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This originally appeared on Quora. Answered by Brad Porter.
Yes. Politics completely aside, and whatever you may think of his personal character, he is a genius-level intellect by any measure, and almost certainly one of the smartest men to ever hold the office of President.
If you want to get your social science on, a neat little study in 2006 estimated the IQs of all American presidents and has Clinton in the 140–150 range, 4th among presidents (behind, in order, John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and JFK). I'm not one for IQ, but that strikes me as probably about right.
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If you're more into accomplishments, Bill Clinton was not born to advantage or wealth - unlike the great majority of American political figures, his upbringing really was unassuming and not privileged in any way.
Nevertheless, he attended Georgetown on scholarship, was class president for two years as an underclassman, became a Rhodes Scholar after graduation and attended Oxford, then Yale Law School. He became the Attorney General of Arkansas at 30 and Governor at 32 (the youngest governor in the country, and one of the youngest ever), and served 12 years (second longest in state history). He then became the third youngest president ever at age 46, and then the first Democrat since FDR to win a second term.
Finally, if you lean more anecdotally, nearly every account I've ever read of people meeting him involves people being blown away by his intelligence, especially his quick thinking, command of facts on nearly every matter, and tremendous memory and fluency with concepts. The people I've met who knew him or interacted with him for any extended period of time - and most second hand accounts I've heard or read - almost universally say he is the smartest human being they've ever encountered.
So, yeah, the dude is smart.
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