The “Bush is dumb” meme was always unfair. Those who’ve known him, and not just his loyalists, have always disputed such a characterization. First off, something I didn’t know, “Bush scored a 1200 on the SAT (roughly equaling 1300 on today’s re-normed SAT), placing him in the top 16% of all college applicants.” We also know he had better grades than the smarter-seeming John Kerry at Yale…the best estimate of Bush’s IQ at 120-125, in the top 10% of the population and above average for a college graduate — about the same as estimated for Eisenhower and Ford.
The problem with Bush’s leadership style was never lack of intelligence. It was something much closer to intellectual laziness or lack of curiosity. As the authors put it: “Critics charge that President Bush does not seek out information or opposing viewpoints; disdains complexity, nuances, and expert opinion; views policy issues in black-and-white terms based on his own preconceptions; and, refuses to rethink problems or change his views. The research largely bears out these popular perceptions.”
Then he fried his brains with drugs and booze.
He certainly was one of the most inept public speakers,he certainly couldn’t deal with the complexities of Iraq,his military record is nebulous and finally he promised to get Osama and failed to deliver. The fact is nothing he did as president was smart, smart is as smart does.Can you imagine if he had gotten threw privatization of Social Security and then the crash happened? He could have been the first President impeached for being too stupid for the job.
I do not believe it. He was a C student in college, and only got into Yale, because of his dad.
Nope, I don’t believe one word of it.
AFAIC, he’s still a moron!
I can’t imagine history showing GWB as anything but an ineffectual nincompoop (I believe that’s the correct technical term). I remember when Dick Nixon was getting booted out of office. There were Republicans saying how history will exonerate him. Hasn’t happened yet. Never will.
#2- what a lazy, incurious, un-nuanced comment that was.
and I see you have lots of lazy, incurious, un-nuanced company!
Where’s the Bullshit meter on this one. That son of a bitch couldn’t score 85 on his best day, on a real IQ test. Anybody who thinks George W. Bush is of normal intelligence has to be a moron. Bush can’t even speak English, his native tongue. Of course, it could be he has a nearly normal IQ and just hasn’t been sober for 45 years.
says allot about him, EXCEPT..
That others were pushing him to do things..
Probably INCLUDING HIS FATHER..
When 1 group of AGREEING people TELL you what to do, generally you DO IT..as they have been in position longer THEN YOU..
And who were those surrounding him??
can you say PUPPET??
Please people, don’t be so naive.. this is propaganda in the extreme..
Sounds to me like he once again, was bailed out by his family..daddy bush altered his scores so they could ultimately plant him in the whitehouse.
Nothing about his body language, diction or even or life history ever indicated anything “intelligent” about him. he has been an embarrassment to his family since day one.
The bush empire of corruption had major goals to fulfill and they birthed the perfect ignoramus to enable that desire..
He was the perfect, non-thinking ignorant patzi, -easily controlled and pacified that enabled them to do as they please with the country, once he was planted.
Don’t forget, every business he ever touched, he ran to the ground in ultimate failure. the state he left our country in illustrates this fact perfectly.. he has remained consistently true to his form throughout his life.
With papa bush practically being the virtual embodiment of the CIA, there is no illusion he could not create at a moments notice with the vast resources and knowledge of the CIA at his fingertips.. the cia is all about creating illusions..and the delusional majority of the American public even to this day, still believe everything they see and hear on tv..
Minor note: papa bush is the only president that still gets daily CIA briefings. -he’s in it up to his neck.
Finally:
I don’t think you could find a better description of a religious zealot or extremest anywhere..
Don’t forget, junior was a “born again christian”, -probably the worst kind of “christian” you can find.
It was a brilliant plan that was executed flawlessly which is now being continued with a mirror image patzi in the new administration.
Wake Up.
-s
It’s easy to score 1200 on an SAT test… when your Daddy pays for another library to be built on Yale’s campus.
Just checking… Yep, he’s still a dumbass.
When it comes to SAT scores, it helps to have a dad who runs the CIA. That’s all I’m saying.
It isn’t Bush’s relative intelligence with the general population, but rather other presidents. While Bush is easily smarter than most people (even C’s at Yale are better than A’s at my school), he is near the lowest end of the bell curve of presidential intelligence.
Fair or not presidents are compared to other presidents. Not their high school class.
And, his wonderful “America Fourth” policy (behind China, Mexico, and the Mid-East) is what help made America what it is today.
Sorry, but a president who doesn’t know the difference between Saudi Arabians (the 9/11 attackers) and Iraqis is stupid, full stop.
So Dubya used my father’s thought process: “Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up.”
No wonder we’re in this recession.
George Bush supported changing loan rules to create “affordable housing”. He actually is on tape saying that “the down payment is the biggest obstacle to home ownership”
He should have opposed the Democrats assault on lending standards. Guilty.
George Bush tried and failed to stop FANNIE and FREDDIE from their high flying, “we’ll buy any mortgage” unregulated bond kiting ways. Allowing Barney Frank and Congressional Democrats to stop regulation in its tracks.
And Bush began the bail out frenzy by supporting TARP (which the Democrats supported as well).
So, for failing to stop the Democrats from creating the housing bubble and allowing FREDDIE and FANNIE to spread the muck into every corner of the financial system, and starting the bail outs which Obama has driven to unimagined heights, yes, Bush is guilty.
Met the man on many occasions and this is spot-on…you cannot have a conversation with him and thnk he’s dumb…but he’s not curious, and made his mind up a long time ago and will not change. So very unwise, but not dumb.
I disagreed with him on almost everything, but given a choice of having dinner with him or current thin-skinned paranoid ideologue (who would try to destroy and attack you for disagreeing) there’s no contest.
One thing I will give Bush, he can take abuse. The bile and nastiness simply does not bother him because he does not take his worth from what a bunch of potty-mouthed screamers think (that includes nearly all Democrats now).
I think one reason he engenders such hatred is that you can’t get to him. He doesn’t care about what you think, and you can’t handle that.
@justthetruth
You wouldn’t be a Bonesman would you?
Yet we still can’t see Obama’s school records or find anything he wrote at Harvard.
I had a sister in-law once who graduated from a well known university, suma cum laude and she was as silly and stupid as anyone I’ve ever met. I wouldn’t trust her as far as I could spit a rat. That goes for Bush also.
1200 on the SAT is NOT THAT GOOD. I scored an 1170 and I’m a moron.
“does not seek out information or opposing viewpoints; disdains complexity, nuances, and expert opinion; views policy issues in black-and-white terms based on his own preconceptions; and, refuses to rethink problems or change his views.”
I agree this is Bush but it is also Obama.
#37
You do realize that everything at Yale is graded on a curve? So, a C student means he was smarter than half the students there.
#58
IMO, Obama strikes me as an overthinker and indecisive. He states his position as rather black-and-white but when it gets to the implementation, he turns wishy-washy. I’d imagine in the course of dinner that by the end of the meal you could convince him of the opposite of his position at the outset of the meal.
Bush was more of a “let’s go with whatever we have and see how it works out.” To the extreme, neither solution is ideal. Good leaders need to gather as much information to make an informed decision but it is just as important to know when to stop that process and actually make a decision.
I recall a scene on TV during the 2000 election when he sat cross-legged and with a demeanor that indicated confidence, like he knew he was going to win. That was when the vote was so close; you all remember it. Now I realize that was well-founded confidence, not the attitude of a simpleton. I think the media poisoned me against him somewhat.
I’ve always maintained that Bush wasn’t stupid, he just didn’t care to know. Biug difference.
“someone who had greatness thrust upon him.” Greatness? No, he failed big time. Thrusted by who?
Before he had the presidency thrust upon him (geez), he failed at everything he tried. This, even though the ventures were handed to him by his father and his ultra-rich pals. Why did they help him? Because Poppy Bush asked them to, and because they saw a future payback – time and again. They were right because they got him into the White House, and they got their rewards.
“It is evident to everyone else . . you don’t get to be President of the USA if you are dumb.”
Obviously wrong! You can get to be President of the USA if you are dumb and have enough influential friends and family. You can even get to own a baseball team on other people’s money that way.
Besides, getting to be President of the USA is not a reward for being smart, dumb or anything else. It is a job that must be done well.
As in everything else he dabbled in, he failed. This time, thousands of Americans died for it.
“The fact is nothing he did as president was smart, smart is as smart does.Can you imagine if he had gotten through privatization of Social Security and then the crash happened?”
AMEN, LEE
The worst thing is that so many Americans voted for him twice for the stupidest of reasons, and still refuse to see clearly.
Scoring high on MAMBIT (mental abilities measured by intelligence tests) is no indication of quality rational and veridical thinking. The correct term for Bush’s mental state is dysrationalia.
So, technically he’s not retarded. He has a brain but is too lazy to use it. That seems like the very definition of stupidity.