dphantom
Diamond Member
- Jan 14, 2005
- 4,763
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Good analogy with DDE. He was never at the top of his West Point class (top half though), struggled for many years with menial jobs in the Army, but ended up Supreme Commander in Europe over many other arguably more intelligent generals. He simply had a knack for surrounding himself with competent leaders and making good decisions in a timely manner.
And he ended up being a fairly good President as well.
McShame says he was 894th of 899 in his graduating class at Annapolis. 
After far too long, we're finally about to get rid of one moron who started a war based on lies. We don't need another one who says he would continue the current Traitor In Chief's idiocy. :thumbsdown:
After far too long, we're finally about to get rid of one moron who started a war based on lies. We don't need another one who says he would continue the current Traitor In Chief's idiocy. :thumbsdown:
Lemon law
Lifer
- Nov 6, 2005
- 20,984
- 3
- 0
An interesting point and a valid one. While Nixon may or may not have been a C college student, he never got along with or related well with other people. Another essential quality in a leader that Nixon simply lacked. The only comparable US President might be Grant, and other than an indomitable persistence other generals lacked, he ended up being a poor President.
I had a 2.96 undergrad GPA, then a 3.90 GPA while getting my PhD. You would exclude me from becoming president because I took a hard major and got a correspondingly low undergrad GPA. If the presidency were based on intellect, then none of these knuckle draggers would even be on the ballot. GPA is no indicator of intelligence.
That, and Bush's GPA was actually pretty good. It's a common misconception that he was a poor student, but FactCheck did the research in '04 and showed that he had better grades than Kerry, despite both going to Yale.
Vic
Elite Member
- Jun 12, 2001
- 50,422
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Except he wasn't. I've heard this before and it's just silly. There have been many Presidents, with much greater academic achievements. Bill Clinton's academic record, for instance, is almost inhuman. While all Carter did was graduate in the top 10% of his class at Annapolis. An impressive achievement, for sure, but nothing too remarkable among Presidents of the United States.
Intelligence does not guarantee good. It can also make one better at being evil.
Like the Bushwhackos, Nixon conducted illegal searches and surveillance of American citizens, the most famous of which was breaking into Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office after Ellsberg released The Pentagon Papers which, "demonstrated unconstitutional behavior by a succession of presidents, the violation of their oath and the violation of the oath of every one of their subordinates."
It's our good fortune that Nixon wasn't President with the power of current computers and the Internet. He could have done much more damage to our rights if he'd authorized such illegal searches the way the Bushwhackos have done through the telcos.
At least McCain actually graduated from college, even if he was 5th from the bottom of his class. Daddy Bush bought junior's degree.
Not only that, but in a lot of Masters/PhD programs grades are super inflated. Not that the coursework isn't difficult, but just that the actual grades in the programs aren't as important. My friend just finished her PhD at Harvard, and she was horrified when she got a B+ in a course. Sure she's one of those super academic freaks who would probably be horrified no matter what, but in her program a B+ is basically a 'fuck you' from the professor.
Just saying.
That's not really true. Studies on it show that GPA correlates with IQ to a certain extent, but a student's work ethic contributes far more. (It's r^2 is about twice that of IQ)
Sure there are very smart people who fail out of school, but Einstein, Jobs, and Bill Gates are hardly representative of the average American.
Study here.
Probably never? (maybe Andrew Jackson) That's not what you said though, you said GPA has nothing to do with intelligence. If you had said GPA has nothing to do with intelligence among a select group of American elites then maybe you would be more correct, but I'm not even really sure how you would determine that.
GPA has very little to do with intelligence. However, all things considered I'd MUCH rather back intelligence. You can be bad at something for 100 years if you're stupid, or you can use your heightened intelligence to learn things in just a few months or years.
If you look at grade inflation data you'll see how easy it is for average or slightly below students to get great grades. It's also very common for people with extraordinarily high IQ's to receive poor grades for a number of factors. It only takes an IQ of 100-130 to receive perfect grades through any discipline. Higher than that can actually get in the way. I will admit that a 75IQ would have difficulty keeping a 4.0 through a Masters in physics or engineering, but otherwise they can do fine.
Vic
Elite Member
- Jun 12, 2001
- 50,422
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Truman is probably the closest we ever came to that. He never even went to a college to graduate in the bottom 1% of
Anyway, the OP is a bit silly. What we're really looking for in a POTUS is ability. Intelligence and experience are great and all, but what's really important is that he can get the job done.
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