Thanks to Flea for sending me this link to this Boston Globe article that questions the assertions made by partisans on the Left that George Bush is so much duller a light than John Kerry. It turns out they are equally dull. In fact, John Kerry may be a notch duller than George W. Bush. An earlier IQ comparison had shown that George W. Bush was slightly higher on the scale than Kerry.

Anyway it just goes to show that speaking ability is not a very good measure of intelligence. It is said that James Madison was a horrible speaker with a squeaky little voice. I take it we all can agree that Madison stands only next to Jefferson in terms of pure political genius?

Yes, George W. Bush is a horrible, horrible speaker, but even if Daddy Bush got him into Yale it was still Shrimp-Chub-Bush who managed to get out of Yale and then go on to Harvard for an MBA. Me? I just went to the local community college for awhile, then on to a small state college, before moving on to a large private university known primarily for their football team and toga parties. And I think we can all agree that I'm no genius despite my excellent speaking abilities. Oh, wait. None of you have heard me speak. *sigh* That'll have to wait for The Jawa Report podcast.

UPDATE: Apparently I'm the last blogger on earth to here about this. That's only because my wards keep me in a hermeutically sealed room in an ongoing experiment to test Schroedinger's 'jawa in box' experiment. Does Rusty really exist in such a state? Quantum physics says both yes and no at the same time, but I'm not so sure.

Anyway, Ace gave me a chuckle with this one, "Shockingly enough, one of Kerry's highest grades (and yet still not all that good) was in... French."

Oh, and The Ankle Biting Pundits manage to use the word tergiversations in a sentence, "Of course, during the campaign, his staff went the extra mile to say that his frequent tergiversations were due to his superior intellect. We can all have a good laugh now."

On a more serious note, Aylward chimes in, "Evidently the erudite persona Kerry has worked tirelessly over the years to create wouldn't allow him to acknowledge his own failures. He paid a hefty price for his stubbornness - the Presidency."

Michelle Malkin has a much more complete roundup, as I'm desperately needed elsewhere and don't have the time right now to see where this thing is going.

It looks like all you guys are going to have to take down your 'Sign the SF-180 Form' banners.

Llamas make me yip, orgle, and laugh!

UPDATE: Holy shit, Kos says something that is both reasonable and remarkably intelligent for once!! (well, a single sentence, but I'll take it) "Why the hell didn't he release these documents earlier?"

UPDATE II: Whoa. Check out what John O'Neil from the Swifties says to Matt Margolis about Kerry's less than forthcoming release of his records.

We called for Kerry to execute a form which would permit anyone to examine his full and unexpulgated military records at the Navy Department and the National Personnel Records Center. Instead he executed a form permitting his hometown paper to obtain the records currently at the Navy Department. The Navy Department previously indicated its records did not include various materials. This is hardly what we called for. If he did execute a complete release of all records we could then answer questions such as (1)Did he ever receive orders to Cambodia or file any report of such a mission (whether at Christmas or otherwise); (2) What was his discharge status between 1970 and 1978 (when he received a discharge) and was it affected by his meetings in 1970 and 1971 with the North Vietnamese? (3)why did he receive much later citations for medals purportedly signed by Secretary Lehman who said he did not know of them; (4) Are there Hostile Fire and Personnel Injured by Hostile Fire Reports for Kerry's Dec. 1968 Purple Heart (when the officer in charge of the boat Admiral Schacte, the treating Surgeon Louis Letsos, and Kerry's Division Commander deny there was hostile fire causing a scratch) awarded three months later under unknown circumstances.

During last year's presidential campaign, John F. Kerry was the candidate often portrayed as intellectual and complex, while George W. Bush was the populist who mangled his sentences.

But newly released records show that Bush and Kerry had a virtually identical grade average at Yale University four decades ago.

In 1999, The New Yorker published a transcript indicating that Bush had received a cumulative score of 77 for his first three years at Yale and a roughly similar average under a non-numerical rating system during his senior year.

Kerry, who graduated two years before Bush, got a cumulative 76 for his four years, according to a transcript that Kerry sent to the Navy when he was applying for officer training school. He received four D's in his freshman year out of 10 courses, but improved his average in later years.

The grade transcript, which Kerry has always declined to release, was included in his Navy record. During the campaign the Globe sought Kerry's naval records, but he refused to waive privacy restrictions for the full file. Late last month, Kerry gave the Navy permission to send the documents to the Globe.

Kerry appeared to be responding to critics who suspected that there might be damaging information in the file about his activities in Vietnam. The military and medical records, however, appear identical to what Kerry has already released. This marks the first time Kerry's grades have been publicly reported.

The transcript shows that Kerry's freshman-year average was 71. He scored a 61 in geology, a 63 and 68 in two history classes, and a 69 in political science. His top score was a 79, in another political science course. Another of his strongest efforts, a 77, came in French class.

Under Yale's grading system in effect at the time, grades between 90 and 100 equaled an A, 80-89 a B, 70-79 a C, 60 to 69 a D, and anything below that was a failing grade. In addition to Kerry's four D's in his freshman year, he received one D in his sophomore year. He did not fail any courses.

''I always told my Dad that D stood for distinction," Kerry said yesterday in a written response to questions, noting that he has previously acknowledged that he spent a lot of time learning to fly instead of focusing on his studies.

Kerry's weak grades came despite years of education at some of the world's most elite prep schools, ranging from Fessenden School in Massachusetts to St. Paul's School in New Hampshire.

It is noteworthy, however, that Kerry received a high honor at Yale despite his mediocre grades: He was chosen to deliver his senior class oration, a testament to his reputation as a public speaker. He delivered a speech questioning the wisdom of the Vietnam War, in which he would soon see combat.

Kerry gradually improved his grades, averaging 81 in his senior year. His highest single grade was an 89, for a political science class in his senior year. Despite his slow start, he went on to be a top student at Naval Candidate School, command a patrol boat in Vietnam, graduate from law school, and become a prosecutor, lieutenant governor, US senator, and presidential candidate...

Bush went to Yale from 1964 to 1968; his highest grades were 88s in anthropology, history, and philosophy, according to The New Yorker article. He received one D in his four years, a 69 in astronomy. Bush has said he was a C student.

Like Kerry, Bush reportedly suffered through a difficult freshman year and then pulled his grades up.

Posted by: Rusty at 11:58 AM | Comments (29) | Add Comment
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