The Nigh Seen Creeder

Historian Michael Beschloss was on Imus in the Morning earlier this week. When the conversation turned to B. Hussein Obama, Beschloss said Obama had a higher IQ than any other 2008 presidential aspirant. When quizzed by Imus, Beschloss admitted he doesn't know what Obama's IQ is. Then Beschloss said this:

"Obama is the smartest person to ever become President."

Was Beschloss drunk when he said that?! Does he honestly believe that Obama bests Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, or James Madison, Father of the U.S. Constitution and co-author of the Federalist, on the Smartest Ever scale? Hell, an honest historian would rank Woodrow Wilson ahead of Obama.

Unlike Obama, Wilson had a distinguished career in academia prior to being elected President. He was a professor of political science and the president of Princeton, and he wrote six academic tomes, including the five-volume A History of the American People. (Now don't get me wrong, I'm no big Woodrow Wilson fan. Wilson was an avowed racist, and some of his wartime measures smacked of fascism.)

So, what proof does Michael Beschloss have that Obama is one of the smartest guys to ever become prez, or, more importantly the smartest. The answer, of course, is none. If I could interview Beschloss, I would ask him to consider this ...

Obama steadfastly refused to release his college transcripts during the 2008 camapaign, so we have absolutely no idea how his undergraduate and post-graduate studies played out.

Obama's stint as a "lecturer" at Harvard Law School was brief and undistinguished, and he published no scholarly articles during that time.

And speaking of writing, the two books Obama has published - memoirs both - are full of weepy self-reflection and Oprah-esque emotionalism, and neither contain what anyone would consider deep cogitations on economics, political science, history, pedagogy, etc. Oh, sure, his Audacity of Hope talks about the need to "invest" hither and yon, but it's the same kind of piddlin' crap that Democrats of all stripes propose -- even those who're not considered the smartest of the smart.

Finally, I've yet to hear a single Obama supporter who can, when quizzed, name a single piece of significant legislation he sponsored and helped pass into law during his four years in the U.S. Senate. Even his Senate colleagues have a hard time with that question.

... and then I would ask him if he still thinks Obama is the "smartest person to ever become president." If he answered in the affirmative, I would ... well, I don't know what I'd do. I'm sure it would include four-letter words and lots of a certain historian being an "idiot." Or worse.

In April 1962, President John F. Kennedy hosted a dinner for a group of Nobel Prize winners at The White House. During remarks to welcome his guests, Kennedy said, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House — with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." Kennedy was on to something. If a dozen Obamas were somehow able to take up residence in the White House, their collective smarts wouldn't equal that of one Thomas Jefferson's.

Any serious historian should know that. Indeed.