Aside from whether Bush's being dumb is a "comforting notion," when you compare Bush's public talks with nearly anyone else in politics, and esp. folks like Bill Clinton, it's hard not to notice something is different about the guy -- that is, when Bush deigns to give press conferences, which is a rare thing anyway, because of his collisions w/ English. Bush openly acknowledges his legacy as a C student. I don't think he's too bright -- sort of the Howdy Doody face on a very pernicious agenda that does have a lot of legit, though sinister, brain power behind it, in the form of Bush's handlers, minders, cabinet officers, colleagues like Cheney, etc. And the amount of official correction on the White House transcripts is pretty high. Thankfully we live in a YouTube world, and they can't edit those. Some news outlets have noted that not only is Bush's diction cleaned up on paper, sometimes the reporters' questions are changed in the final record.
-B.
Robert Wrubel wrote:
"In defense of Bush, or warning against the comforting belief that he's a moron, almost every national politican uses phrases like 'national interest', 'strong defense', 'progress', 'the American people', without having the vaguest notion of what they're talking about. Or knowing full well they're talking about nothing."
"B." <docile_body at yahoo.com> wrote:
"That was a good letter. And let's not forget that even if we're not at Bush's speeches personally we're still not not given an opportunity to laugh at them, either, because often the White House charitably corrects Bush's grammar and pronunciation flubs when they type up the official transcript."