<p>I agree with poetgrl. I really do think Bill Clinton is every bit as smart as advertised.</p>
<p>I’d still like to see Obama’s legal scholarship. Working in the legal community for years, I’ve read scores of law review articles and among the group who wonders where Mr. Obama’s are.</p>
<p>Zoosermom, I’m only guessing of course, but I suppose Obama didn’t write any law review articles when he was at U of Chicago because he wanted to go into politics and didn’t see himself being a professor forever.</p>
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That’s not usually how it works. People usually do writing before and during their tenure on law review (in law school). I’m not a birther, just a curious member of the legal world.</p>
<p>oh, you meant while he was in law school. Well, he may have written material. Didn’t some Note on abortion show up during the campaign, that people said he (largely) wrote? </p>
<p>I didn’t go to HLS (which kind of goes without saying) but my understanding is that Notes and Comments from law school students at Harvard are not signed or attributed. Not sure when that started, but I believe that was in effect when he was in school. I am pretty sure that at HLS, as at most other law schools, the main writings are not written by students (Articles, as opposed to Notes and Comments). Perhaps someone who went to HLS could address your question more definitively than I can.</p>
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My immediate boss is a HLS alum and he has the same question, as do the YLS and other top law school grads I’ve worked with and hired over the years. Most of whom are strong supporters of President Obama. Not a big deal, not a conspiracy, just curious because it is unusual.</p>
<p>Maybe it depends on when your boss graduated. Chief Justice Roberts did not publish an article in the LR as a student, but he did publish a Note, and it was signed. That was 10 years before Obama was there. If you read the LR now, I don’t believe you will see an author named if it’s a student. Is that not correct?</p>
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Not really. It’s not a big deal, I’m not accusing the president of anything. It’s just that in my line of work, the vast majority of law review authors are proud to share their work. I don’t think it’s indicative of anything, but it is unusual, and I’ve been doing this job for 25 years.</p>
<p>As far as I know, he has only revealed authorship of one note. Even notes would be so highly edited that it would be hard to judge the writing ability of the person ultimately responsible for it. The articles themselves are written by law professors and other practitioners, not students. The students write notes and comments on recent cases, recent legislation, and books and they are not signed. The student written pieces go through heavy blue lining, with the president getting the final whack at it.</p>
<p>I was curious so googled “Harvard Law Review Criteria” and came up with the following. The very last 2 sentences are . . . interesting. As it turns out, the selection process is not a strictly objective academic one, after all. I actually think Obama is very intelligent. I just feel as if there’s an awful lot of pointing to the Ivy pedigree and HLR background as “proof.” As a parent of kid who went to an Ivy, I can tell you that not everyone at those schools is a genius! Why don’t we just concede that anyone who isn’t born into extreme power in this country who manages to get elected is clearly a brilliant person, regardless of what they did in school?</p>
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I would say that anyone who gets elected POTUS is someone incredibly special and possesses many gifts.</p>
<p>The presidency of the HLR is the number one academic plum for law students in America. There is no more competitive credential one can achieve. It carries a guaranteed Supreme Court clerkship, if you want it.</p>
<p>Obama graduated in the top 10% of his HLS class, in a mostly blind-graded system. Speaking from the middle of the class, I can tell you that that takes serious intellectual mastery. But it’s a much bigger deal that his most ambitious and brilliant peers chose him as their leader (a role each would have wanted for himself and believed himself most qualified for). He was then be in a position to control which of them got published, and in what form.</p>
<p>I agree with zooser (#38) about Reagan. I was shocked when I read some of his writings after they were published. He was much more thoughtful, knowledgeable, and well-read than I’d realized.</p>
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<p>Right. But Obama didn’t just “go to an Ivy.” He went to Harvard Law School, which puts him in a very select class a cut above the average Ivy undergrad. And he not only went to HLS but he made the Harvard Law Review which puts him in a select class a cut above the average HLS student; affirmative action or no, they only take very smart people. And he not only made Law Review, he was elected President of the Law Review by his peers on the editorial board. That is an extremely rare distinction. Five current members of the Supreme Court—Justices Breyer, Ginsburg, Scalia, Roberts, and Kagan—were on the Harvard Law Review; none of them made President. Obama also graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, which means he finished in the top 10% of his class in GPA, no mean feat for someone serving as President of the Harvard Law Review, an enormously time-consuming and demanding job—again, putting him a distinct cut above the average HLS grad. The current Dean of HLS, Martha Minow, once described him as “the best student I’ve ever had” in recommending that her father, Newton Minow, hire Obama (which he did). That’s an accolade professors can’t afford to toss around lightly if they wish to retain any credibility in their recommendations. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t necessarily say Obama’s smarter than Lincoln, Jefferson, or Wilson, but he’s certainly got to be in the discussion.</p>
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I really can’t imagine why. But, again, I have hired in Big Law for decades. Many of the people I hare are as credentialed as Mr. Obama (after all, he WAS hired in Big Law). Some are brilliant, some not so much. You can’t tell by the credentials.</p>
<p>“Many of the people I hare are as credentialed as Mr. Obama”</p>
<p>You’ve hired a president of the Harvard Law Review?</p>
<p>There are probably only 10 or 12 living people with that credential in private practice in the world. Most are in academia or government.</p>
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Yale. And worked with one from Harvard years ago when I was first, first, first working. (And as you know many lawyers from academia and government often cycle through law firms for a period of time to make some money. As they should). By the way, my YLS friends would all say that the only credential that really counts is the YLS degree and so Mr. Obama is inferior from the start!</p>
<p>I am confident in Mr. Obama’s intellect and credentials. I also think he is a fine man. But I do think it’s a stretch at this point to include him with Lincoln, Jefferson or Wilson. Others’ opinions are certainly equally valid.</p>
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<p>Uhhh . . . actually getting into Harvard and just about all other Ivy League schools for undergraduate admission is appreciably more selective than for Harvard Law School:</p>
<p>[Class</a> Profile and Fact Sheet](<a href=“http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/jd/apply/classprofile.html]Class”>http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/jd/apply/classprofile.html)</p>
<p>[Ivy</a> League Admission Statistics for Class of 2015 Hernandez College Consulting, Inc. and Ivy League Admission Help](<a href=“http://www.hernandezcollegeconsulting.com/ivy-league-admissions-statistics/]Ivy”>http://www.hernandezcollegeconsulting.com/ivy-league-admissions-statistics/)</p>
<p>And, FWIW, Yale is widely regarded as the most selective law school, with a significantly lower acceptance rate than HLS. Isn’t Yale where Bill and Hillary went? </p>
<p>[LSN</a> :: Yale University](<a href=“Recently Updated J.D. Profiles | Law School Numbers”>http://yale.lawschoolnumbers.com/)</p>
<p>In fairness to the OP, he seemed to be asking for “brainiest” in terms of academic prowess and so that would make Obama’s educational background very relevant to the question.</p>
<p>I am partial to Jefferson because we share William and Mary as our alma mater. I just have to forgive him for founding that inferior other school in Virginia.</p>
<p>I don’t know enough history to opine on the dead ones but of the ones I have seen in real life, I would say Bill Clinton is the smartest (I hate the word brainy so I won’t use that). I feel that Obama is not smarter than Clinton but is probably wiser (at least insofar as his zippers are concerned :))</p>
<p>RE: Washington’s financial success–He did one very smart thing–he married a rich widow.</p>