Walter Cronkite has weighed in. It isn't pretty.

At a Drew University forum, Cronkite said he feared the war would not go smoothly, ripped the "arrogance" of Bush and his administration and wondered whether the new U.S. doctrine of "pre-emptive war" might lead to unintended, dire consequences.

...In response to a question about media bias, Cronkite said the press is not politically partisan but does tilt toward liberalism. He said that the smartest president he ever met was Jimmy Carter.

Pathetic. Somehow, I suspect that he's no longer "the most trusted man in America." At least, I hope not.

Jimmy Carter was the smartest president? My God, has anyone checked to see if Cronkite has had a mini-stroke? Or is getting senile? Or was he always this pathetic and we just didn't notice?

To give Cronkite his due, he's from an earlier generation of journalists. They believed the reporter's job was to give facts, not opinion, and Cronkite did a pretty good job of keeping his opinions to himself when he was reporting. Now, however, he feels free to let his true self shine through. Not that there's anything wrong with that; why should bloggers have all the fun?

Cronkite has lost his ever loving sanity!! If he thinks Carter was the smartest, he must think Clinton was most chaste, Nixon the best looking and Roosevelt most conservative.

Walter go back to the sail boat and read one of your own books.

MB never trusted WC from the git-go, and her git-go started a LONG time ago...from the first TV in the house in the VERY early fifties!

Steve has thrown down the gauntlet...

Cronkite thinks Taft was the fittest president, TR the most indolent, Coolidge the most garrulous, Eisenhower had the best hair...

Jimmy Carter was the smartest president? My God, has anyone checked to see if Cronkite has had a mini-stroke? Or is getting senile? Or was he always this pathetic and we just didn't notice?

Who's your pick? I must admit (as I get hanged in public) that I have trouble thinking of any president brighter than good ole Jimmy in the last few decades. Only competitors I can think of are JFK and George Bush the elder. Seriously.

Didn't Carter have a degree from the USNA in nuclear engineering?

I imagine Herbert Hoover was one the smartest presidents in the twentieth century. He too was an engineer by training.

Of course, I am an engineer, so perhaps I am just a little biased.

However, truthfully, I think Woodrow Wilson was probably the most brilliant president since Jefferson, but I do think Carter comes in second.

I am curious about which president you Carter doubters think was more intelligent.

> I am curious about which president you Carter doubters think was more intelligent.

My memory only goes back to Johnson, but in that group, Carter is on the bottom.

I don't know where the idea that Carter is/was intelligent comes from. He got into the White House and froze like a deer in the headlights for four years. Reagan put him out of his misery.

Yes, he is/was arguably smarter than Mondale or Dukakis, but that's a low bar.

Actually, I think that Bill Clinton was extremely intelligent (or at least cunning). Unfortunately for the country, he was also a sociopath.

"Smart" can be IQ or emotional intelligence which has been shown to be more important in life anyway ie. knowing your principles and networking effectively, choosing good people, etc.

But, my private theory on these older guys, Carter and Cronkite is that they can't stand the idea of a war period (this is only the first) that they will miss out on...too old, won't see how it comes out..in other words "they fixed this, how dare we have a war"...

Jimmy Carter may be smart when it comes to some subjects, but human nature isn't one of them. He is the anti-Lamont Cranston ("The Shadow"), oblivious to the evil that lurks in the hearts of men. He trusts murderous tyrants as men who can be reasoned with.

On the positive, at least he didn't sell munitions-producing nuclear reactors to North Korea.

Jimmy Carter reported that he saw a UFO in 1973 while he was governor of Georgia. Investigation later showed that he had almost certainly saw the planet Venus while it was near the horizon, thus accounting for the "motion" that Jimmuh reported.

Per former HEW secretary Joe Califano, Jimmy took time out from the Iranian hostage crisis in 1980 to resolve disputes between White House staffers on the use of the White House tennis courts.

Moral of these stories? This: intelligence and wisdom are two very different things.

I can say with some confidence that good sense will outperform raw intelligence anytime.

Remember, smart is smart and good is good and they're not the same thing. I agree with Rand that Clinton may actually have a few more IQ points than Carter. Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar and went to Yale law school. No disrespect to the USNA cadets and faculty intended, but it has been suggested by some that Carter's academic achievements in the area of nuclear engineering have been somewhat exaggerated and that his degree from Annapolis is something short of a Nuclear Engineering degree from, let's say, Georgia Tech.

Frankly, Jimmy's "I'm so smart, and moral, and humble" routine got old a long time ago. He coddles dictators and hates Israel with a passion. His acceptance of a Nobel Prize that was intended as a slap to the standing president shows just how craven his desire for honor is.

The Nobel Peace Prize isn't worth a warm saucer of spit, anyway. The cause that wins that prize the most is the cause of untested (and almost always discredited) peace plans. Lech Walesa and Mother Teresa are the exceptions, not the rule.

We know now that BUSH had a stroke before the last debate.

We know now that BUSH had a stroke before the last debate.