Can Georgie Read?

[auburngrad82]

I've come to the conclusion that Dubya is at best functionally illiterate. Here's why.

1. The video of Bush on the morning of 9/11. According to news reports he was reading a book to the children. Actually, the teacher was doing the reading. Dubya was sitting there like a deer in the headlights.

2. The story posted yesterday from Kitty Kelly's and James Hatfield's books about Dubya writing that he had "lacerations running down his cheeks". I'm pretty sure a third grader would know that lacerations are not the watery things that fall from your eyes when you are sad.

3. When asked what his favorite book is, Bush said "The Very Fuzzy Caterpillar", a children's book. That's the kind of book that your mother would read to you, not a book that you would read to yourself.

4. Bush's own admission that he doesn't read newspapers. He has his staff pick out the good stuff and read it to him.

5. Barbara Bush's very active support of literacy programs. Mothers become active in programs that are close to them or that effect their children.

6. The various videos of Dubya being fed his lines through a transmitter. If he can't read a teleprompter then a transmitter to feed him his lines makes sense.

Anything else to support this theory?

[pelagius]

1. One of his brothers is dyslexic...

...according to the Kelley book and other reports. Alos, there was apparently no habit of reading established in the Bush household (largely because there were no books!).

A mild learning disability coupled with an aversion to (or just limited experience with) reading could account for *'s functional illiteracy.

[Owlet]

2. He can read the teleprompter

That was evident during his UN speech last month, when the teleprompter speed was just a tad slow. He has reading glasses - I've seen pictures of him peering over the tops of them, but they may just be a prop. He apparently doesn't read any more than he has to, and, in that regard, he has a lot of company: http://www.nea.gov/news/news04/ReadingAtRisk.html

Bush is decidedly anti-intellectual. You don't have to listen to his stump speech for more than a couple of minutes to reach that conclusion. I'm sure he views recreational reading as an effete exercise - much less manly than playing first-person shooters.

[seeker4ever]

3. One thing you can be sure of.... he's a f'n dumbass!

_If_ dumbass was wired he definately has the brain of a marshmello. Somehow all of the fed responses turned out to be "look and say something very stupid".

[Vickers]

4. I imagine my kids can read better than him

They are certainly smarter than him, and much better in spontaneous social situations.

The oldest is ten.

The celebration of mediocrity that his whole administration encourages happens to appeal to the pathologically lazy, so he has plenty of support nationwide.

What a fat, stupid country we are becoming.

[Tracer]

5. Of course he can read.

In fact, that's about the only thing he CAN do Ñ read the words that others have written for him.

The nincompoop can't even get through a stump speech without the ever-present notebook in front of him. Haven't you ever noticed? He's up there at the lectern, in front of his adoring morans, shouting out phrases Ñ then he flips the notebook's pages, and shouts some more.

But put the dolt in a situation (like the first debate) where he can't access the notebook, and his true stupidity shines through.

And no, I don't buy into the earpiece thing. He has more than enought trouble spewing his crap by himself, nevermind trying to listen, think and speak at the same time.

[elehhhhna]

6. He sure didn't read the August 2001 PDB. Or the Constitution.

[cmd]

7. He lacks comprehension skills

He can decode most words, but reading is more than saying words. It is also being able to understand the meaning of those words when they are used together to make a sentence. You can identify those poor comprehension skills when he tries to interpret a writer's words. Reading doesn't come easily to him, so he lets other do the work for him.