Who was the smarter candidate in past presidential elections?

[tpfkaw]

Do not do this based on ideological agreement or disagreement, or whether you think their policies were "smart" or "stupid" - this is about who you thought had the greater processing power in his brain.  You may note that I'm choosing the "wrong" candidate (from my perspective) as the more intelligent one more often than not.

1796/1800/1804 - Thomas Jefferson (Adams was no slouch and Pinckney certainly wasn't stupid either - Jefferson is just one of the most brilliant people to ever live)
1808/1812 - James Madison
1816 - James Monroe
1824 - John Quincy Adams among the top two, Henry Clay among all
1828 - John Quincy Adams
1832 - Henry Clay
1836 - Martin Van Buren, or Daniel Webster among all
1840 - Martin Van Buren
1844 - Henry Clay
1848 - Lewis Cass, or Martin Van Buren if he counts
1852 - Winfield Scott
1856 - John Frémont
1860 - Stephen Douglas
1864 - lean Abraham Lincoln
1868 - Horatio Seymour (not even close, though I expect hackery here)
1872 - Horace Greeley (who may have been smarter dead than Grant was alive)
1876 - Samuel Tilden
1880 - lean Winfield Hancock
1884/1888/1892 - Grover Cleveland
1896/1900 - William Bryan
1904 - lean Teddy Roosevelt
1908 - lean William Bryan
1912/1916 - Woodrow Wilson
1920 - lean James Cox
1924 - John Davis
1928/1932 - Herbert Hoover (I expect plenty of hackery here; Hoover was one of three certifiable geniuses to hold the office of President, along with Jefferson and Wilson; Roosevelt was a "C" student at Harvard after never receiving a single grade higher than a "B" at his elite prep school while Hoover, who self-educated himself having never gone to high school, went to Stanford and became the world's most distinguished and respected mining engineer while he wasn't translating obscure classical texts in his spare time.  It's funny that Roosevelt, who had every advantage in life handed to him on a silver platter, is the "man of the people," while Hoover, who really did have to "pull himself up by his bootstraps," is the evil capitalist, a position made all the more absurd by the fact that Hoover was easily the most left-wing president ever at the time, and Roosevelt attacked him as a "socialist" during the '32 campaign.  Enough editorializing).
1936 - lean Franklin Roosevelt
1940 - Wendell Willkie
1944 - lean Franklin Roosevelt
1948 - Harry Truman
1952/1956 - Adlai Stevenson
1960 - Richard Nixon (not even close)
1964 - this one's a toughy; lean Lyndon Johnson since I don't want to be biased
1968 - another toughy; lean Richard Nixon
1972 - Richard Nixon
1976 - Jimmy Carter
1980 - this one's tough; brings to mind the phrase "different types of intelligence."  Anderson was obviously an idiot.  Lean-Reagan if pushed.
1984 - Reagan
1988 - Lean-Bush, though this one wasn't exactly a brain trust
1992 - Clinton, or Perot if he counts
1996 - another "different kinds of intelligence" one, lean-Clinton if pushed.  Perot was getting a bit daffy by this point, but still lean-Perot if he's included.
2000 - Al Gore, Nader if he counts
2004 - George W. Bush (surely the dumbest major party slate ever)
2008 - Barack Obama (this one fights with 1988 for the number 2 slot)

[tpfkaw]

Ford and Reagan were the dumbest modern presidents.

Ford graduated in the top third of Yale law school.  Reagan had "genius-level" interpersonal skills and was certainly no slouch at discussing obscure issues in depth.