From the August 2004 Idaho Observer:

Chief Inmate declares nation an asylum

Prozac-popping prez recommends mandated mental health screening for all Americans

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In recent weeks President Bush has been characterized by staffers as “erratic” and subject to “wide mood swings.” It has also been reported that the commander-in-chief has been taking “strong antidepressants” under orders from White House physician Col. Richard J. Tubb since July 8, 2004.

The president was apparently under the influence of “Prozac” last month when he announced a sweeping mental health care initiative recommending the screening of every American for mental illness and treatment with expensive psychotropic drugs.

The original story last June 4 claiming that President Bush's mental health was a matter of grave concern among White House staff came from Capitol Hill Blue -- a D.C.-based scandal sheet that has a reputation of being more sensational than accurate in its reporting. Capitol Hill Blue then came out with the story of the president being prescribed Prozac which has since been supported by observations of prominent George Washington University psychologist Dr. Justin Frank in his book, “Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President.” Dr. Frank believes the president is “an untreated alcoholic with megalomaniac tendencies.”

Dr. Frank's work has been supported upon peer review. Scandal sheets and expert opinions aside, the president confirms concerns about his mental well-being almost every time he opens his mouth in public.

At the August 4 signing of a $417 billion defense appropriations bill, the commander-in-chief was widely reported as stating in the bill's defense, “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”

Close scrutiny of President Bush's business career indicates that, under his leadership, companies he directed went bankrupt; close scrutiny of his political career reveals a pattern of providing financial benefits for certain special interest lobbies with business ties to the Bush family.

Considering the chemical, pharmaceutical and military nature which predominate those special interests, one could attribute the president's previous comment as a “Freudian slip.” If it was, what type of a “slip” would the following comment be:

“We must always remember that all human beings begin life as a feces. A feces is a living thing in the eyes of God who has endowed that feces with all the rights and God-given blessings of any other human being.” Bush made the statement above at a pro-life rally in Tampa, Fla., June 17, 2004. The crowd reportedly listened in shocked amazement as the president mistakenly said “feces” instead of “fetus” several times.

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Report finds G.W. Bush has lowest IQ of all presidents for last 50 years

Sr. comes in 2nd

In January, 2001, The IO frontpaged a short article entitled, “GW may be dumbest president in U.S. history.” Though a certain amount of research went into that article and we believed it to be accurate, many of our conservative readers were angered by the allegation. Having just survived eight years of Bill Clinton, they reasoned that we ought to at least give the Texas Republican a chance; anything had to be better than Clinton.

Now, as the mantra evolved to, “Anything but Bush,” it turns out Bush is the dumbest president -- at least of the last 50 years.

In a report published August 2, 2004, the Lovenstein Institute of Scranton, Pennsylvania, released the results of a four-month study into the intelligence quotient (IQ) of President George W. Bush.

The IQ is used to measure a person's capacity for learning.

Since 1973, the Lovenstein Institute has been rating the mental capacities of presidents and making its research, including presidential IQs, available to the education community.

Not being able to give a standard test to determine a president's IQ, the Lovenstein Institute bases its determination on scholarly achievements, writings fully credited to the president in question, their public speaking ability and command of the English language. Other more subtle psychological factors are also considered. The data is then scored with the Swanson/Crain system of intelligence ranking.

According to statements in the report, there have been twelve presidents over the past 50 years, from FDR to GW Bush who were all rated in the manner described above.

The study determined the following IQs of each president and claims the figures are accurate to within five IQ points:

147 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D)

132 Harry Truman (D)

122 Dwight D. Eisenhower (R)

174 John F. Kennedy (D)

126 Lyndon B. Johnson (D)

155 Richard M. Nixon (R)

121 Gerald Ford (R)

175 James E. Carter (D)

105 Ronald Reagan (R)

098 George HW Bush (R)

182 William J. Clinton (D)

091 George W. Bush (R)

The six Republican presidents of the past 50 years had an average IQ of 115.5, with President Nixon having the highest IQ, at 155.

President G.W. Bush was rated the lowest of all the Republicans with an IQ of 91. The six Democrat presidents had IQs with an average of 156, with President Clinton having the highest IQ, at 182. President Lyndon B. Johnson was rated the lowest of all the Democrats with an IQ of 126.

No president other than Jimmy Carter (D) has released his actual IQ, 176.

According to the report, President G.W. Bush's low ratings were due to his lack of spoken communications skills as made apparent in reviewing his public statements, his limited vocabulary (6,500 words for Bush versus an average of 11,000 words for other presidents), his lack of scholarly achievements other than a basic MBA, and an absence of any body of work which could be studied on an intellectual basis.

The complete report documents the methods and procedures used to arrive at these ratings, including depth of sentence structure and voice stress confidence analysis.

“All the Presidents prior to George W. Bush had a least one book under their belt, and most had written several white papers during their education or early careers. Not so with President Bush,” Dr. Lovenstein said.

“He has no published works or writings, so in many ways that made it more difficult to arrive at an assessment. We had to rely more heavily on transcripts of his unscripted public speaking.”

The study was originally commissioned February 13, 2001, and released on July 9, 2001, to subscribing member universities and organizations within the education community.