Kerry Dumber Than Portrayed

John Kerry, so often portrayed as being ever so much smarter than George Bush in the election run-up last year, in fact had a nearly identical grade-point average to his opponent while at Yale, the Boston Globe reports today.

The information appears as part of Mr. Kerry's military records, which the former presidential candidate finally agreed to release. Throughout last year's election, while his partisans repeatedly attacked President Bush's military record and while he campaigned on his own military career, Mr. Kerry had declined to release his military records.

Oddly, the records provided no significant new information about Mr. Kerry's military service, and certainly no explosive revelations, prompting speculation as to why he waited so long. In fact, if released during the campaign, the records might have been used to answer some of the charges from his critics about his service.

Getting back to his academic record, among other things the transcripts show Mr. Kerry racked up four D's in his freshman year, had an overall cum of 76 -- one point lower than President Bush -- and never rose above an average of 81 for any year of his undergraduate career. Not unusual for your average college student, but somewhat astounding for someone who later would be portrayed as the intellectually superior choice for president.

And thus another liberal myth comes crashing down.