Fact 1: Al Gore graduated from Harvard with honors
Gore flirted with English at Harvard, dreaming of a life as a novelist, but decided to make government his concentration. He got off to an uncertain start in that subject, with a C and C-minus in his first two courses, before righting himself. In his junior year, he earned a B, a B-plus and an A-minus in three government courses, and he aced his senior government thesis on the impact of television on the presidency, a strong finish that made him a cum laude graduate.
Gore's Grades Belie Image of Studiousness
David Maraniss and Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, March 19, 2000
This article will abbreviated as "DM/EN" in the follwing.
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Fact 2: Gore's IQ was measured at 134
Then he came to Gore's results in IQ tests taken in 1961 and 1964, at the beginning of his freshman and senior years. "One thirty-three and 134. Absolutely superb. That means tremendous ability."
(Source: DM/EN)
Fact 2b: An IQ of 134 is equivalent to a rarity of 1 in 85, or a 98.8% percentile. IQ Percentile and Rarity Chart
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Fact 3: Gore's SAT scores translates into an IQ of 140.2
- Gore's SAT scores were 625 verbal and 730 math (1355 total) from (Source: DM/EN).
- These were before the SAT was recentered.
- Using this Pre-Recentering SAT to IQ Estimator we get the 140.2 figure
Fact 3b: 140 IQ translates into 1 in 261 rarity, and a 99.61% percentile.
Fact 3c: 140.2 IQ traslates back to 1430-1440 SAT scores in present-day SAT Scores, using SAT I to IQ Estimator (H/T to collegekid318 and BlueEngineerInOhio).
Update [2006-12-14 11:20:49 by NeuvoLiberal]:
Note: the translations between tests as performed above, if done properly, are statistically properly justifiable, but one should keep in mind that scholastic tests are not equivalent to intelligence tests. The relationship between them is approximate and one test is not directly equivalent (upon statistical conversion) to the other. For example, better preparation leads to better scores on SATs, but raw IQ tests are meant to be less sensitive to preparation.
Also, the online estimating calculators, as per the note at the bottom of those page, are apparently being maintained by a person named Rodrigo de la Jara, whose email can be found at the bottom of those pages. From quick googling, I have found this link to a Canada Mensa chapter where it says that this gentle man is a Mensa Proctor for Northern Alberta, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut regions).
Note that these traslations are only an addendum to the argument, for Al Gore has in fact taken IQ tests as mentioned in the Washington post article, and he scored 133 and 134 in those tests.
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Fact 4: After returning from his Vietnam service, Gore pursued graduate programs, first in divinity and then in law, while at the same time working as a full time journalist. He had several incomplete grades which turned into fail grades. Note, however, that he did not fail law school but instead left it out of his own volition to run for US house of Representatives:
After serving in the military for two years, Gore returned to graduate school late in the summer of 1971, first taking religious studies courses at Vanderbilt and then entering the university's law school. His efforts in both instances were incomplete, reflecting the uncertainty he felt during that period about what he should do with his life. He had considered everything from writing to police work.
He took the religious studies courses while also working full time as a journalist at the Nashville Tennessean, and after getting off to a strong start with an A-minus in Ethics, he failed to complete any of the three courses he took in the fall of 1971, and those incompletes eventually lapsed into F's. He returned for another semester in the spring of 1972, when two more incompletes turned into F's. Two years later, he enrolled in law school and spent three semesters there taking heavy course loads while still working at the newspaper. He performed satisfactorily, with a high grade of 81 in Legal Writing and a low grade of 69 in Civil Procedures II. Partway through the spring semester in 1976, he decided to run for an open seat in Tennessee's 3rd Congressional District. His mother, Pauline Gore, herself a lawyer, tried to persuade him to remain in school while running, but he withdrew, turning away for good from the academic life, while beginning a political career in which he increasingly took on the characteristics of a scholar.
(Source: DM/EN)
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Fact 5: Al Gore gives us some idea about the uncertainty he felt about where his life should be headed, in this fabulous video:
Unseen Al Gore
by Spike Jonze (google video; 14 min long)
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Fact 6: Apparently, Gore faced a tough fight in the Democratic primary when he contested Stanley Rogers for the nomination (his father, Albert Gore Sr., had lost his senate re-election bid in 1970 after being mocked as a "southern regional chairman of the Eastern Liberal Establishment" by Spiro Agnew for opposing the Vietnam war and other progressive positions and votes):
Vice-President Al Gore
Connaissance
While at the Tennessean, Gore, a Baptist, also studied philosophy and phenomenology at Vanderbilt University. In 1974, he enrolled in Vanderbilt’s law school. Just two years later, he began to campaign for the Democratic nomination for Tennessee’s Fourth District congressional seat. When he won the nomination over Stanley Rogers, it was a big enough success to predict his win in the 1976 general election.
Yes they could have. And if they had campaigned (4+ / 0-)
as hard as Gore did in 1976 they could have won, too. He was the underdog, in case you missed that.
He was trailing Stanley Rogers, the favorite in the race. Then he came up in the polls - without using his father!- and won a close election.
Well not the first time that you rewrite Gore's history.
by elender on Wed Dec 13, 2006 at 03:42:16 PM PST
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Fact 7: The poster "francisholland" (FLH) is a race and gender baiter.
Gore supporters aren't concerned with educational (0+ / 0-)
attainment, and are willing to promote a white man who failed to get a graduate school education over a woman and a Black man who graduated with honors.
by francislholland on Wed Dec 13, 2006 at 05:01:31 PM PST
Fact 8: FLH quoted material from a member of the rightwing noise machine, namely, Jennifer C. Braceras. Perhaps because it suits his purposes better, since it is hard to imagine that FLH was not able to locate (while googling, if that's how FLH found this latest round of Gore-trashing material) the more facually complete and better balanced Washington Post article by Maraniss and Nakashima.
Jennifer Braceras
Harved Law Bulletin
That viewpoint was needed, Globe editors determined, because of the four-month suspension of conservative columnist Jeff Jacoby, who was disciplined for failing to cite a source for a column on the Founding Fathers. Braceras, who has contributed opinion pieces to the Wall Street Journal, was hired to write a weekly column between Labor Day and election day, with an occasional contribution thereafter. She wrote on the election, from the presidential race to state ballot initiatives, and subjects such as equal pay for women and the votes of Latinos.
"I haven't tried to create any running themes, although I'm sure some have emerged, including my dislike of Al Gore," she said.
Braceras' dislike for the tenets of Al Gore and others in the Democratic party emerged soon after she entered college at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Right-Wing Women's Groups Claim Roberts 'Firmly in the Mainstream'
PFAW
Jennifer Braceras of the Independent Women's Forum asserted that critics of Roberts were merely defending the "radical initiatives" of "radical feminists." And Connie Mackey of the Family Research Council, the group that created "Justice Sunday," accused Roberts critics of being "far leftist organizations consumed with only one agenda, the pro-abortion agenda." Mackey claimed to "represent the mainstream of women in America," and she asserted that "real women" want a rapid confirmation free of nettlesome questioning.
How "mainstream" are these right-wing groups? In the most recent article featured by the Independent Women's Forum, founded to "combat the pro-big-government ideology of radical feminism," Carrie Lukas supports Roberts' mockery of efforts to achieve equal pay for women for comparable work by asserting, "Women tend to want flexible employment arrangements" and they "willingly trade higher pay for the ability to leave each day at 4 p.m. to pick up the kids from school." Its questionable how many "real women" would accept such a cavalier dismissal of the gap between genders in the levels of payment for comparable work.
Apparently, Braceras' shilling efforts from 2000 were nicely rewarded:
Some civil rights group members support Roberts
Saturday, August 27, 2005
CNN
Braceras and others referenced recent opposition to Roberts' nomination voiced by liberal activist organizations such as People for the American Way. Those groups' attacks on Roberts, Braceras said, "are as predictable as the sunrise and as preposterous as the man in the moon."
She dismissed PFAW President Ralph Neas' comment this week that Roberts would try to turn back the clock on civil rights as a boilerplate radical agenda attack that special interest groups would make on any Bush nominee.
"The truth is that, contrary to the cartoon-like portrayals of John Roberts by special interest groups, John Roberts is a fair-minded jurist who will judge each case on its own merits," Braceras said.
Braceras is a Bush appointee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
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Conclusion: Al Gore has measured strongly on intelligence and scholastic aptitude tests. While he was not always studious, he performed well enough to have gradated from Harvard with honors for the undergraduate portion of his education. He was somewhat confused and unfocussed during his gradudate school work at Vanderbilt, but he withdrew from law school out of his own volition to make a successful run for US Congress, a seat that was not handed to him on a platter.
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Epilogue: If francislholland has his way at Daily Kos and unfarily damages a potential Gore candidacy by relentlessly smearing Al Gore (our best qualified candidate for 2008), with whatever trash he can lay his hands on, regardless of the source, perhaps Neocon Senator John McVain (who as we speak is busy trying to shut the blogs down )
will nicely reward FLH's efforts in 2009!