Still Discussing the Intelligence Of President George W. Bush

An interesting exchange took place in the Coffee Shop forum of Blogger's help forums (a forum where bloggers ostensibly share their blogs and chat about blogging).  It started when this statement and question was posted;  All I know is that Bush seems to be a bumbling idiot. How is that he got elected to be president for eight years?  At first I thought it obviously passé, but was still intrigued that the question still lingered this far beyond the Bush White House, especially since the advent of the Obama era of enlightenment. (And don't get me wrong, I appreciate the fact that we now have an articulate and well respected president, so please don't think me merely sarcastic here; I'm well intentioned, just given to general cynicism when it comes to politicians.)  The comments throughout the thread were actually complementary.  I found myself picking a knit over a minor difference and probably came across as an ardent Bush apologist which, though generally conservative, would not be true.  Like many conservatives I was not enamored with the Bush presidency for a plethora of reasons, of which I will not enumerate here.  Yet, I thought it interesting enough to look into a little deeper.

My contention on the thread was most people were duped by political spinmeisters who capitalized on the infamous "Bushisms" of George W. and made him to look like a dunce, when in actuality he is an intelligent and capable leader.  Then I pondered the prospect that maybe I was the one duped into believing the opposite by conservative spinmeisters.  So I took a look.  Of the many articles I found online,  I thought two particularly informative, one from Slate.com entitled The Misunderestimated Man; How Bush chose stupidity, and Too Smart To Be Dumb on Weekly Standard.com.  Though the Slate.com article was acrimonious and belittling to Bush, there were still some good points made.  What I found telling were the quotes from people close to Pres. Bush, including his wife's, that were less than complementary.  The article on Weekly Standard.com took an interesting tact in one point that suggested that since he didn't relate to the intelligentsia of Washington that he was considered uninformed and unintelligent.  Many other salient points were made in both articles and I would suggest you read them.  Both articles offered an abundance of food for thought in considering the intelligence of our Former President.


George W. Bush has noted that, "Smart comes in all kinds of different ways."  That's true and it takes different types of "smarts" for different types of situations.  I will admit that I could have been misled by the Bush apologists in regards to his command of the issues facing our nation.  Could he have been handled by the neo-cons in his administration when it came to the decision to go to war with Iraq?  Could have been.  I'd still say he exhibited strong executive leadership and an uncanny ability to relate to the American people, for which he couldn't have been dumb.  And, although I  wouldn't put him up against Pres. Obama in a debate, I think I'd still side with Pres. Bush on the ideals and principles we should use to govern our nation by.