The reality on standardized tests is that your social class correlates with income…the higher your folks income the higher your score tends to be…So we equate high score with intelligence…One only need to lok at the EUGENICs movement in the early part of last century to see the idiotocracy that was being built off of perceived IQ intelligence…

See Inheriting Shame: The Story of Eugenics and Racism in America by Selden to see the history of the inappropriate Usage of testing. I’m not against testing, lets just use them as they were intended

Well, the reason the rich and the educated are the first to leave an oppresive dictatorship is primarily because they can.
Very, very true.

As far as Bush’s speech goes, I still think we are speaking past each other. My point there was that Bush’s bad speaking is alot like people with accents. You exclude people with accents, I say fine, but why not exclude Bush’s speaking in the same manner? In other words, they are both out of the persons control, much like stuttering, so why not put them in the same category?

Btw, this is not to say that Bush isn’t a great communicator. I think that despite his deficiencies in speaking, much like despite Arnold Schwarzenegger’s accent, they both get their message across loud and clear. Sure they both may mess up on a word here and there, but in the end they both communicate their point very clearly.

As for education not saying much, I totally agree with that. It’s too broad of a generalization to really prove anything. I would point out, though, that the first people who typically jet out of an oppressive dictatorship… be it a left-wing communist dictator or a right-wing fascist dictator… are the educated and wealthy. Look at the exodus of the rich educated class during Castro, during Franco, during Hitler, during Mao, etc. Politicians love uneducated masses of poor people, they are very easy to control.

That depends on what you mean by ‘great speaker’. For example, the governor of my state, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was thought of as a possible Presidential candidate yet you seem to imply that because of his accent he should be ipso facto disqualified from becoming president, does that seem fair? In fact, during the elections, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s opponent, governor Gray Davis was quoted as saying something like, “I think that a governor of California should atleast be required to say California right”.

Now, you may reply that accents are different, after all, they are not the fault of the speaker and therefore should not be placed on the same level as Bush’s bad speaking. But is this really a fair reply? Do you honestly think that Bush intentionally speaks bad? Is it not more likely that Bush, like those who stutter, simply has a speaking impairment, one that is not necessarily in his control - much like accents and stuttering is not in the control of other speakers? I think so.

I am not saying that you can’t make fun of Bush’s constant slip ups. I’ve certainly had my fair share of laughs at his expense. But to conclude from that that he is somewhat less intelligent or even less qualified to be president is a bit elitest, IMHO.

As far as education goes, yes, it is a fact that many more liberals are ‘educated’ than conservatives, but this does not really say much. After all, education is not a very good indicator of intelligence, especially amongst the young, and in many cases, history has shown that it was the least educated that turned out to be the smarter ones (just think of the many academics that fell for communism as opposed to the many peasants who saw it for the BS that it is).

Btw, I noticed that the number of comments on this post is higher than the actual comments itself, which leads me to conclude that somebody who tried to comment got marked as spam. If that person is reading this, please know that it was not intentional and I encourage you to try to comment again, if you get marked as spam again, please email me at hispanicpunditATgmailDOTcom and I will get it fixed.

As for liberal/conservative intelligence… I think it is pointless to generalize but here are some facts to consider: My town of Seattle, which is one of the most liberal places in the country, is also the most educated city (50% has at least a bachelors degree.) The top ten liberal voting states are among the most educated. The top ten conservative states are among the most uneducated.