Is Palin stupider than GWB?

[Resume]

I don't think they are as much stupid as they are willfully unread, and unlettered. They know there are mathy and sciency books but they pay them as much attention as the average American, which is to say enough to get by.

Which is why, say for instance, Palin was appalled by the infamous fruit fly study funding (in Paris, France geez-oh-Pete!) without understanding the importance of the funding.

I don't think you can get to where they are by being curbstone stupid, but they are certainly not intellectuals.

My take.

 

[GlennB]

hard to say which one of those 2 retards is stupider.

To be politically correct you should say "they are differently retarded".

 

[DC]

To be politically correct you should say "they are differently retarded".

oops yep, sorry didnt want to offend retards

 

[Meadmaker]

I voted yes, but let's be fair about something.

She has been governor of a state and a vice presidential candidate. She knows something that I don't.

Meanwhile, GWB has a Harvard MBA. I'm confident that he wouldn't have gotten into that program without his father and grandfather's influence. However, I'm fairly confident that that wouldn't be enough to get him a diploma. He can't be as dumb as we sometimes make him out to be.

ETA: I think Resume got it right.

 

[Lurker]

I am with Meadmaker and Resume on this one. Calling either of them stupid requires a redefining of the word stupid.

"Stupid" Bush somehow outmaneuvered Democrats for eight years. When their grades finally came out, Bush had a higher GPA than the Dems intellectual candidate Kerry.

"Stupid" Palin continues to know how to manage the media better than most Dems. Sure, she is the exact opposite of worldly but she is canny and canny is a component of intelligence.

Neither are stupid in my books. Both lack intellectual curiosity but there are plenty of smart people like that. I won't say they are geniuses, that's for sure, but stupid they are not.

Between the two of them, I consider bush more intelligent. Just my opinion.

 

[casebro]

I think I'd take Palin over Obama any day.

Not for particular qualifications, but so far B.O. has done major gaffes because he won't listen/doesn't have handlers with good advice. I get the sense that B.O. is a loose cannon, doing his own thing, with no input from the career Dems, or the career bureaucrats.

I'll vote for "The Republic Machine" once again.

 

[Crossbow]

I think I'd take Palin over Obama any day.

Not for particular qualifications, but so far B.O. has done major gaffes because he won't listen/doesn't have handlers with good advice. I get the sense that B.O. is a loose cannon, doing his own thing, with no input from the career Dems, or the career bureaucrats.

I'll vote for "The Republic Machine" once again.

Thanks much!

After reading your tag lines I can see why you believe that such things about Obama and Palin.

 

[Accidental Martyr]

I think I'd take Palin over Obama any day.

Wow.

 

[Spindrift]

This thread is stupider then any of mine (and that's saying a lot).

Don't sell yourself short.

 

[Jekyll's Guest]

"Stupid" Bush somehow outmaneuvered Democrats for eight years. When their grades finally came out, Bush had a higher GPA than the Dems intellectual candidate Kerry.

"Stupid" Palin continues to know how to manage the media better than most Dems. Sure, she is the exact opposite of worldly but she is canny and canny is a component of intelligence.

Crap.

Politics isn't the SAT, it's choosing the Prom King and Queen.

They could fling their own poo, as long as they're well packaged by their handlers.

 

[roger]

Politics isn't the SAT, it's choosing the Prom King and Queen.

? But we aren't discussing politics, we are discussing intelligence. I'd say school performance bears on that subject.

I'm democrat, and didn't really like either as a candidate or President, but there are far dumber people out there. So I found myself agreeing with Lurker's post. 'Vapid' comes to mind long before stupid does, for both of them.

But, to be honest, I wouldn't know how to estimate stupidity/intelligence levels between two people I know well and spend a lot of time with. Yes, gross imbalances are obvious - the woman who re-derived much of the calculus on her own vs the guy who gets confused as to when using multiplication vs division - but other than that? Pretty hard to say.

I'm guessing that a big problem they face is not being compared to the average person, but to the average politician running for a high office. Think about it - what was the last political comment you heard while paying for gas at the convenience store. I'm going to guess it was pretty uni-dimensional and fairly self serving (laws should be such that I maximally benefit - and any trade off or complication gets hand waved away as nonexistent or unimportant). I'd say they both easily beat that level of introspection and discourse. OTOH, I don't see much in either that would allow them to analyze a new problem and come up with a well rounded, effective approach. I see them applying party lines to the problem. I could be quite wrong, of course - it's not like I've ever spent any time in their presence.

 

[rwguinn]

POLL: Is Palin actually stupider than GWB?

Neither one of them is stupid about everything.
The people who idolize them, however...

 

[DC]

I think I'd take Palin over Obama any day.

.....

me to but not for politics. she is looking hot as long you don't listen to her nonsense.

 

[Jekyll's Guest]

? But we aren't discussing politics, we are discussing intelligence.

He was talking about 'outmaneuvering Democrats for 8 years', insinuating that Bush was the wily fox of politics. Whereas in actuality he got elected and reelected by appealing to people's reptile brain, and was puppet in chief during complete Republican dominance.

I find Sarah Palin as 'canny' as Prince Philip. She was an utter failure at being a mayor and Governor, and is so terrible at interviews that her handlers only let her take part in the the softest of softball sit downs.

Both are vacuous human beings who, were they not backed by insanely powerful groups and/or family wealth would be lucky to be doing menial labor jobs at the mall.

 

[Brainster]

Damning with faint praise?

Puppycow was referring to this famous incident:

One of the most overlooked episodes during the 1987 collapse of Biden's campaign was a snippet of footage captured by C-Span in which the Delaware senator, in response to a question about where he went to law school and what sort of grades he received, delivered this classic line: "I think I have a much higher IQ than you do."

Video:



What the Washington Post ignores (conveniently) is that Biden makes several assertions about how smart he was--full academic scholarship, top third of his class, winner of an international moot court competition, outstanding student in the poli-sci department, etc. The amusing thing? Not one of those claims turned out to be true.

 

[carlitos]

I don't think they are as much stupid as they are willfully unread, and unlettered.

This thread is stupid, but this common misperception deserves a response. Much to the chagrin of his detractors, GW Bush is quite well read. Feel free to point and laugh or whatever, but it's true. He's married to a librarian, for pete's sake. People I know and respect discussed books with him and were amazed of the breadth of his reading.

 

[Jekyll's Guest]

This thread is stupid, but this common misperception deserves a response. Much to the chagrin of his detractors, GW Bush is quite well read. Feel free to point and laugh or whatever, but it's true. He's married to a librarian, for pete's sake. People I know and respect discussed books with him and were amazed of the breadth of his reading.

He can tell you which issue they introduced the Riddler.

 

[Resume]

This thread is stupid, but this common misperception deserves a response. Much to the chagrin of his detractors, GW Bush is quite well read. Feel free to point and laugh or whatever, but it's true. He's married to a librarian, for pete's sake. People I know and respect discussed books with him and were amazed of the breadth of his reading.

Examples? If you would be so kind. Just for my edification.

 

[Almo]

I think I'd take Palin over Obama any day.

Not for particular qualifications, but so far B.O. has done major gaffes because he won't listen/doesn't have handlers with good advice. I get the sense that B.O. is a loose cannon, doing his own thing, with no input from the career Dems, or the career bureaucrats.

I'll vote for "The Republic Machine" once again.

There has to be an award somewhere for this. There just has to be.

 

[DC]

There has to be an award somewhere for this. There just has to be.

yeah something like non CT stundies?