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Obama's Problem as 'The Smartest Person in the Room'
The American Thinker ^ | December 21, 2010 | Larrey Anderson

Posted on 12/21/2010 3:07:28 AM PST by Scanian

Since Obama first stepped on the national stage, pundits have fallen all over each other in a race to declare that Obama is special type of genius. Tom Shales of the WaPo recently called Obama "the smartest kid in the class." Billionaire Julian Robertson claimed, "Obama, from all I read, thinks that on every occasion that he is the smartest person in the room. And I think he often probably is. ..."

Robertson may be half-right. Obama apparently does consider himself the smartest person in every room. According to Peter Baker of the NYT, "One prominent Democratic lawmaker told me Obama's problem is that he is not insecure -- he always believes he is the smartest person in any room and never feels the sense of panic. ... [Emphasis added.]"

How do Shales, Robertson, and even Obama know that the president is the smartest kid in the class or the smartest guy in the room? There is an interesting and little-discussed quandary (in logic it is called an aporia) in the assertion that person X, whoever that might be, is the smartest person in the room.

Before we examine this problem, let's set down some parameters. What do these people mean by "smartest"? Since the discussion is about politics, it is fairly safe to assume that "smartest" does not refer to some standard test for intelligence.

Thinking it through, Obama's admirers cannot be referring to his IQ. In terms of IQ, Obama is clearly not the smartest person in any room he enters. The fact of the matter is that Obama's IQ scores have not been made public. Guesses by enthusiasts of his IQ range from 140 to 170 [i]. Obama's detractors calculate a much lower IQ.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: genius; humility; intelligence; machiavellian
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To: Scanian

If O is the smartest person in the room, what does that tell you about everybody else in the room?................


41 posted on 12/21/2010 5:29:27 AM PST by Red Badger (Whenever these vermin call you an “idiot”, you can be sure that you are doing to something right.)
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To: ClearCase_guy
In my younger days I ran a fairly large company. My claim to fame was that I achieved that position by always hiring people that were smarter than I was to support me and then taking good care of them. I always hired an assistant that could do my job. That made me redundant in that position so I would be elevated to the next position.

You are only as good as your supporting cast. Choose well!

42 posted on 12/21/2010 5:46:07 AM PST by River_Wrangler (Nothing difficult is ever easy!)
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To: Scanian

Yep. He's the smartest Wee Wee in the room all right. No doubt in my mind at all.

43 posted on 12/21/2010 5:49:26 AM PST by Zakeet (Always trust in the five G's: God, Gold, Guns, Grub, and the Government screwing up)
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To: Scanian
How do Shales, Robertson, and even Obama know that the president is the smartest kid in the class or the smartest guy in the room? There is an interesting and little-discussed quandary (in logic it is called an aporia) in the assertion that person X, whoever that might be, is the smartest person in the room.

I had to look up the meaning of the word aporia, and this is what I got

Logic, Philosophy . a difficulty encountered in establishing the theoretical truth of a proposition, created by the presence of evidence both for and against it.

I see the major problem with the article in that definition. I can find no evidence that obama is intelligent at all. The only evidence that obama is smart and intelligent has been made from whole cloth by the media and the left. Yes, he is savvy, and a very good speech reader. Anytime ANYTHING is put in front of him that takes any semblance of intelligence, or common sense, he is tripped up and looks like a complete buffoon. If not for machinations of a compliant media and the blind ideology of his followers the man would have been run out of politics long ago.

44 posted on 12/21/2010 5:54:16 AM PST by Turbo Pig (...to close with and destroy the enemy...)
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To: FreedomForce

Kerry’s IQ was lower than Bush’s and they spun it by hiding the fact until the bitter end.


45 posted on 12/21/2010 5:54:33 AM PST by CaptainK (...please make it stop. Shake a can of pennies at it.)
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To: Scanian

I agree with Rush. Baraq is the LEAST qualified person in ANY room. Kind of takes one to back t William F. Buckley’s comment about the Bronx (was it the Bronx?) telephone directory. Just run your finger down the list of names and you’ll find more qualified people.


46 posted on 12/21/2010 6:08:43 AM PST by RoadTest (Religion is a substitute for the relationship God wants with you.)
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To: RoadTest

I think it wwas Boston because he was making the point that he’d rather be governed by the first couple hundred people in the phone book than by the Harvard faculty.


47 posted on 12/21/2010 6:13:50 AM PST by Scanian
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To: Haiku Guy

Someone bashing IQ tests almost certainly can’t do very good on them.


48 posted on 12/21/2010 6:16:54 AM PST by Tolsti2
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To: Tolsti2
Someone bashing IQ tests almost certainly can’t do very good on them.

I have never taken an IQ test. Why should I?

49 posted on 12/21/2010 6:42:26 AM PST by Haiku Guy (What we've got here is ... failure to communicate.)
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To: Scanian
To Obama's sycophants, their perception is their reality. They expect him to be the smartest person not merely in the room but on the planet, and therefore he necessarily is.

Peter Sellers starred in the movie in the early 1980s--Being There--that comically portrayed this very phenomenon.

50 posted on 12/21/2010 6:51:49 AM PST by behzinlea
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To: Haiku Guy

They are very good at testing the upper bounds of your problem solving abilities. Don’t do any online ones though, it has to be a real timed one.


51 posted on 12/21/2010 6:58:50 AM PST by Tolsti2
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To: Gondring

I would say Barry is about average intelligence. If you have ever watched one of his inteviews on TV its apparent that he is not a deep thinker. The guy cannot spit out a cogent paragraph without a teleprompter. Not a sign of brilliance. This is the guy who has pushed one failing policy after another for the past 2 years. He is committed since childhood to the Communist manifesto and he has an agenda of destroying the US capitalist systema and replacing it with Communism or statism. Thats it. Its very simple. We just need to stop him and very soon.


52 posted on 12/21/2010 7:48:49 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: Tolsti2

I still don’t see the “why”. Problems are fun. Crosswords, brain-teasers, etc... sure. But why take an IQ test?


53 posted on 12/21/2010 7:56:17 AM PST by Haiku Guy (What we've got here is ... failure to communicate.)
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To: Scanian

The fact of the matter is that Obama’s IQ scores have not been made public. Guesses by enthusiasts of his IQ range from 140 to 170 [i]. Obama’s detractors calculate a much lower IQ.


Hahahaha

Yo Obama, no problemo.

Release your SAT scores and the matching IQ scores are all easily available for all to see and posted online.

Bet it’s way way way lower than 140.

Bet he can’t even get into Mensa.

Not to mention the 9999 club.

The guy is a skilled actor NOT a genius.


54 posted on 12/21/2010 7:58:20 AM PST by DontTreadOnMe2009 (So stop treading on me already!)
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To: Scanian

I dismiss out of hand the idea that any leftist can be the smartest person in the room. If much of your brain is consumed by Marxist-redistributionist-get even with your own country thinking, then you clearly are not the smartest person in the room. There are positive mental attributes and negative mental attributes. Obama has quite a bit of the latter. Having too many negative mental attributes detracts severely from your overall knowledge quotient.


55 posted on 12/21/2010 8:02:30 AM PST by driftless2 (For long-term happiness, learn how to play the accordion.)
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To: allmost

I was in that! Only, by the time I got started, they had changed it to Odyssey of the Mind. Great times!!!!


56 posted on 12/21/2010 10:46:50 AM PST by CharlieOK1 (m Ò_ó m)
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To: AdmSmith; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; bigheadfred; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; Delacon; ...
...pundits have fallen all over each other in a race to declare that Obama is special type of genius.
And for pundits read partisan media shills. Thanks Scanian.


57 posted on 12/21/2010 4:38:37 PM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: SunkenCiv
"Obama's Problem as 'The Smartest Person in the Room[?]'"

He's the dumbest person in the room.

58 posted on 12/21/2010 5:17:34 PM PST by TheOldLady ("I WILL PLANT. I WILL HARVEST. I WILL RESIST WITH FORCE...ANY ATTEMPT TO STOP ME." - Lazamataz)
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To: The Comedian

Yeah, where ARE those Transcripts?... hmmm.

ARROGANCE does not = SKILLS, INTELLIGENCE.

Bambam’s the perfected outcome of the SELF-ESTEEM MOVEMENT in EDUCATION.

Let’s worry for the country...


59 posted on 12/22/2010 4:44:48 PM PST by 4Liberty ( How do you spell "moral hazard"?: $ 19, 0 0 0, 0 0 0, 0 0 0, 0 0 0.)
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