Probably Barack or Richardson.

With Clinton, Edwards, and Obama in mind, we Democrats can be proud of the fact that each of these candidates has the intellectual muscle that is required to do the job well.

This is ridiculous, and I'm sure completely wrong. I remember reading somewhere that JFK's IQ was 119.

http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/g35.htm - look down in odds and ends. Or search John F. Kennedy and IQ in google.

That this many president's have that high an IQ simply cannot be right.

I'm surprised Nixon and, to a lesser extent, Johnson are so (relatively) low, compared to the rest of the field.

Both of those guys were largely self-made men,  who rose to power without the benefit of a powerful family background, exceptional wealth, or degrees from elite universities...and Nixon, especially, was known for being exceptionally intelligent.

I suppose an IQ of 130-140 can't be considered "low" by any reasonable standard. Still, I'm surprised so many "old school" presidents rank so much higher than they do.

maybe it's time the dems understand that people want thier presidents to be likeable leaders and aren't looking always for the "smartest person in the room" Bush and Reagan thrived when dems call the dumb and "uneducated" when the debate turns on issues or whether Bush jr, is a fraud and a liar we win, all of our candidates are plently smart enough to be president but some have the  likeability and ability to come of well on television and some don 't, instead of trying to change the fact that since 1960 most elections have come down to whom americans want to see in thier living rooms maybe democrats should try nominating good candidates who also give the public what they want, Republicans may do just that with Fred Thompson while dems amay get sidetracked again worrying too much about "white-papers and qualifications instead of going with the obvious best choice in the likeability dept, Obama who also might be the smartest of the buch too, just like Bill was in 1992.

As someone who works with IQ scores in my job... let me say...

This list could be accurate- if you subtract 20 pts from everyone.  

IQs over 120 are still extremely rare- and I buy Adams, Jefferson and even Clinton being up there-- from what I have seen, I just don't see some of the figures listed (not just Bush) as being that high.

And from what I've read of Nixon, his seems too low (he may be an SOB, but he was smart by all accounts).  

As far as the current crop- the big 4 seem about even- Hillary and Obama may get the nod by a hair.

A political scientist friend of mine sent me an article yesterday that attempts to estimate the IQ of 42 of the 43 Presidents of the United States.

43 presidencies, but only 42 presidents, because Grover Cleveland served two nonconsecutive terms. I know this because I have an extremely high IQ.

1. Obama: 140-142
   
2. HRC, Edwards: 130-135 (they both have high street smarts, which IQ tests don't measure too well, I think)

by Shrub's high score (remembering 100 is average). The man keeps his blinders on and is an ideological freezer, but that doesn't mean he's stupid.

Let's face it, you have to have much more than average intellegence to be president, even with Bush. People with below IQs of 129 could simply not go to Yale (even with a C average), and even if he went there for money, it makes perfect sense that you'd need to be almost 30 points higher than the national average to be both president and a Yale graduate.

Also, keep in mind about the "Nixon was a genius", and although he may actually be in the higher range of that estimate, he still ranked higher than Truman, Ford, Reagan, Bush Sr, LBJ and had a virtual tie with Eisenhower. It could of course be relative to that time period.

This list also bodes quite well for me, as I'm an ancestor of Adams and Q. Adams... could I have a 175 IQ? nahh.

As far as presidential candidates go, I'd be the first one to say that, as a whole, the Democratic candidates are much smarter than the Republican candidates. If they were to run, I would've put Feingold and Clark at the very top, but since they aren't, I'd probably put HRC, Biden and Obama at the top.

Give me a break.  We've never had a president outside the top 2% or 3% in intelligence?  This list is just asinine.

In educational theory intelligence is seen more than just IQ.  Multiple Intelligence theory has made a dramatic impact on pedagogy. The First Seven Intelligences -- and the Eighth: A Conversation with Howard Gardner has some interesting thoughts about looking at intelligence.

I like Gardner's definition of intelligence

Intelligence refers to the human ability to solve problems or to make something that is valued in one or more cultures.

From a citizen's point of view the most intelligent president is the one who solves the problems of the day best.  FDR ranks high in my book.

since there are obviously different types of intelligence.

Also, don't some people try to measure IQ based on the vocabulary a person uses? That might work if you are analyzing letters written and speeches given decades or centuries ago, but in the age of modern speechwriters, any smart person's words can be put into the president's mouth.

That said, I believe Clinton and Carter are both among the smartest presidents we've had.

Seems to me, people don't value brains in a President, and the Republicans contributed to that situation, too, by denouncing qualified politicians over different eras as "eggheads" or "pointy headed intellectuals" or "the intellectual elite".

Nowadays we get to see Rhodes Scholars and Ivy League alumni pretending to be dumber than they are, talking in folksy aphorisms, and getting photo ops milking cows and operating heavy machinery and other things Presidents don't generally do, trying to make it look as if they're no different from regular folks.

Me, I'd like my President to be one of the smartest people in America (which necessarily is gonna mean smarter than me in particular), but that's evidently a snooty, way out there minority view of things.

Any suggestions what to do about that?

Chimp smarter than Grant...I don't think so...

Grant as usual gets the short end of every Presidential rating....but aside from that...can you imagine Grant handling the military the way Bush has?

Grant was in fact highly intelligent, superb strategist, and if you have ever read his memoirs a clear and cogent analyst...

I know it is only a few points...but you will never convince me a dolt like Bush is even marginally more  intelligent than a man like Ulysses S. Grant...

The paper also claims to have an extremely accurate methodology

I mean, they've got this list, with each estimate given as a +-5 or so range, but they bother to produce rankings with 4 significant figures?  I'm pretty skeptical that IQ can be measured retroactively this way with even the accuracy they're claiming here?

Color me skeptical.

If this is true and Bush really is as smart as this paper claims then it makes my hatred for the man burn even brighter; what wasted potential!  That someone with and IQ north of 130 could put on blinders so dark that he effectively becomes the village idiot is a crime that serves only to compound his myriad others.

I guess Bush could have been that smart in his prime, albeit an underachiever because he's so god damn lazy and always had daddy's money and connections to fall back on...

But clearly all that booze, coke, religious fundamentalism and fart jokes have done some damage along the way... the man has trouble just stringing a complete sentence together these days.

Talk about preposterous. I'm impressed so many commenters already emphasized how high they were.

Let's put it this way, just allow me to bet under the low estimate of every number and I won't have to work or bet on anything else for years.

I too doubt the accuracy of those IQ figures.

Lovenstein's numbers look much more reasonable
I blogged this back in march...I stole it from Left is Right.

Give me a break Chris. I hadn't been hanging around on your site lately and now I remember why. This is not worthy of front paging.

But to answer your question:

Gravel is the smartest.

Come on. It's a holiday-slow news week. Congress is in recess. No debates. Polls are few because no one tried polling over the long weekend. This IQ guessing game is harmless filler, not to get bent out of shape about.

The presidential IQ's are way too high.

A previous post said he heard John F. Kennedy's IQ was 118. That's probably about right.  I recall reading somewhere that Martin Luther King's IQ was 115.

This was revealed to be something of a hoax when it was circulated a year or two ago. There's really no way to make these estimates with any kind of reliability and many aspects of IQ relate to attention or visual-motor skills which (other than perhaps, Jerry Ford) we have little opportunity to observe.

I said front paging didn't I. I just think that it would be better in the diaries.

LBJ might have been sort of evil at times, but he was pretty damm smart!