Comparison of presidential IQ's-Fiction!

The Estimated IQ's of American Presidents-Fiction!

Summary of eRumor:
This email claims that a think tank in Pennsylvania determined the IQ's of American presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush, rating bush as the lowest and Bill Clinton as the highest.

The Truth:
This was written from the fantasies of someone who adores Bill Clinton and doesn't think much of George W. Bush. The "think tank" is not identified and there is no such service as Bakersville News, a reporter named Jennifer Borenstein, a sociologist named Werner Levenstein, or a psychiatrist named Patricia Williams involved in any such project. Rich Buhler, the founder of TruthOrFiction.com and a former member of the news media says, "Take it from me. This eRumor was not written by anybody who has ever been a professional journalist. The style betrays the hoax as much as the misinformation."

A real example of the story as it has been circulated:

The Intelligence of our Presidents
Bakersville News Service 6-28-01 12:32 PM CST
by Jennifer L. Borenstein

The intelligence of our presidents has never been seriously scrutinized at any time in our history until now. There is a widespread perception that President G. W. Bush is not qualified for the position he holds. That increasing awareness by the people has led to a study of the intellectual ability of all presidents for the past fifty years.

There have been twelve presidents in that time, from F. D. Roosevelt to G. W. Bush. All were rated based on scholarly achievements, writings that they alone wrote, their ability to speak effectively, and a number of psychological factors.

The conclusions of the study, conducted by an independent think tank located in Scranton, Pennsylvania were surprising. This think tank includes high caliber historians, psychiatrists, sociologists, scientists in human behavior, and psychologists. Among their ranks are Dr. Werner Levenstein, world-renowned sociologist, and Professor Patricia A. Williams, a world-respected psychiatrist. All members of the think tank are experts at being able to detect a person's IQ from the criteria stated earlier.

After four months of research, these learned men and women have determined the IQs of each president within a range of five percentage points. The IQs listed below are the norms for each president.

147 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D)
132 Harry Truman (D)
122 Dwight D. Eisenhower (R)
174 John F. Kennedy (D)
126 Lyndon B. Johnson (D)
155 Richard M. Nixon (R)
121 Gerald Ford (R)
175 James E. Carter (D)
105 Ronald Reagan (R)
099 George HW Bush (R)
182 William J. Clinton (D)
091 George W. Bush (R)

The non-partisan researchers who evaluated the twelve presidents determined that the six Republican presidents for the past 50 years had an average IQ of 115.5, with President Nixon having the highest IQ, at 155.

President G. W. Bush was rated the lowest of all the Republicans with an IQ of 91.

The six Democrat presidents had IQs with an average of 156, with President Clinton having the highest IQ, at 182. President Lyndon B. Johnson was rated the lowest of all the Democrats with an IQ of 126. The margin of error is plus or minus five percent.

This study was initiated on February 13, 2001 and completed on June 17, 2001.

This study validated the widespread feeling of people about the sitting president. President Bush was rated low because of his inability to command the English language, his lack of any scholarly achievements, and an absence of anything authored by him that would reflect an intellectual effort.