Comments on: Bush’s Brain: Smart, but Too Certain

By: corporalwaldo

corporalwaldo — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:39:02 +0000

Bush is not an idiot?
Google Results 1 – 10 of about 37,800,000 for Bush stupid.

“I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.” –Washington, D.C. June 18, 2002

“I’m telling you there’s an enemy that would like to attack America, Americans, again. There just is. That’s the reality of the world. And I wish him all the very best.” –George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan. 12, 2009

“Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.” –George W. Bush, in parting words to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at his final G-8 Summit, punching the air and grinning widely as the two leaders looked on in shock, Rusutsu, Japan, July 10, 2008

“I’ll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office.” –George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., May 12, 2008

“The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him.” –Washington, D.C., Sept. 13, 2001
“I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.” –Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002

“You work three jobs? … Uniquely American, isn’t it? I mean, that is fantastic that you’re doing that….get much sleep? (laughs)” –to a divorced mother of three, Omaha, Nebraska, Feb. 4, 2005

“Let’s face it: A man who cannot talk about education without making a humiliating grammatical mistake (“The illiteracy level of our children are appalling”); who cannot keep straight the three branches of government (“It’s the executive branch’s job to interpret law”); who coins ridiculous words (“Hispanos,” “arbolist,” “subliminable,” “resignate,” “transformationed”); who habitually says the opposite of what he intends (“the death tax is good for people from all walks of life!”) sounds like a grade-A imbecile….As the president says, we misunderestimate him. He was not born stupid. He chose stupidity. Bush may look like a well-meaning dolt. On consideration, he’s something far more dangerous: a dedicated fool.” ~ Jacob Weisberg

By: altakoi

altakoi — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:18:48 +0000

As an outsider from Australia I note that one thing Bush also was was privileged. He was rich and he was powerful. I wonder if anyone would be searching this deeply for reasons why any normal person wasn’t dumb in the face of so many failures of judgement. One can interogate the black box forever but, by the common standards applied to anyone who does not call into question the reputation of the presidency, the outcome was pure dumb.

By: chetan

chetan — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:23:54 +0000

Reminds me of Philip Tetlock (Berkeley Psychologists) categorization of thinking modes: Hedgehogs vs. Foxes:

Hedgehogs: thinkers who “know one big thing,” aggressively extend the explanatory reach of that one big thing into new domains…

Foxes: thinkers who know many small things (tricks of their trade), are skeptical of grand schemes, see explanation and prediction not as deductive exercises but rather as exercises in flexible “ad hocery” that require stitching together diverse sources of information, and are rather diffident about their own forecasting prowess.

for more, see this review: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/12/05/051205crbo_books1

Bush (and most of the Republican Right as well as the extreme Left in the Democratic Party)fall into the Hedgehog category.

By: monkeymuggs

monkeymuggs — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:18:25 +0000

Personally I think everything in this guys past transcripts from every school is Doctored, Come on! There is no way this fool could have gotten into Yale without being the son of Politician.

By: samjohnson

samjohnson — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:41:17 +0000

Bush not dumb? I know people who’ve met him and consider him poorly informed. So, take poorly informed, incurious, arrogant, infected with an entitlement mentality and overlay it with eschatological madness and what do you get? Beyond dumb, frankly. Frighteningly ignorant, especially about details that matter.

“Oh, these sunni and shias… you mean there’s like a difference?” (shortly before the invasion of Iraq).

I recommend Managers not MBAs by Henry Mintzberg for an insight into the HBS mentality and the devastating consequences it has wrought.

By: sometimesella

sometimesella — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:00:30 +0000

So with the benefit of hindsight, looking back at Bush’s administration and of course its aftermath, isn’t it interesting to consider what a Sarah Palin administration (and subsequently its aftermath) may look like. Considering it was a pundit who subscribes to the same values as Ms. Palin who pointed out not just her lack of intellect but also her lack of curiosity.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124716984620819351.html

By: David DiSalvo

David DiSalvo — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:22:20 +0000

I have no problem believing that Bush was much smarter, natively, than people have him credit for. But his unreflectiveness always showed through. I think he generally came across as having a surface-level psyche, and from what I gather from this post, that’s exactly true. Interesting comment on our country that we’d indulge not just 4, but 8 years of him.

By: Ryan Sager

Ryan Sager — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:46:49 +0000

IQ is certainly not determinative. But I wonder what a scientific definition of a “fool” would be? Is it someone with brain processing power but little knowledge? Little wisdom? A poor temperament? Bush would seem to have lacked all three.

By: libtree09

libtree09 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:15:25 +0000

What a coincidence I was just thinking about Bush and wondered if his intelligence was more like a horse or a mule. Let’s go to the experts at a fancy pants horse show in New York City to ask the experts:

Alan Bethel, President Standard Triumph Motor Co. says, “No, Bush is definitely like a horse and they are smarter. He doesn’t have as hard a working life as the mule, and he is allowed to share more of the arts and the graces of life. There are horse shows for the horse, and he makes possible “the sport of kings.” A horse has been sold for more than a million dollars. That’s horse sense.”

Now LIEUT. GENERAL BLACKSHEAR M. BRYAN
Commander, First U.S. Army disagrees, “Bush is like a mule, Mules are no exhibitionists, like that prancing horse face Kerry and they tend to be “cussed and ornery,” as well as “set in their ways” but, when compared in intelligence to horses, you are insulting the mule. When thirsty, mules will drink only what is necessary, while horses will drink their fill at once if allowed to do so.”

So there you have it but what they all agree on is that when judging what comes out the rear end of their intelligent bodies is indistinguishable.

By: davidlosangeles

davidlosangeles — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:04:32 +0000

Mr. Sager,

You are correct, Mr. Bush is not stupid, he is a fool. Stupid people have little in the way of brain power, fools have plenty but do not use it. I have known a few people who I thought were pretty dim witted but they were no fools. They were rather successful in their lives, they achieved what they set out to do. Conversely I have know a significant number of people were really smart, much smarter than you, me, or Mr. Bush but they were damned fools. I knew a fellow who had an advanced degree for UC Berkeley and when I met him he was working hard on a system to beat the lottery. I saw I sign once that read “I will is more important than IQ”.