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Politics : The Castle -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (4102)	11/16/2004 10:43:02 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7936

The question is, when did he ever develop the necessary skill set necessary to do the work of a President of the United States. I think so. There are skills, knowledge and abilities that he might not have that might be good for a president to have but I think that is pretty much true about all presidents. We're talking about real people not perfect icons. I would say that a person with less than 140 IQ would have a very difficult time managing Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Citi Group, Walmart, McDonalds, Coca Cola. I wouldn't. I would also note that 140+ IQs are rare and I doubt most CEOs of large companies have such IQs. I also don't think most politicians and senior government officials have IQs at that level. Sure there are a lot of terrific people with IQ's of less than 140. So what? My point is that we should set a higher bar for people to become President of the United States. Why not? Not only do I think you imply an exaggerated pool of 140+ IQ people, you also miss the fact that the correlation between extremely high IQ and being a successful leader is at best a moderate one, it isn't a strong one. I suspect that Steven Hawking wouldn't be the best candidate to be president of the US. Take for example what is going on at the CIA. I think more has to happen before we even really know what is going on at the CIA. What was needed was some tweaking. Instead, the new Director goes in their with a bunch of very political and inexperienced staffers and are now politicizing the CIA. I'm not sure how much the CIA is being politicize and how much the changes are a reaction to its former and current politicization. I am not saying that this group under this new Director falls in that category, but could it be possible for some terrible people to take over and remake the CIA. Its always possible for terrible people (either in the sense of terribly incompetent, or in the sense of evil) to gain power, but I fail to see any reason to think this is happening in the CIA. Up until now, our Central Intelligence people are descendent of Alan Dulles and the Bristish tradition of gentleman and scholarly spies. I think a lot of that tradition (to the extent it really ever was in the CIA) has long since gone away. Tim