Comments on: Obama may not be dumb…

By: David Gillies

David Gillies — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 22:21:08 +0000

97% graduation? Jeez. I studied Physics at Imperial College London in the late 80’s and we were considered the creme de la creme. The dumbest guy in the whole class of 200 had smarter dandruff than Obama. We had about a 75% graduation rate. About 8% of the bloodied remnants that staggered into the third year achieved a First (equivalent to summa cum laude). Another 15%, including me, got a 2:1 (cf magna cum laude). Most of the rest got a 2:2 (cum laude). The ones that scraped it got a 3rd class degree.

By: Richard Saunders

Richard Saunders — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 19:03:43 +0000

Hubris brings on Nemesis. Problem is, Nemesis tends to create a lot of collateral damage while wreaking havoc on the hubnstic.

By: neo-neocon

neo-neocon — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 18:52:36 +0000

West1890: no, he was both (as I wrote here).

By: gs

gs — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 18:03:52 +0000

It is not smart to overrate yourself. Therefore, smart people do not overrate themselves.

No true Scotsman? (With all due respect to Dunning-Kruger.)

By: west1890

west1890 — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:41:12 +0000

Hate to nit pik, but Obama was PRESIDENT of the Law Review, not the the Editor….big difference

By: AmishDude

AmishDude — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:19:15 +0000

Of course the stupid are allowed near Harvard. That’s why they have a law school. It has a 97% graduation rate. Look it up, they brag about it.

I guess that journalists and the like would think that people who majored in the wussmanities or social-promotion sciences and stumbled into law school might be smart.

From where I sit, however, a student getting a C in calculus at Directional Podunk State University is showing more intellectual mettle than the top of the class at Harvard Law.

By: rfichoke

rfichoke — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:02:28 +0000

I don’t think it’s a matter of Obama–or other liberals–overestimating their intelligence. I think many of them are genuinely intelligent. The problem is that they overestimate their ability to change the way the world works. They believe they are born to rule and others are born to obey. They see themselves as social engineers whose destiny it is to bring heaven on earth.

They’re morally evil.

By: Richard Aubrey

Richard Aubrey — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 13:06:28 +0000

David Gillies.
You make a good point. Really bright people, such as I might encounter from time to time in my extremely average travels, will speak with authority of issues in their field. Outside their field, if a subject comes up, they get a little smile and say, “let’s check that out”, anticipating the fun of learning something.
When you think about it, who’s most certain, most aggressively certain, about everything????

By: neo-neocon

neo-neocon — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:49:21 +0000

locustofTX: that may be because the magna cum laude issue was previously discussed at great length here. Apparently, when Obama was at Harvard Law, magna cum laude degrees were given out to a much higher percentage of the class.

By: locustofTX

locustofTX — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 08:57:48 +0000

There’s also the fact that he graduated magna cum laude, of which one of the requirements is being in the top 10% of the class. Whereas Bush was a c-student. I’m surprised no one brought that up.