Survey: Elected Officials Flunk American History and Civics Test

Survey Says:
Elected Officials Not the Sharpest Tools in the Shed

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Survey Confirms What Most People Knew:
Many Elected Officials Dumber Than Their Constituents

A recent lawsuit Denofiro v Wells questioned whether the New Jersey Secretary of State, Nina Wells, fulfilled her duties under the law of determining whether the candidates for US president on the NJ ballot were qualified. [Obama Birth Certificate, Citizenship: SCOTUS Conference Scheduled for Dec 5]

Wells stated twice that she "assumed" the candidates on the New Jersey ballot were qualified to serve as president--even though Socialist Workers' candidate, Roger Cadelo, has never been a US citizen.

But maybe Wells didn't even know what the duties of her office were: a new survey says that only 44% of US elected officials scored "average" on a test measuring their knowledge of United States civics.

From US officials flunk test of American history, economics, civics:

US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday.

Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).

"It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI's civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned," said Josiah Bunting, chairman of the National Civic Literacy Board at ISI.

"How can political leaders make informed decisions if they don't understand the American experience?" he added.

Exactly.

One interesting group which was not reported was the media's grades.

It's not hard to imagine that many would have scored far worse than average citizens.

The dereliction of the press' traditional duties in fulfilling its adversarial role was on display for months during Election 2008. Both John Edwards (during the John Edwards Scandal) and Barack Obama received preferential press treatments unlike no others in American history.

IF the test had measured "perkiness", Katie Couric might have aced it.

IF the test had measured "meglomania", Keith Olbermann might have led the class.

IF the test had measured "vapidity", Campbell Brown might have scored 100%.

As it is, the test only confirms what many voters have suspected about their elected representatives: some are a few fries short of a Happy Meal.


by Mondo
image: dbkp file

Take the Hillary Clinton Test: Seven Little-Known Facts about HRC

"What you don't know won't hurt you."

The common saying above might apply to Hillary Clinton.

Or not.

At any rate, we looked for little known facts about Hillary Clinton--just because we're big trivia buffs, don't you know. And we came up with seven that we can use without seeming, well, partisan.

Take the Hillary Clinton Test. What kind of score can you achieve?

So, here are seven little-known facts about the Woman who would be President.


1. In 1969, after Hillary Diane Rodham graduated with departmental honors in political science, she worked her way across Alaska, washing dishes in Mount McKinley National Park and sliming salmon in a fish processing cannery in Valdez (which fired her and shut down overnight when she complained about unhealthy conditions).



2. In 1978, Hillary Clinton invests $1,000 in cattle futures. Within a few days she has a $5,000 profit. Before bailing out she earns nearly $100,000 on her investment. Many years later, several economists will calculate that the chances of earning such returns legally were one in 250 million.

Hillary Clinton makes a $44,000 profit on a $2,000 investment in a cellular phone franchise deal that involves taking advantage of the FCC's preference for locals, minorities and women. The franchise is almost immediately flipped to the cellular giant, McCaw.


3. It took Bill Clinton 4 years to make Hillary become his wife. They started dating in 1971. Hillary Rodham and Bill Clinton were married on October 11, 1975, in a Methodist ceremony in their living room.


4. Bill Clinton returned to the Governor's office in 1982. Only then Hillary Diane Rodham began to use the name Hillary Clinton, or sometimes "Mrs. Bill Clinton", in order to have greater appeal to voters.




5. From 1986 to 1992 Hillary Clinton was enjoying six-year tenure as a director of Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest company. Fellow board members and company executives say Mrs. Clinton used her position to champion personal causes, like the need for more women in management and a comprehensive environmental program.


6. Hillary Clinton failed the bar exam in Washington D.C.--but passed it in Arkansas.
This must have been somewhat of a blow to "The World's Smartest Woman".

But, when life gave her lemons, Hillary made lemonade. As she puts it:
"I had taken both the Arkansas and the Washington, D.C., bar exams during the summer, but my heart was pulling me toward Arkansas. When I learned that I had passed in Arkansas but failed in D.C., I thought that maybe my test scores were telling me something." --from "Living History" by Hillary Clinton.


7. Hillary Clinton became involved into a scandal about having a lesbian affair with her personal aide Huma Abedin. A new book by Edward Klein, ‘The Truth About Hillary’ is said to make some claims about Hillary Clinton having lesbian relationships.


How many of these little-known facts did you know?

Here's how you score:

0-1 answer right = Average American voter 2 answers right=== Democrat 3 answers right=== Hillary Supporter 4 answers right=== Hillary campaign contributor 5 answers right=== Political junkie 6 answers right=== Opposition research, McCain For President 7 answers right=== James Carville or Bill Hillary

What was your score?

by Mondoreb
images:
* lionking.org
* borderbasher
Sources:
* What you don't know won't hurt you
* Five Facts you Didn't know about Hillary Clinton
* Arkansas Connections: 1950-1989



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