George Bush Is Not an Idiot
I think George W. Bush is one of the worst presidents in modern times, because of his lip service to free markets while allowing an outrageous growth of government power. Still, I think his critics are wrong when they lampoon him as a bumbling idiot. (Just the other day, I was talking with a guy and I said, “His critics like to paint him as such, but you don’t become the most powerful person in world history if you’re a complete buffoon.” The other guy said, “You can if your dad used to run the CIA.”)
My opinion of Bush’s wits went way up during one of the debates with Kerry. The details are a bit fuzzy at this point, but it was something like this: Bush called for medical tort reform, Kerry explained that the true problem with health care was insurance costs, and then Bush came back and explained that his proposed reform would deal with what Kerry had brought up. And there was just something about the way Bush quickly handled the point, that made me think, “Whoa, his deer-in-the-headlights look is an act. That’s a sharp guy.”
Now we have more evidence. Given the Al Franken opinion of the clueless bumbler, you would think Bush would get smacked in the face. But look at this guy (HT2 James Ostrowski):
