Who's the dimmest dim bulb?
A tale of two mediocre collegiate careers
By Roger Simon
Got mediocre grades in college even though you took easy courses? Coasted through those four years drinking and smoking and acting like a jock, even though it was costing your parents a small fortune? Wonder what you can say to make it up to them today? Well, tell them you can still become ... president of the United States!
It now seems clear that no matter whether George W. Bush or Al Gore wins this November, America is going to get an underachiever at its helm. Though both men want to be known as the "education" president, a review of their grades reveals they barely got one. We have known for several months that Bush largely partied his way through Yale?in four years, he never got an A?but that is not the bad news. The bad news, as Jay Leno joked, is that Bush may be the smart one.
As the Washington Post revealed last week in expanding on a new biography of Gore by Bill Turque, Gore's grades in his sophomore year at Harvard were lower than any semester Bush spent at Yale. Gore got a D, one C minus, two C pluses, and one B minus. As the Post noted, this was the year Gore spent "shooting pool, watching television, eating hamburgers, and occasionally smoking marijuana." And the vice president, who now so closely identifies with the high-tech revolution that he momentarily forgot that he didn't invent it, never took a single math course in four years. Not that the Gore campaign is worried about the revelations. "The more people learn about Al Gore," says his spokesman, Chris Lehane, "the more they find they have a lot in common with him." And Gore did have the potential to do better if he had only applied himself: His verbal SAT score was 625 (out of 800) compared with Bush's 566 and Princetonian Bill Bradley's 485. (If you're wondering how your kid can get into Princeton with a 485 SAT score, the answer is that she better have a killer jump shot.)
What's needed? "No one has ever questioned whether Al Gore has what it takes," Lehane continues, "but there is a very serious question when it comes to George W. Bush as to his perspective, judgment, and experience." Just as Bush has begun making Gore's honesty, or lack thereof, the centerpiece of his spring offensive, Gore is going out of his way to remind people Bush might not be a mental giant. "Does Governor Bush have the understanding of America's problems to be president?" Gore asked recently. "Does Governor Bush have the kind of decision-making tests under his belt to be president? The experience? The sense of perspective?" One unanswered question, however, is just how much mental prowess a president really needs. "Frankly, in American politics the standard of intelligence and academic excellence is not very high," says Ross Baker, professor of political science at Rutgers. "Deeply reflective people are not common in American politics and they are often not successful. If you were to look at the IQs or standardized-test scores of most successful politicians, you'd think they were layabout high school dropouts or shade-tree mechanics." Which means that both Gore and Bush should count themselves lucky to fly in Air Force One rather than be changing its tires.
Recent exit polls have shown, however, that some voters are worried about whether Bush has what it takes to run the government, a feeling fueled by the media's fascination with his every gaffe, including such howlers as "Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?" and when he recently relocated Mexico to "South America." (It's in North America and notably close to Texas.) On the other hand, Bush never paid anybody $15,000 a month to tell him what color shirts to wear, and he is confident that people who underestimate him often end up being bested by him. "It doesn't bother me, because I know it's wrong," Bush has said of his "Dumbya" image. "It's just part of the game. It's part of the media elite game. I think anybody who doesn't think I'm smart enough to handle the job is underestimating. I hope Al Gore feels that way."
Turns out Gore does. Gore was recently asked by the Associated Press if he believes Bush is "too dumb" to be president. "Gore convulsed in laughter while taking a drink of Diet Coke," the AP reported. "He grabbed a towel to hold against his mouth then, finally swallowing, insisted the tape recorder be stopped for an off-the-record observation." We do not know what that observation was, but Bush might point out that he, at least, is capable of drinking a Diet Coke without carrying a towel around with him.
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