Should There Be A Minumum IQ Score To Be President of the US???

[Blackhatjack]

At some point there is bound to be someone who wants to be President, has the money and power behind him to make it happen, and yet he/she does not have the mental intellect to carry out the duties of that office.

It could happen.

Has it already happened?

[Fridays Child]

1. Some sociopaths have IQs in the genius category.

But there might be something to requiring an IQ score above a certain level. I don't have anything to back it up but 120 seems about right.

[DrDan]

2. I think there should be a spelling test

[Blackhatjack]

7. Quick correctly spell the word that sounds like "Nook lar" --Not Easy Is it?

Not sure we should limit it to just spelling. Geography may be their strong point, like another President we currently have.

[YDogg]

16. minimum

[DrDan]

30. you passed - you can be President - your turn

[YDogg]

44. w00t! w00t!

:hi:

[magellan]

3. No

We don't need to elect great intellects. IQ won't tell you about the person's personality; whether they're habitual liars, love the country more than their political careers, or have any common sense.

If anything, it's the electorate that needs to smarten up. Then we'd have better presidents.

edit: grammar, lol

[NOLADEM]

4. That ship has sailed. We have a certified retard in the White House.

What would be the baseline? 100? Half the country is lower than that. Could we make it lower than median? Probably not.

Who's test? They are largely subjective and you can't replicate them. The same person taking the same test twice would undoubtedly earn a higher score on the second test.

IQ is meaningless anyway. Newt Gingrich, Dick Cheney, Adm. Pace, etc all probably have very high IQ's, but they are still meritless assholes who don't deserve an office.

We don't need anything but a fair, unbiased media and a fair vote. The rest will take care of itself.

[Blackhatjack]

10. I am definitely not in favor of allowing them to do this.... LOLOL

"The same person taking the same test twice would undoubtedly earn a higher score on the second test."

Allowing them to take it as many times as needed to add up the scores would mean some would have to take the test over and over to get a decent score.

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. According to what test?

First off, the idea of an "intelligence quotient" was created by racists in an effort to show that whites were inherently more intelligent than the "colored races." Second, different tests will give wildly different results for the same person, and the same person taking the same test on different days or under different circumstances will end up with very different results each time.

If "intelligence quotient" isn't outright pseudo-science, it borders extremely close.

And lest anyone think I'm a bitter, border-line idiot: I am a member of Mensa, which means that on the day I took an IQ test, my score allegedly placed me in the most intelligent 2% of all humans. I feel I'm qualified to call bull crap bull crap. :hi:

[Mythsaje]

25. Most IQ tests examine three things...

spatial reasoning, sequencing, and mathematics aptitude... they do NOT test such things as conceptual awareness, social aptitude, language cognition, deductive or inductive reasoning, or a host of other aspects of intelligence.

My wife was once a Mensa member too and I'm a hell of a lot quicker on the uptake in some respects than she is. I only test at about 128. She handles the math, I take care of the politics and communication aspects.

[Ravy]

6. All tests have some sort of bias. It is difficult to measure a single skill/ability.

[lazyriver]

8. I'd prefer an Integrity Quotient test

Especially after what we have endured for the last six years.

[Katherine Brengle]

43. Now that's some standardized testing I could get behind! nt

[solara]

9. Perhaps a psychological exam would be better n/t

[hsher]

11. No, because then we'd get a genius supervillain

[NOLADEM]

22. And this is different from now HOW?

;-)

[Mythsaje]

27. Now he has to HIRE the genius supervillians...

:D

[Blackhatjack]

32. No Self-Respecting Genius Supervillian Would Touch This Situation * Created... n/t

[Mythsaje]

36. Are you kidding?

Supervillain geniuses REVEL in stupid crap. Arrogance is, after all, typically their downfall.

[Ravy]

39. The genius part. nt

[NOLADEM]

41. Well, I consider Cheney the president, so I guess I should have clarified that

;-)

[hsher]

45. Bush ain't no genius, darlin'

I'd hate to see what kind of deep shit we'd collectively be in if Bush really WERE like Hitler. It's been fun making those comparisons, but Hitler was cunning, devious and in certain ways a genius. Bush and his gang are the slow kids in class compared to that guy. Say me for instance. If I were an evil Republican conservative and on Bush's bandwagon, and became President... you and I wouldn't be typing this right now. I would have clamped down on the internet as early as 2002, then simply sent jackbooted riot police to make midnight surprise visits on anybody who disagreed. As complacent and risk-shy as most of us are today in America, I'd have had complete control of the US by 2004, and you would have NO freedoms. And I am not even touching the tip of the iceberg of how far my imagination could go to see to it I stayed in power, if I were an evil supergenius.

I'm one of the good guys, though :)

A pissed-off screenwriter could come up with far worse than Bush & Co have so far. Oops. Gave myself away :7

[longship]

12. Nope.

How about a psychological profile?

Aren't IQ tests rubbish? What are they attempting to measure? What is IQ? Is there any scientific basis for what those who advocate IQ tests claim?

Lots of questions on that one.

[madokie]

13. Yes to be determined by the electorate

There was all kinds of flags on georgie*'s ascent but a lot didn't pay any attention to them. But in all honesty if we had fair and honest elections that point would be mute. methinks.

[William769]

14. No.

[TahitiNut]

15. "No President Left Behind"??

:rofl:

[survivor999]

17. Only if there were intelligence tests that take into

account all sides of a person... IQ per se is not enough.

[Skidmore]

18. I've known people with high IQs who did not have the sense to

pour piss out of a boot and some of them had no personal integrity or scruples either. Intelligence only has merit when it is used of a full reportoire of social skills and a healthy personality.

[WI_DEM]

19. High IQ doesn't mean that somebody will do no wrong or have the

right solutions. We just need someone who is intelligent, values all kinds of opinions and is intellectually honest.

[Cleita]

20. I have always thought candidates should be screened for the

job, like everyone is in the private sector. This would include I.Q. tests, psychological tests, education, military service, previous experience and background checks for trouble with the law. It doesn't have to set the bar that high, just a reasonable minimum.

I personally don't think the Bush would have passed a personnel screening myself for any of that except for the level of education. I don't think he could get a job at McDonald's.

[MyNameGoesHere]

21. i didn't see that under the qualifications

Age and Citizenship requirements - US Constitution, Article II, Section 1

No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States.

Term limit amendment - US Constitution, Amendment XXII, Section 1 – ratified February 27, 1951

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.

[terrya]

23. We've scraped the bottom of the barrel right now.

Christ, Reagan came off as a Mensa member compared to the moron we're stuck with.

After this experience with a "C Student" President, it's time to raise the bar, intellect wise. It's still astounding how we could go from Clinton to this person.

[Dangerously Amused]

24. I think requiring a record with no criminal convictions

...or at least a requirement that all criminal convictions be disclosed so the public can make their own determination of the candidate's character, would be a good place to start. I'm not talking about traffic violations and civil forfeiture matters. But I am thinking of Bush's cocaine possession conviction when he was in his early 20s. I think the GOP would have had a helluva hard time selling their puppet boy based on that fact alone. Not to mention the illegal abortion W's girlfriend had in Houston around that same time.

[onenote]

26. No. Now my turn: would you support an IQ test as a prerequisite to voting?

Let me turn around the question: would you support an "IQ test" to determine whether someone is allowed to vote? If so, how often should it be administered?

[Blackhatjack]

29. Well a voter doesn't have their finger on the nuclear launch button, right?

The potential for damage from an incompetent in the White House seems a lot more dangerous than the potential for an incompetent to swing a national election and cause the same kind of damage.

IQ tests are no great assistance for fine measurement. However, the SCOTUS has ruled that if the IQ Score of a defendant in a capital case at the time the crime was committed is low enough, then it is cruel and unusual punishment to execute them. So there is some value in them, at least on a broad scale.

[Hosnon]

40. By implication yes, a voter does. It was the voters who put Bush in office. nt

[zreosumgame]

28. since we don't have reliable IQ tests

much less an actual DEFINITION of IQ, this seems like a bad idea. Otherwise just like we are turning out kids who only have been taught how to pass a particular test, so we would then have cheating scandle's and such for the prez-test. Hell, we have a pResident now who had to wear a two-way wire just to lose a debate!

[MiniMe]

31. We need a Prez with common sense to go along with the intellect

Otherwise, it means nothing.

[mtnester]

38. I second the common sense thing...you either have it or you do not

back it up with a good empathc ability and that will do.

[Blackhatjack]

33. Well there is the 'gridlock is best theory" I guess, ....

... where someone with a limited IQ would likely do little, and that would be preferable to someone who might start one or two wars during their Administration.

Although I am not convinced the country would benefit when there are so many problems the current President has created which need immediate attention.

[Minnesota_Lib]

34. If so, Bush could not be replaced by someone eminently more qualifed...like maybe Forrest Gump

[Blackhatjack]

35. Is it true Bush is the first President who speaks "Mexican"?? LOL

Now that would be a useful bit of information for future trivia questions.

His 'bushisms' will continue to create jobs among writers, publishers, etc. long after he is gone.

[slackmaster]

37. No, and there never will be one

It would require an amendment to the Constitution, and even if you set the requirement at 100 half of the members of state legislatures, the House, and the Senate will be against it.

OTOH if you set it at 85 or so there might be a chance...

[MazeRat7]

42. you mean a test designed by humans to measure humans... no I don't think so...