>
> Know your enemy. There is no acceptable evidence on
> the public record of
> Bush's "stupidity" _except_ his linguistic behavior,
> and that is not
> acceptable evidence.
>
Bush, so far, shows every sign of being _politically_ smart in something like the way Reagan was, that ism extremely effective at reaching his chosen goals. He's obviously not smart in the way that, say, Gary Wills is smart, verbally adroit, analytically deep deep, widely learned. Contrary to what Carrol says, there_is_ evidence that he's not very bright as far as those things go. He was a mediocre student at best -- we know his grades and test scores. He failed at business. That could be bad luck, but its part of a pattern. Apart from his verbal slips, he's shown astounding ignorance that indicates either extreme uninterest that is hard to credit for a person, interested in high office, failure to read recall the newspaper or watch the TV news, and general obliviousness, or actual dummheit, you can take your pick.
Finally, the verbal slips are in the totality of circumtstances evidence of something other than just a learning disability. I wouldn't make fun of anyone for a learning disability or Alzheimers or whatever (though some of the slips are genuinely funny, put food on your families indeed!), but there's a total context here. There are lots of dyslexics who are really smart in the conventional way, but nothing suggests that Bush is one of them.
However, the main thing is that I hope Bush has taught us not to "misunderstimate" him; he's formidable politically, so far possibly the most effective president whem I can recall. Part of his genius is mobilizing the populist resentmemt against highbrow pointyheads who condescendingly look down on those who are not as smart and privileged as they -- this depite being handicapped by having the background of a multimillionaire blue blood who attended Yale and Harvard. Making Bush's shortcomings in analytical intellecigence the centerpiece of our critique falls right into that trap.
jks
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