Politics: G. W. Bush has the lowest IQ of all the American Presidents in the last 60 years

The Lovenstein Institute of Scranton, Pennsylvania has just published report of a four month study of the intelligence quotient of President George W. Bush. Since 1973, this Institute has published its research to the education community on each new president, which includes the famous "IQ" report among others. The report indicates that there were twelve presidents over the past 60 years, from F. D. Roosevelt to G. W. Bush who were all rated based on scholarly achievements, writings that they alone produced without aid of staff, their ability to speak with clarity, and several other psychological factors. The study determined the IQs of the different American Presidents as accurate to within five percentage points, the highest score was William (Bill) Clinton (Democrat) with 182, the lowest… George W. Bush (Republican) with 91… James E. Carter (D) with 176, Ronald W. Reagan (R) had 105, John F. Kennedy (D) 174, Richard M. Nixon (R) 155, Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) 147 and George H. W. Bush (R) 98 (the father of George W. Bush).

The six Republican presidents of the past 60 years had an average IQ of 115.5, but President G. W. Bush was rated the lowest of all the Republicans with only 91. The six Democrat presidents had IQs with an average of 156, well above the Republicans (no wonder) with Bill Clinton having the highest IQ, at 182. Actually no president other than Carter (D) has released his actual IQ, of 176.

The low ratings of President G.W. Bush are due to his apparent difficulty to command the English language in public statements, his limited use of vocabulary (6,500 words versus an average of 11,000 words for other presidents), his lack of scholarly achievements other than a basic MBA, and an absence of any body of work which could be studied on an intellectual basis. "All the Presidents prior to George W. Bush had a least one book under their belt, and most had written several white papers during their education or early careers. Not so with President Bush," Dr. Lovenstein said. "He has no published works or writings, so in many ways that made it more difficult to arrive at an assessment. We had to rely more heavily on transcripts of his unscripted public speaking."

The IQ or Intelligence Quotient is an attempt to measure intelligence or a person's mental agility. Usually IQ values of 130 or more are classified as "very superior" (some 2.2 % of population); between 120 and 129, as "superior" (6.7%); between 110 and 119, as "normal high" (16.1%); between 90 and 109, as "average" (50%); and between 80 and 89 as "normal low" (16,1%); between 70 and 79 as "border" (6,7%) and of 69 or lower as "mentally hindered" (2,2%). But there are many standard IQ tests in use around the world. On most intelligence tests, average IQ score is 100. For instance the Mensa (the High IQ Society) only offers membership to anyone whose IQ score places them within the top two per cent of the population, no matter which approved test was used. Have you ever tried it?
But of course all these tests have their own shortcomings… for instance anyone familiar with and used to these type of multiple choice questions, quiz and puzzle tests will score higher than others not used to it.

> Thanks to Hector for the tip. Click here to read a related article in spanish.