Barrel Strength

Dr. Ceausescu, wife of Romanian leader Nicolae “The Genius of the Carpathians” Ceausescu, an eminent scientist of great repute, regarding who Wikipedia noted the following, now has some competition.

Ceausescu was given many honorary awards for scientific achievement in the field of polymer chemistry during the period when her husband ruled Romania. However, her educational and scientific achievements are disputed.

Ceausescu graduated from the University of Bucharest with a PhD in polymer chemistry and top in a class of 100 women with the honor of summa cum laude. Her thesis has 162 pages, 32 tables, 40 figures and 440 references and describes the invention of a very valuable artificial material. Her detractors consider it unlikely that a person like her would have been able to write such a thesis herself. After the Revolution of 1989, several scientists have claimed that Elena had forced them to write papers in her name while a later report from her instructors claims she had rarely attended lectures or classes, and instead had sent Securitate agents to drop off her homework. Allegedly, she was once thrown out of an adult education chemistry exam for cheating. Some claim the university gave her the honor of the doctorate solely because of her political position.

In trying to cement the claim that Barrack is much smarter than Elena, Axelrod stated this.

“This is someone who in law school worked with [Harvard professor] Larry Tribe on a paper on the legal implications of Einstein’s theory of relativity,” said senior adviser David M. Axelrod. “He does have an incisive mind; that mind is always put to use in pursuit of tangible things that are going to improve people’s lives.”