There are many attributes that may come in handy in landing oneself the top dog position of POTUS. The gift of gab, charisma, an impressive resume, and, of course, intelligence, can all help win an election. But if we simplify down to its nuts and bolts, a political race is essentially a popularity contest (albeit, a biased, electoral-college popularity contest). The smartest candidate doesn’t always (often?) win – nor do they necessarily make the best presidents.
While many US presidents boast impressive educational backgrounds and allegedly high IQs – sixth president John Quincy Adams a dark horse with a reported 175 IQ – they’ve undoubtedly had their embarrassingly slip-ups, ignorant moments, and bafflingly dumb decisions. There was the typically eloquent Barack Obama, remarking on his remaining visits to the 57 states, and Ronald Reagan expressing his surprise that Latin America contained independent countries. One might also consider controversial actions, like George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq or Richard Nixon’s involvement in Watergate, to be less-than-wise choices.
So statistics aside, let’s let the people decide – based on these presidents track record and time in the Oval Office – who is the dumbest president of all?
