HOWELL RAINES has a piece on Presidential intelligence in The Guardian that isn’t all that bad. Perhaps Howell has learned that there’s more to management than SAT scores. . ..

However, he can’t avoid this line: “Does anyone in America doubt that Kerry has a higher IQ than Bush? I’m sure their SATs and college transcripts would put Kerry far ahead.”

Actually, Ann Althouse was doubting that very thing. We seem to know Bush’s grades and test scores. But I haven’t seen Kerry’s anywhere — release the transcripts! — and so it’s all a matter of inference from things like where he went to law school. Given Kerry’s tendency to trumpet credentials he’s proud of, the absence of any data here may support an inference of its own.

But we also learn — well, confirm — something about Howell Raines. He hasn’t seen the numbers. He doesn’t offer any real comparison or data. He just knows that Kerry is a lot smarter, and it seems that he knows this because everyone he talks to thinks the same thing. Which is, no doubt, the case.