Obama, El Rushbo and Intelligence

RUSH: Sylvia in Clearwater, Florida, we go to the phones to you. It’s great to have you on the program. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. It’s really wonderful to talk with you.

RUSH: Thank you very much.

CALLER: I have been going really up the wall over this talk about how intelligent Obama is, and I wanted to share something that I learned a number of years ago that might explain how we got to this point and why people think he’s intelligent and why I have to disagree. Back when I was teaching school, I went and got my master’s degree in guidance and counseling. Probably the one fact I learned the whole time I was taking the masters was in a course called Testing and Measurements. It was a fact that jumped out at me that I’d never seen talked about since. I think it’s extremely important in our world, everybody should know that.

RUSH: What is it?

CALLER: It is that there are over a hundred different kinds of intelligence that a human being can possess and yet in our school system we only have six or seven that are followed, pushed, and so on. So anybody that has those six or seven kinds of intelligence is deemed to be really smart. Whereas people who happen to get the other kinds of intelligence think they’re stupid.

RUSH: Well, what are these six or seven kinds of intelligence?

CALLER: Well, the ones that they teach in schools: Reading —

RUSH: Oh, reading writing, math, science, all that kind of stuff?

CALLER: Memorizing, spitting things back out. They don’t teach reasoning. They don’t teach analysis that much in the world.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: They’re just a lot of things.

RUSH: Well, you know what? I think the reason people think Obama is smart is two things: They made Bush out to be an idiot, and because Obama can speak, and that will convince a lot of people you’re smarter than you are.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: One thing about Obama and being smart: Is it smart to say ‘corpse-man’? Is it smart to think there are 57 states? Is it smart to have such ignorance about how things work in the private sector? Is it smart to have a cabinet with nobody that has any private sector experience whatsoever? Is it smart to have a close circle of advisors who only know the thug way of getting things done? Is it smart? Obama’s agenda, the big-ticket items, are in tatters, with a majority of his own party in both houses, until recently. Is it smart to not be able to get something done with that kind of power? Where’s his academic record? That would settle a lot of this. But that is jealously guarded, ladies and gentlemen. We are not allowed to see his college transcripts. They are more secret than national security secrets. Zip, zero. We don’t know.

But I think Obama’s the kind of guy that had people turning C’s into A’s for him if he needed to for whatever reason. Now, the last caller said that there are six kinds of intelligence and some people say there’s a hundred kinds of intelligence. Some guy named Howard Gardner here: ‘Overview of the Multiple Intelligences Theory, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and ThomasArmstrong.com.’ That’s, I guess, who Howard Gardner is. This is just the first one we found when looking this up on the break. So here are ‘The Nine Types of Intelligence’ this guy identifies. I want you to see if you think any of these describe you. ‘1. Naturalist Intelligence (‘Nature Smart’). Designates the human ability to discriminate among living things (plants, animals) as well as sensitivity to other features of the natural world (clouds, rock configurations).

‘This ability was clearly of value in our evolutionary past as hunters, gatherers, and farmers; it continues to be central in such roles as botanist or chef.’ Right? ‘2. Musical Intelligence,’ that is pretty much self-explanatory. It’s ‘the capacity to discern pitch, rhythm, timbre, and tone. … 3. Logical-Mathematical Intelligence (Number/Reasoning Smart) Logical-mathematical intelligence is the ability to calculate, quantify, consider…’ So far, none of these apply to me. None of it. I can’t carry a tune. I can’t recognize pitch. Especially now, since I’m deaf, I cannot discern pitch or tone. I couldn’t create music. I can’t even play it. ‘Nature smart’? I think about it a lot but I’m not ‘a botanist or a chef.’ You know, I would never grow a garden in the back of my house. (interruption) I do not have a garden in my house. I’ve got landscaping. I don’t have a garden.

I don’t grow fruits and berries and vegetables and stuff, but I’ve got a lot of landscaping out there, but I had nothing to do with it. I tell them what I said but I couldn’t do it myself so I don’t have that. ‘4. Existential Intelligence Sensitivity and capacity to tackle deep questions about human existence, such as the meaning of life, why do we die, and how did we get here.’ Okay, I might fit into that in a way. ‘The meaning of life,’ I ponder that a lot. ‘Why do we die’? I don’t ponder that. We do. That’s enough. I don’t need to know why. And ‘how did we get here?’ I’m not… I’m curious about that. ‘5. Interpersonal Intelligence (‘People Smart’). Interpersonal intelligence is the ability to understand and interact effectively with others. It involves effective verbal and nonverbal communication, the ability to note distinctions among others, sensitivity to the moods and temperaments of others, and the ability to entertain multiple perspectives.

‘Teachers, social workers, actors, and politicians all exhibit interpersonal intelligence.’ (interruption) You think I got that? Okay, there’s two of them: ‘6. Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence (‘Body Smart’) Bodily kinesthetic intelligence is the capacity to manipulate objects and use a variety of physical skills. This intelligence also involves a sense of timing and the perfection of skills through mind-body union. Athletes, dancers, surgeons, and craftspeople exhibit well-developed bodily kinesthetic intelligence.’ (interruption) Yeah, yeah, I golf, but I… (interruption) Yeah, I did win the Miss America Judges Dance Contest. Okay, ‘Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence,’ I’ll circle that for me. ‘7. Linguistic Intelligence (Word Smart) Linguistic intelligence is the ability to think in words and to use language to express and appreciate complex meanings.’ That pretty much sums me up.

I mean, that would be the number one kind. I’m word smart. ‘Linguistic intelligence allows us to understand the order and meaning of words and to apply meta-linguistic skills to reflect on our use of language. … Young adults with this kind of intelligence enjoy writing, reading, telling stories or doing crossword puzzles,’ although I hate those, but mainly ’cause you gotta go to a newspaper to see one. ‘8. Intra-personal Intelligence (‘Self Smart’). Intra-personal intelligence is the capacity to understand oneself and one’s thoughts and feelings, and to use such knowledge in planning and directioning [sic] one’s life. … It is evident in psychologist, spiritual leaders, and philosophers. … 9. Spatial Intelligence (‘Picture Smart’) Spatial intelligence is the ability to think in three dimensions. Core capacities include mental imagery, spatial reasoning, image manipulation…’

That’s like an interior decorator or a painter. ‘[M]ay be fascinated with mazes or jigsaw puzzles.’ That’s not me. So I’ve got one, two, three, four of these nine. Snerdley has ’em all. All right. I don’t know about that. Snerdley claims to have them all. I know you’ve got the musical stuff. I didn’t know you were a home designer, a home decor and all that. There’s nothing here about food smart. I didn’t see anything about food smart in here, which a lot of people are. (interruption) Well, that’s ‘chef,’ yeah, but I’m thinking more like Michelle Obama. Well, no, no. Michelle Obama is food smart. She’s out there federalizing fat now with this new executive order directive that she got from her husband.