevertheless, Part 2: I’m still interested in what *is* the Messiah’s IQ, if it’s ever been tested and revealed to the Lessers. Although we probably couldn’t believe whatever number the O camp chose to release any way.

(BC should really consider a preview functionality)

It is particularly unimpressive when it is not matched by any real accomplishment. He does not even seem to have much deep knowledge of the law, for Pete’s sake, and he is a lawyer in his late forties who “taught” at a major university. He does not even seem to be able to think on his feet if the debate are an accurate display of his mental abilities. His personal culture, well…standard lib mediocrity.

I would bet someone like Bork is in the 150 yo 160 range, to put that in perspective, and here is a broadly cultivated man with an admirable personal culture.

When I said he had a “Third Rate Mind” I was setting my standards high.

Let me explain what I meant:
Issac Newton or Plato had “First Rate Minds”, i.e., they are leading intellectual creators of a civilization, (I was leaving artistic/cultural creators out of this, but if they were included, I would put someone like Mozart or Shakespeare here). These folks create the intellectual (or perhaps artistic or cultural) world we live in, such as it is created by individuals at all.

A “Second Rate Mind” understands the implication of first rate minds and is completely fluid and fluent in that world created by the first rate mind and might extend it a bit. A Bork or a Faraday might be an example (or say, Richard Strauss who famously made that self-criticism). They add shape and extend the world they inherit.

A “Third Rate Mind” is educable, but can only grasp a small portion of what the higher order minds pass to it. They are teachers, practitioners, etc. but add little but transmission, interpretation and execution of practice. They move in the world they inherit but rarely shape it. Lots of academics sit here (many, sadly, do not).

If were are to assign scores to this — a dubious exercise — I grant, I would break ir 1: > 160 2. 135 to 159. 3. 110 to 134.

It is a bit bizarre to think of it this way, because most of the first rate mind of our civilization predate IQ testing. We get a handful in a century, if we are lucky, and as I said there is more than native ability in the mix. “Mind” is also a broader concept than IQ, as we all know. Nonetheless, their mental abilities are on a wholly different level than the rest of us, and certainly are at the top of the scale of what the notion of IQ is measuring. I have known a couple, and it is deeply true.

So I think calling him a third rate mind in generous in the extreme. Actually I think 4th rate would be better.

If we are talking about mere cleverness or caginess, the ability to manipulate events and people to one’s ends, well this is an altogether different thing than IQ. This is the area that the left constantly labels “smart”. It rarely is.

Forgive me here if I am being tedious, but it irks me when we through IQs number around in our current society. We cannot seems to put it in the proper perspective. We tend to use the bootless liberal “definition” (a “notion” really). It is hard for us to grasp our limits or appreciate the real human beings whose extraordinary capacites shape our lives.

Note that I do not mean to infer that I confuse High IQ with Wisdom, Truth or Insight. Nor am I talking about “intellectual elites” (shudder).

I should certainly not want to be ruled by a Mozart.

I am just not impressed with Obamas IQ or “Mind”, such as it is. I know hundreds of people with much better minds and native intellects.

I fear that we will have all too many demonstrations of his very real limits in the coming years.

Pace the Mikas, the vast majority of regular commenter on BC, have much better noggins than Obama does (and real world experiences too, for that matter). ThiS should give us pause for he is being sold to us as the owner of some almost gnostic mental ability, not one who possesses actual accopmlishment of demonstrable experience.