When we go to the doctor's office, do we ever think about where the doctor came out in his class standing? I mean, would you want a surgeon to operate on you that graduated at the bottom of his class and just squeaked through? What about all those people that go to their financial advisors? Isn't it true, that they might be taking advice from someone that has a lower I.Q. than they do? Would you want to put a person in charge of the armed forces that isn't very smart? I think that I can safely say that the answers to all these questions is that you wouldn't want a person with a low I.Q. in any of these positions, but what about the position of President of the United States? Did you ever wonder what the I.Q.s of the different presidents were? Well we are in luck, a study has been released by the Lovenstein Institute of Scranton Pennsylvania.

The study was based on "scholarly achievements, writings that they alone produced, without aid of staff, their ability to speak with clarity, and several other psychological factors, which were then scored in the Swanson/Crain system of intelligence ranking. ". The last twelve presidents were studied and here is the results:

In case you wonder what the scores mean, here is a guide that I found:

These scores are only a guide. Different studies may suggest that the scores might be higher or lower. Percentile Range stands for where, in the total community, you stand. An example of this would be 75 to 90. That means that the person with the I.Q. range of 120 to 129 was in the top 91 to 97% of the population in regards to intelligence.

Genius didn't always mean what it does now. In ancient Greece, genius was a quality that everyone was said to possess. A spirit that not only referred to your intelligence, but also your interests and what made up your character. Over the years this changed to become solely a mark of intelligence. When I.Q. tests were first used, they were not used to determine genius, but to identify handicapped children. The test for identifying gifted children, that is usually used, is the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III. The top score on this test is 160, so the scoring is completely different than the general I.Q. test. When we examine the life of Einstein, when he was growing up and look at what he accomplished, we have to conclude that at that point, he would not have scored very high on an I.Q. test. Intelligence sometimes manifests itself in certain areas. Take a savant for example. A sarvant is someone so afflicted, that they exhibit severe retardation symptoms, yet they excel in one particular area and seem to show genius tendencies in that area. One might be able to play music and indeed entire symphonies after hearing them only once, while others might excel in art.

One of the most famous savants is Kim Peek of the U.S. The movie Rain Man was about him. He has an incredible photographic memory. He is capable of memorizing entire phone books. Leslie Lemke of the U.S. couldn't even stand before he was 12 years old and couldn't walk until he was 15. He is a very famous blind, savant, musician today. He has been on many tv shows and plays the piano regularly in concerts. Jonathan Lerman of the U.S. is a savant artist. It is claimed that he has an I.Q. of 53. His art work is so good that it is exhibited at a gallery in New York City and he has also exhibited his works alongside others at different exhibitions.

The highest I.Q. ever recorded was said to belong to William James Sidis. It was over 250, too high to be accurately measured. He was able to read the New York Times at 18 months old. At two years old he could speak and read Latin and at three, Greek. When he reached adulthood he could speak and read over forty languages. His academic accomplishments were quite impressive. At sixteen years old he graduated Harvard cum laude and became the youngest professor at Rice University. Being this smart is no guarantee of a successful life. Sidis gave up his professorship and for the rest of his life, went from one menial job to another. Could the old saying be right, that genius and insanity are only separated by the width of a hair. Did Sidis snap?

The history books are full of stories about geniuses and the not so smart. I prefer to have someone running the country that is smart, but there are a lot of other characteristics that I would want to go along with this. I think that we have all heard the term "evil genius" and that is certainly not what I am looking for either. What I would like to see is a smart, caring, reasonable president. I am sure that this is what most people want, no matter what country they are in.

Is I.Q. the final where with all? No it certainly isn't, but it is an indication of the ability of a person.