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You need to spend more time with politicians.
Oh, dear god no. I spend far too much time with politicians. A ton of time with politicians, for my sins.
Certainly enough time to know that you absolutely cannot judge whether a politician is smart or not from watching them speak in public, or what they do on TV. There's no way you can assess that. I've known politicians that were as smart as a whip (in the conventional sense) in the conference room, but sounded like a box of rocks when giving a speech or declaiming from the Commission dais. I've been with politicians that appeared dull as dust in public, but were scintillating with charisma one-on-one (Michael Dukakis was the prime example, but Al Gore was similar).
Nearly all successful politicians have enormous people skills. Many people tend not to regard that as an aspect of intelligence. I happen to think it is very much an aspect of intelligence - it's a purely mental set of abilities that require insight, intuition, and reactive capabilities. There are plenty of folks with high logic/reading intelligence that tend to minimize those skills - and our general conception of what being "smart" is follows that shape. We'll take a completely asocial math nerd and label them a genius, but take the guy who can walk into a room and win everyone over in the space of 20 minutes as just "the ability to be relatable" or "affable," even though that's an extraordinary thing to be able to do that just uses your mental talents.
If you end up spending a lot of time with politicians, you'll realize that most of them that are at all successful have immense talents that don't map onto Mensa exams but are signs of incredible mental acuity.
