Apparently not, according to About.com:

http://inventors.about.com/od/lstartinventors/a/Abraham_Lincoln.htm

Note the first sentence.

And a great illustration that such qualifications are kind of irrelevant to the Presidency.

Where are the great scientific discoveries or the patents for vital new technology?

Lincoln is, AFAIK, the only President to have been awarded a patent, for a flotation system to get rafts over sandbars and other river obstacles. Lincoln was interested in technology, in addition to his pursuits of law and politics. Not sure if Obama is as interested in anything outside of the political world.

I’ve found one good measure of intelligence is your ability to explain a complex topic in a way that other people can understand.

Richard Feynman famously said that if you really understand a subject you can explain it to anyone. He was talking from the viewpoint of a nuclear physicist so I think that applies to other fields.

I have noted that people who really understand things can come up with many different metaphors to describe the same phenomena. Their detailed knowledge of the phenomena means that they analogize its components to many other things. On the other hand, those who just repeat the same explanation over and over are just repeating from rote.

Leftists seem to think Obama is highly intelligent because of his clever phrases. But he doesn’t seem to use his cleverness to explain complex ideas in simple ways; he seems to use it to tug at peoples’ emotions. Obama doesn’t, for example, describe the principles behind the credit crunch in simple language; he just describes how unhappy people are and says we can’t afford any more of the last 8 years. He’s a master of the catchphrase.

Leftists also seemed to think John Kerry was highly intelligent because his views were “nuanced”, which really meant he wasn’t able to explain them clearly enough for people to understand them. The truly intelligent will explain nuanced positions by describing the principles that go into the decision-making process, and explaining how they fit together. When John Kerry tried to describe his positions, he’d often use the form X BUT Y. This rarely resulted in a clear conception of how X and Y fit together; it normally came off as though he was trying to dismiss Bush’s position X by overriding it with Y. It reminded me of a gay marriage debate long ago where I gave my own description of marriage from first principles, and asked my opponent to do the same. My opponent just took my definition and tweaked it to include and exclude the groups he wanted, and presented it as his own. The result was that I knew my opponent disagreed with my conclusions, but I didn’t understand what principles his conclusions were based on.

Sol Vason’s comment in the other thread was right on. People who use technical jargon or unnecessary big words, who are unable to explain things simply, and who think people who explain things in simple terms are idiots, are themselves not really all that intelligent. People who rely on their credentials rather than on their ability to clearly describe concepts are (usually) not all that intelligent.

Many years ago a sweet young thing with whom I was semi-seriously involved, in one of our tender moments looked up into my eyes and said: “Are you really smart? Or are you just glib?”
It was at that moment that I realized that I was going to have to drop her like a hot potato–she was far too analytical for my own good….Perhaps that question should be put directly to Obama more often….

Interestingly enough, Lincoln was the Palin of his day. He came from a frontier state and he lacked the formal education, experiences and connections that most federal officials had. Opponents openly mocked his lack of “sophistication”, his use of common/rural idioms and the brevity of his speeches.

Lincoln prosecuted the civil war to its bloody conclusion when many other “better educated” men counciled defeat because his experiences with ordinary people in southern Illinois taught him the dangerous of a divided America.

It’s to have a wise lay man than an educated fool.

90th General Assembly
Summary of SR0110

Senate Sponsors:
OBAMA.

Short description:
11/1/97-ISLAMIC COMMUNITY DAY

Synopsis of Bill as introduced:
Declares November 1, 1997 to be South Shore Islamic Community
Center Day.

Last action on Bill: SESSION SINE DIE

Last action date: 99-01-12

Location: Senate

Amendments to Bill: AMENDMENTS ADOPTED: HOUSE – 0 SENATE – 0

Obama has never said or done anything that wasn’t for the good of Obama, has zero accomplishments, and lies his head off about almost everything—not just Ayers and Wright and Rezko, but claiming credit for legislation he had no role in crafting and didn’t even vote for–repeatedly claiming it.

Obama in 2008 is a bad joke compared to Lincoln in 1860, but you have to (a) know something about Lincoln and his times, and (b) have an open mind, to see it.

So, let’s all stipulate that years in elective office may or may not indicate anything important, and we can all lay off Obama and Palin on that subject, and talk about which candidates have better policies, better advisers, more well-thought positions, and stronger characters.