Can Obama Hang Pictures?

David Corn comes up with two thoughts in one day. Unsurprisingly, neither is particularly meaningful:

Watching President Barack Obama at the White House health care summit last week, it was hard not to have an obvious thought: Could George W. Bush have done this? It is tough to imagine Bush leading a seven-hour gabfest on a complex policy matter, being able to master the specifics and nuances, and field questions about in-the-weeds details as Obama did. Which brings me to another idea: Are Democratic presidents smarter than Republican presidents?

With regards to Thought #1: It never would have occurred to George W. Bush to spend 7 hours on any policy issue, much less spend 7 hours on a complex policy issue in public bore-fest fashion.

With regards to Thought #2: Who cares? Raw intelligence in and of itself is not a useful (i.e., accurate) predictor of either achievement or success in a leadership role.

Corn goes on to explain just how super-smart Jimmy Carter was, and how dumb Ronald Reagan was. Then he comes to the obvious conclusion:

Obviously, conventional intelligence is not the key ingredient for a successful politician or president. After all, Reagan and Bush II enacted key aspects of their agendas -- for good or bad -- and won re-election. Maybe the question is, not which presidents are smarter, but whether it matters?

Duh.

When I was young my father had a friend who was an extremely successful consulting engineer. He was the guy other engineers went to when they simply couldn't figure something out. One day he was talking to my father about some issue he'd managed to resolve for a large engineering firm and I blurted out something to the effect of "You must be the smartest engineer there is". His response was to laugh and tell me the following story...

The smartest man my father's engineer friend said he knew was a professor of engineering he had studied under. The man had multiple Ph.D.s and a brilliant record in academia. But, for all his brilliance in matters theoretical, he could not learn how to hang a picture. Dad's engineer friend then told us that once the professor invited him to dinner, and when he arrived, the professor handed him a hammer and nails. There were pictures leaning up against walls throughout the house. He had to hang pictures for the smartest engineer he knew, because that engineer couldn't master engineering at a practical level of putting a nail in drywall correctly.

Intelligence matters, but it is not the be-all and end-all. Barack Obama is proving that.

Comments

[Flit]

Agreed. I think the best way to look at it is "Stupidity matters. Brilliance, not as much." I know plenty of brilliant people who can't stick with something, contextualize their expertise or ... hang a picture.

[Randy Rager]

Didn't Truman say something like "The world is run by the B students"?

He was the last Democrat I've ever felt any admiration for.

[President Barack Obama]

But...but...I won the election...I won the Nobel Peace Prize...I'm articulate...

STOP LAUGHING AT ME!

[richard mcenroe]

Obama doesn't have to hang pictures. Michelle just drives the nails in with her brow.

Of course,as he demonstrated by his sulkfest at the summit, he can't hang pork,either...

[richard mcenroe]

If Obama had been a B student,his transcript would have been front page on the NYT and WAPO. "SMARTER THAN GEORGE 'C' BUSH"

He wasn't. Not even close.

[Mike Myers]

Actually only a sycophant like David Corn would claim that Obama showed a mastery of all the details and "nuances" in the health care legislation. There were numerous instances where it appeared that Obama had not mastered the legislation--and some of the Rethugs (as Corn would name them) had a better grasp of the details. Of course I'll concede that Obama was the best that the Dems had on offer that day. But that's like saying that he was the best clunker on the used car lot.

[Useless Dissident]

I don't think he is at all smart. He's just comfortable as a college student, using academic speech. That doesn't make him smart, and it definitely doesn't make him a capable leader.

[kansas]

He's so nuanced he told some asinine irrelevant story about the liability insurance he had on his junker while in college. The Dem sob stories were equally amusing. I'm sure you all enjoyed hearing about the woman who had to wear her dead sister's dentures.

[bandit]

Academic affectations are often mistaken for intelligence.

[Steve In Tulsa]

Barry did none of that stuff. He ignored every issue brought up and said we won't talk about that now. He shrugged off every single item saying things like; I am the president now. That hardly shows a grasp of the issues or any ability to discuss them. The ability to ignore arguments is not the hallmark of an ability to discuss issues in the weeds.

It is as Reagan said, "There is so much they know that isn't true."

[aelfheld]

He's incapable of learning, is incoherent without his teleprompter and a bore with it, yet we still persist in bowing to his brain power?

[richard mcenroe]

I'm not bowing to his brainpower. I'm ducking his flying bullshit.

[Zimriel]

Also, the doctors' report is in, and as Drudge has been highlighting, Obama needs to moderate his alcohol intake.

i.e., his intake has not been "moderate" over 2009. He's been drunk the whole time.

[Jon]

What some people forget is that the most important qualities of leadership are those of character rather than intellect. Something Reagan had in spades and Obama certainly lacks.

[Guesst]

1. Bush would have no problem conducting such a meeting.

2. We can't know if Dem presidents are smarter, since voters have rarely been electing them in the past 30 years.

[Jon L.]

Perhaps it's not such a brilliant intellectual vs. smart technician divide in hanging canvases. Anyone over three can hammer a nail into drywall and anyone over the age of consent should be able to locate a stud. Genius lies both in deciding WHERE to hammer the nail/s for best placement and balance of art and, in the gestalt-challenged, realizing they don't want to make that kind of commitment on their own. You can have a bright dynamic of complementary talent and intuition in the right relationships, no matter who's wielding the hammer or academic credentials.

Our President doesn't come off as brilliant or bright to me- just credentialed, glib, jargoned, entitled, aloof, thin-skinned, angry and a curious mixture of disengaged and determined.

[Simon]

I was just listening to a podcast by Dan Carlin to this effect. Intelligence can be a real barrier to action. Carlin puts Nixon up as a good combination of smart guy and man of action. Says Nixon's books were brilliant (this coming from a guy -Carlin-who I would characterise as a bit of a lefty). Anyone read anything by Nixon ?

[ech]

I know people that have been in meeting with GWB when he was governor of Texas. They describe him as intelligent and focused in the meetings. He ran things like a CEO does - gets staff papers and reads them, meets with the key players, picks at their recommendations, makes decisions.

[Jon L.]

Despite his well-spokenness, Obama doesn't come off as the kind of "smart" person needed in the WH b/c he can't partner well, either with his party or the country at large. As for his educational background, to me, he'd be more effective and credible as an intellectual were he to have a degree in astrophysics* from a community college than a poli sci diploma from Columbia. Yes, he earned a law degree from Harvard and was elected head of the Law Review, but who anymore believes in Ivy League meritocracy when those schools have discredited themselves by superseding irritating WASPy elitism with fascistly leftist political correctness, multicultural quotas and Beautiful People fetishism?

IOW, imho, Obama hasn't proved he has much raw intelligence, only processed demeanor and schooled responses for speeches and interviews. He's leaden on his feet when it comes to important socio dynamics and in getting the gestalt of this country. If one were paranoid and thought him intellectually superior, then he'd be seen as a traitorous agent of Change and Hope for a USSA to come. There are those who do, but I stick with the notion of him being a smooth but not really smart garden-variety leftist who only knows (and is not directly proficient in) Chicago-style behind-the-scenes politics, and who may be backed by M. Strong men types. Small consolation, sure.

*unless they're teaching post-normal cosmology now, with an emphasis on prog politics and grants. And they very well may

[Hot Pants]

Obama's intelligence, or lack thereof , is obscured by his intellectual dishonesty.

Obama can't hang a picture but that doesn't matter. He will just say that the picture is hanging, even if it still leans against the wall.

[ThomasD]

President George W Bush would have never spent seven hours without accomplishing something.

That's the cob up Corn's ass.

[Eric Blair]

I once read a 19th century comment about American soldiers, from an officer, describing them as stupid, but extremely cunning, so that they needed to be watched at all times.

I'm reminded of this now, after watching the President for a year. I don't think he's that smart, but he was cunning enough to take advantage of opportunities that moved him up the ladder, so to speak, but now that he's at the top, and isn't on his way to the next promotion, he's trapped.

Not pretty.

And Richard is totally correct: If Obama had decent grades in school, we'd all have them fucking memorized by now, because they'd have been trumpeted at every possible opportunity.