So who is the first really dumb politician that you remember?

[Cleita]

Mine was Dan Quayle. Up until then, even the most corrupt and most colorful of politicians that I remember, usually could speak English quite well and write in it too. I mean, think Richard Nixon or Newt Gingrich or even Huey Long. No matter how deceiving and corrupt they were, they weren't stupid and they would have died a thousand deaths before appearing to be stupid. So where did we suddenly get this flowering of really stupid people in responsible positions of government that literally hold life and death decisions over us and who put them there? I refuse to blame the voter. By the time we get to vote, all that's left are the stupid and the bribed that our corporate overlords have allowed to finish at the polling place.

George Bush and Sarah Palin aside, who is your favorite dumb ass politico and what was the most stupid thing that they ever did or said?

My vote is for Ahnold. No one told him that all those weights and steroids would create a muscle mass between his ears instead of brains. Too bad Maria, the journalist, didn't point him toward the crossword puzzle in the paper instead. It would have helped his English as well. Maybe he wouldn't have had such a hard time communicating his leadership to his own party.

[MUAD_DIB]

1. Ford.

SNL was merciless in their coverage of Gerald.

"There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration."

[Warpy]

2. I met a few Boston pols when I lived there

and quickly realized that once they were off script, they were dumb as a bag of hammers. I can't give you names because I quickly dismissed them from memory.

Crazy politicians were something else. I am barely old enough to remember Joe McCarthy and the fear of that time. I lived in Jesse Helms country when he was first elected to office to piss off the Yankees. Since the 80s, nearly all GOP politicians have been bonkers.\

But yes, the first dumb national figure was Quayle. Then there was Stupid. Now there is Palin.

[havocmom]

3. Akhenaton

That idiot just SO didn't grasp the power of theocracy.

[Canuckistanian]

15. And that Ramsses II wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer

His peace treaty with the Hittites was said to be the inspiration for Neville Chamberlain.

Dumber than a box of scarabs, that one.

[Art_from_Ark]

4. Well, Gerald Ford had a reputation for being a little dense

And it didn't help matters much when he started the "What about Poland?" stuff by claiming erroneously in a debate with Jimmy Carter in 1976 that Poland wasn't under Soviet domination.

But the earliest all-around doofus that I remember before the advent of Duhbyuh was undoubtedly Ronald "Trees cause more pollution than cars" Reagan.

[Elwood P Dowd]

5. Spiro Agnew sounded like one to me.

Why did Nixon even choose that clown?

[csziggy]

11. Oh yes - Spiro was the original GOP that complained about "elitists"

Something we can blame partly on Pat Buchanan:

Agnew was known for his scathing criticisms of political opponents, especially journalists and anti-war activists. He attacked his adversaries with relish, hurling unusual, often alliterative epithets — some of which were coined by White House speechwriters William Safire and Pat Buchanan — including "pusillanimous pussyfooters", "nattering nabobs of negativism" (written by Safire), and "hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history".<5> He once described a group of opponents as "an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiro_Agnew#Vice_Presidency

[Blue_In_AK]

35. Ha! That's who I picked, too.

[Art_from_Ark]

38. Agnew was from Maryland

Maybe it was considered a crucial state in '68.

[MisterK]

6. Ronnie Raygun

Without a doubt

[SemiCharmedQuark]

7. Quayle. I remember my mom being incredibly angry about his comments on single mothers.

Hell, even Tiny Toons made fun of him.

[JitterbugPerfume]

51. He dissed Murphy Brown

a fictional character . He is beyond stupid .

[Tangerine LaBamba]

8. Estes Kefauver -

He was going after all these men who looked like my relatives, and my parents told me that he was a very dumb man, very dumb, that the men he was questioning were capable of doing very bad things to him.

So I decided at a frighteningly young age that Kefauver was really dumb.

Of course, he wasn't........................

[Cresent City Kid]

9. I was 24 when Quayle took office as VP

And yet I can't think of one who even appeared dumb before him. Reagan didn't display intellectual brilliance, but he was cunning and played the down to earth bit like a virtuoso. My local politicians were from Louisiana where you had to be slick or you got out-slicked.

Now, we have a steady stream of GOP dumbasses. They thought they had to diametrically oppose every Democratic quality, including academic excellence.

(On edit): I forgot Ford, but I think he had average intelligence. I still say Quayle is the first that stunned me with how dumb he was.

[nevergiveup]

10. When I was a kid in the 50's we had a small town mayor

that was dumber than a rock. He bragged about how he was held back in the first grade for 5 consecutive years. You are not going to like this but he was a Democrat.

[Initech]

23. That's nothing.

My town had a councilmen who beat the shit out of other council members with a sledge hammer if they didn't vote his way. I wouldn't want to get on that guy's bad side. :yoiks:

[Canuckistanian]

12. Gotta agree, Quayle

He was the prototype.

The quintessential dumbass, always making stupid statements and having nothing enlightening to say. Michelle Bachman must have studied him.

[lpbk2713]

13. Strom Thurmond

I don't know how he ever made it.

[ThoughtCriminal]

14. I was never impressed with George Wallace

Oh, he knew how to work the race-baiting routine. But in 1960's Alabama it didn't take smart.

[LuckyLib]

17. I'd have to agree. In the 60's on the national stage, it was George Wallace.

Always reminded me of a dumbass good ole boy, a very dim bulb. Ronnie Raygun was the next one.

[Art_from_Ark]

21. Lester Maddox gave George Wallace a good run for his money

I think Maddox may even have been dimmer than Wallace.

[xfundy]

32. Pickwick! Pickwick!

[Art_from_Ark]

37. Yeah, Maddox's infamous Pickwick Fried Chicken

"We don't serve no coloreds heyah"

[CurtEastPoint]

42. Actually, it was 'Pickrick'. See photo

[LuckyLib]

46. LOL! I had completely forgotten about Lester. You're absolutely right. They were neck and neck in

the idiot race.

[angrycarpenter]

27. He was smart enough to run his wife Lurlene

in his place to avoid term limits and the people of Ala. were dumb enough to vote her in!

[tblue37]

16. Quayle for me, too. nt

[bemildred]

18. Ford.

He was a harbinger of things to come.

[Hepburn]

19. Ronnie Raygun....

...walk and chew gum at the same time? Hardly!

[Initech]

20. Qualye as well, and I was 9 when he was inaugurated.

[rug]

22. George Wallace.

[Greybnk48]

24. Reagan, then Quale, then Tommy Thompson.

[armyowalgreens]

25. Probably George W. Bush.

I was just turning 11 when he stole the 2000 election. I grew up watching him fuck this country over. Hell, I can barely remember what it is like not being at war.

[Smarmie Doofus]

26. Mario Proccaccino. Ran for Mayor of NYC in 1969.

Everyday was a new chuckle.

You had to be there.

[DURHAM D]

28. Cong. Wilbur Mills nt

[Art_from_Ark]

40. Mills was actually a pretty smart guy

He was considered likable and knowledgeable by his colleagues, and was chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee for nearly 2 decades. But he had one tragic flaw--

He started running around with an Argentine stripper named Fanne Fox. One night he got pulled over by the cops, and his stripper friend who was in the car decided to make a dramatic "suicide attempt" by jumping into the Tidal Basin.

[Fumesucker]

29. Really dumb? JB Stoner..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._B._Stoner

Edited to add: Lester Maddox wasn't the sharpest cutting implement in the toolbox either, I'm not sure which one I heard of first but Stoner was definitely even dumber than Maddox.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Maddox

[sofa king]

30. It's Quayle for me, too.

That was the first time I ever heard the term "assassination insurance," which is what Quayle was. I don't know how many times I said in the 1990s, "well, at least we didn't get to find out what happens when the country is run by someone truly stupid."

And then we did.

Something worth keeping in mind is that the Presidency is a job that demands considerable intellectual powers, so even smart people can be "dumb" in the White House. Few would ever accuse Eisenhower of being stupid, but political analysts of the time were amazed at how much he didn't know and didn't care about not knowing.

In the 20th Century, the list of "dumb" Presidents (both Bushes, Reagan, Eisenhower, and Harding) also happens to be the list of Republican Presidents, and for good reason. The Republican Party is a criminal organization that runs itself and its leaders from the inside, by unseen powers. Therefore, those powers gravitate toward candidates which can be easily controlled. The more complicated the crimes envisioned, the stupider the President has to be. That's why Sarah Palin is the next up to bat.

Once I started working as a pseudo-lobbyist on Capitol Hill, however, I saw more stupidity than you can shake a stick at. Senator Byrd runs around with extra copies of the Constitution in his pocket, because there are Senators up there who have never once read it.

But for the real idiocy, you have to look at the House. Ignorant-ass people with opinions--god knows where they got 'em--on subjects they obviously don't understand. People asking ten-minute long questions without a question mark in 'em. People who never, ever read a bill or testimony, and then go out on the floor and vote the way someone--who the hell knows who?--tells them to vote. Jesus, it's enough to make me want to tear my hair out, years after I got away.

If you people really knew the dearth of intellect in the House of Representatives, well, you'd know that this nation is at all times mere days away from total disaster and destruction. Seriously, I think that people who want to run for national office should have to go to school for at least two years to learn the jobs for which they are running. That would weed out the doofuses simply because they won't want to read all the way through the Bill of Rights.

[Mind_your_head]

31. Arlene "magic bullet" Spector......

....and we all believed him.

He's not dumb, WE ARE!

Remember. for every finger that we point at "him", there are at least 4 fingers pointing back at "US".

[Blue_In_AK]

33. Spiro Agnew comes to mind

and his "nattering nabobs of negativity." Sarah Palin's playbook.

[Blaze Diem]

34. Spiro Agnew

I was young but the only impression I have was that Agnew just stood there silent & looking like a dufus. He never said anything. Just stood there wit that "duh" look on his face.

[hfojvt]

36. Reagan in the 1984 debates

Up until then I had supported Reagan, but watching that debate I thought "Why did I ever like this guy? He's a babbling idiot."

Unfortunately I still had a visceral dislike of Mondale. Something about his looks, attitude or mannerisms just grated on me.

[TankLV]

39. Actually, AAAAnold is quite smart - brilliant - by most standards...

His polcies and beliefs are wacko, but he is a VERY intelligent person...

[GreenTea]

41. Governor Ronald Reagan - Hands down!

[ThomWV]

43. I have to agree. The man was dumb as a stump.

[saltpoint]

44. Many to choose from, sad to say.

In recent times it seems Rudy Giuliani deserves consideration. What a spectacularly lousy campaign he ran.

Quayle, certainly, was brain-challenged. No question.

Although I generally liked John Glenn, he was not felt to have ever been especially power-savvy and was whispered to be a less-than-terribly-cerebral U.S. Senator. "Glenn is so slow," one operative suggested, "it takes him an hour and a half to watch 60 MINUTES."

Governor Evan Mecham of Arizona would be a contender,

Going back a ways, Congressman Buzz Lukens of Ohio.

[melm00se]

45. no party

or ideology or time frame has a monopoly on dumb politicians.

they are people and there are far more dumb people than geniuses.

[Arugula Latte]

47. I remember when Reagan came along, thinking: "How can people go along with this dipshit?"

Reagan turned me into a hardcore liberal at the age of 14. Gawd how I despised him. The only good thing that ever came out of him was the sperm that produced Ron Reagan.

[raccoon]

48. Andrew Jackson. nt

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

49. Haha, I was thinking "Quayle" after reading the title of the thread...

...and before even opening it. I was eight years old during the '88 election season.

[JitterbugPerfume]

50. Spiro Agnew

[NoPasaran]

52. Senator Roman Hruska

Famous for his defense of mediocrity. During the confirmation fight over Nixon's nominee for the Supreme Court Harold Carswell, who had been criticized for being a "mediocre judge", Hruska sprand to his defense with the immortal words "Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises, Frankfurters and Cardozos."

Aim Meh, Aim Hruska!

[onenote]

53. Senator William Scott of Virginia

Elected Senator in my home state in the nixon landslide of 1972, Scott was famously dubbed the "Dumbest Senator" in Washington by some magazine. The Democrat that Scott defeated, Bill Spong, spoke to one of my classes when I was in college and I asked Spong how it made him feel to have lost to someone dubbed the dumbest senator. He said that it made him question his faith in the electorate.