It shouldn’t take a genius to predict the results of a recent YouGov survey, which asked respondents to rank the last eight presidents in intelligence. When it comes to smarts, the American public says, Bill Clinton holds a high hand over cellar dweller George W. Bush.
The 42nd President of the United States is the smartest to hold the office over the last 50 years, say survey respondents, 49 percent of whom noted Clinton to be ?very intelligent.? Another 30 percent say he’s at least ?somewhat intelligent.? Only 21 percent believe Clinton’s successor is very intelligent, though, with 40 percent finding George W. Bush to be ?not very intelligent/not intelligent at all.?
Current president Barack Obama finished third behind second-place Ronald Reagan with a 38-percent ?very? and 23-percent ?somewhat? score.
See the poll results on public perception of all eight most-recent presidents below:
And while intelligence is key to that office, say 80 percent, honesty ranks first as the most important quality. See what factors the public finds to be most vital to a presidency in the graph below:
Public perception of the current and most recent presidents could be politically skewed, YouGov acknowledges.
?(P)artisan differences were much more common with the younger Bush and Obama than with the others on the list, although the differences are there to some degree for all eight. The ranking is very different within each political group.?
For example, 32 percent of Democratic respondents find George W. Bush to be very or at least somewhat intelligent, versus 84 percent of Republicans? opinions of the 43rd. For Obama, 85 percent of Democrats find him very/somewhat intelligent, but only 42 percent of Republicans agree.
There’s distinct variation based on respondent age, too. A 69-percent majority of senior citizens think Bush 43 was somewhat or very intelligent, for instance; only 55 percent of this 65-and-older group say the same about Obama. Those of 18-to-29 years rank Obama as the smartest president, however, while ranking ?his predecessor as the least intelligent.
You can find that anti-Bush sentiment amongst younger voters elsewhere on the Internet, too. In fact, users of the online Urban Dictionary define ?smart? as ?the opposite of George W. Bush? and ?someone who doesn’t support Bush.?
YouGov’s survey was conducted July 10-13.
Who would you rank as the smartest (or stupidest) president? Let us know on Liberal America’s Facebook page!
