Stupid Bush

Ok, I've about had it with the "Bush is a Moron" bit. Last week in my cube I had someone who is relatively conservative bring it up as "obvious", to which a less conservative -- ok, a Democrat, nodded and agreed. I don't get confrontational about these things at work. (after reading this, you might want to go check out Why Are We Whispering? by Andrew Klavan.)

Bush scored 1206 on his SAT. That puts him in the top 10 percentile. He graduated from the Harvard Business School with a 3.6 GPA.

Ah, but his daddy probably bought those grades. Mmmm-hmmm. And Gore was actually involved in threesomes in the Oval Office with Bill and Monica. Hey, I've got just as much hard evidence to back that up. (besides, if you're paying for grades, why not a 4.0? I mean, all that oil money!) If you can make bullshit up and present it as fact, so can I. (ah, but perhaps you're just repeating bullshit somebody else made up.)

George also flew fighter jets. As Bill Whittle pointed out:

Here is a random question from the instrument rating exam I had to pass a few years ago.

Refer to figure 91:

What should be the approximate elapsed time from the BOSEMAN (BZN) VOR to the DUBOIS (DBS) VORTAC if the wind is 24 knots from 260 degrees and your intended True Air Speed is 185 knots? (The magnetic variation is 17deg. E)

A. 33 minutes
B. 37 minutes
C. 39 minutes

(It's C., obviously)

If he had been a civilian rather than military pilot, Dubya would have had to have passed 60 questions like this with at least 70% correct. Questions on weather, radio communications, mechanical systems, aerodynamics, pilot physiology, airspace, navigation and a hundred other things. But, since he was military, he also had to know how to operate that primitive in-flight radar, plus weapons systems, rules of engagement, electronic warfare, hydraulics, fuel systems -- it goes on and on.

People like Michael Moore and Bill Maher and Keith Olberman would not be able to figure out how to close the canopy on an F-102. These people would be weeping with fear when those afterburners light up and you barrel down that runway hoping that engine doesn't flame out and roll you inverted into the asphalt, or when you're rocketing through the soup at 300mph watching two little needles chase each other, praying the next thing you see out the window is a runway and not a mountain goat.

George W. Bush is not stupid. It's not possible to be a moron and fly a supersonic jet fighter, and everyone knows it.

What George W. Bush is, however, is inarticulate. English is his second language. From what I can see he does not have a first language. Abraham Lincoln spoke in simple frontier language in an age of rhetorical flourish. Like Bush, he was considered a bumpkin and an idiot, and like Bush, he realized that there were times when having people misunderestimate you repeatedly was a real advantage. That's goal-oriented. That's playing the deep game. That's cunning.

I saw him last night being interviewed by Bob Costas at the Olympics about policy toward China, Russia, Georgia ... and here's what strikes me about the man. He doesn't need a script. He is not the most articulate man in the world, but (I know, it's hard to believe) neither am I. He knows what's going on in the world, he knows what the options are, and he doesn't have to take a poll to tell you what his opinion on the best course of action would be. He's comfortable talking about it.

Not only is he plenty intelligent, he's genuine. Sincere. Not some PR illusion.