Nearly a third of Democrats believe in astrology. This and other evidence presented in my recent column suggest that they are anti-science.

Maybe they’ve also become anti-intelligence.

Remember when Democrats derided George W. Bush as a man too stupid to perform his job? To prove it, Dems obtained his college records and military IQ tests.

Those documents disappointed them. Bush had so-so grades but at excellent schools (Yale and an MBA from Harvard) and an IQ that was in the 92nd percentile.

In short, the Dems’ self-congratulatory hypothesis, that anyone with whom they disagree must be stupid, didn’t pan out.

Dems still had a comforting corollary hypothesis that anyone with whom they agree is real smart. The guy with whom they agreed back then was Dem presidential candidate John Kerry.

But Kerry disappointed them. His college records and military IQ tests showed that he had worse grades and a lower IQ than Bush.

Kerry got partial credit, however. He was clever enough to make himself the richest person in the U.S. Senate by marrying the aging widow of the guy who’d inherited the Heinz Ketchup fortune.

So, a curious student might ask, whatever happened to this guy who was not as smart as Bush but clever enough to make himself the boy-toy of an aging ketchup heiress?

Here’s what: He was appointed by the current president to one of the most important and demanding jobs in the world. He is the American secretary of state.

Don’t worry. Kerry isn’t very smart, but he did take a college class in political science and two in history.

Or maybe do worry — his grade in each of those three classes was a D.

At least he loves America. Except the soldiers in America’s army, whom he called “war criminals” for failing to commit the crime of draft evasion.

Kerry’s most recent gaffe is to say we are not at war with terrorists (even as we bomb them) and then reverse himself 48 hours later.

A fair question this election season is: What do Dems up for re-election think of the Kerry appointment? Well, Mark Udall, the senator who is currently running for re-election in Colorado, endorsed Kerry for president and later praised him for pursuing a “smart but tough” foreign policy.

Udall thinks we like the sound of those words. He also described the policies of the current secretary of defense as “smart but tough.” That was after the guy had advocated unilateral nuclear disarmament.

Continuing down the dishonor roll of the Obama administration, the job of senior political adviser is held by Valerie Jarrett, a graduate of the Chicago political machine whose only identifiable skill is sycophancy.

Next is the attorney general, who initially denied that his department ran a weird and illegal gun-running operation across the Mexican border that killed a U.S. border agent, then admitted that his denial was false, then refused to give Congress information about it and then was cited for contempt of Congress for his refusal (and 17 Dems joined the contempt citation).

Udall didn’t say the attorney general was “smart but tough” but instead applauded him for “his incredible work.” This time I agree; he’s not smart or tough, and his work is not credible.

The job of vice president is held by Joe Biden, who said — oh, don’t get me started on Biden.

The secretary of health and human services (whom Udall voted to confirm) resigned after she herself characterized her rollout of Obamacare (for which Udall cast the deciding vote) as “a disaster.”

The Secret Service director resigned last week after saying she wanted the Secret Service to be “more like Disney World.”

As for the president, they say he likes to think he’s the smartest guy in the room. At his Cabinet meetings, he probably is.

But, really, just how smart is he? Well, we don’t know. The American people have scrutinized the college transcripts of not just Bush and Kerry but also John McCain, Al Gore and Mitt Romney.

The current president has never released his.

But we do have some recent attendance records. In his first term, the president — our commander in chief — was AWOL for 58 percent of his intelligence briefings. In his second term, he scored even higher, with a 59 percent absent record.

While compiling those impressive absent records, he also earned a letterman’s jacket or three on the varsity golf team — he’s played 192 rounds since taking office.

Another person whose record is “improving” is, you guessed it, Udall. In 2012, he voted for Obama’s position 96 percent of the time that Obama bothered to take one. In 2013, he was up to 99 percent.

At this rate of “improvement,” Dems calculate, Udall will be rubber-stamping Obama 102 percent of the time by the end of 2014.

As for those upcoming mid-term elections, Obama was unusually honest last week in proclaiming, “Make no mistake, these policies are on the ballot. Every single one of them.”

Indeed they are. Let’s show them what smart and tough really mean.

Published Oct 12, 2014 in The Aspen Times at http://www.aspentimes.com/opinion/13331930-113/smart-kerry-udall-dems