This scares me about Bush exactly like it did about Reagan:

[jmcon007]

Not to be sarcastic or mean, but being as serious as I know how to be....Bush is just not very damn smart. I know everyone will go, 'Duh!', but I wonder why the Pukes keep running people with such low IQs? The most powerful position in the world held by a self-conscious sociopath with an attitude?

I remember Reagan had crib sheets, too, in that exact same room, except his were really scary. One note instructed him to 'look to your left...say good morning to so and so..." That was during his first term so it wasn't alzheimers. Anyway......
__________________________________________

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2004_06_13_atrios_archive.html#108752163595772810
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index/indexprint.mhtml?pid=1504

By the way, it turns out the President didn't offer his "spontaneous" responses at that post-cabinet-meeting press session in a completely "spontaneous" manner. He had a crib sheet, caught by happenstance in an AP photo, swiveled and blown up thanks to the wonders of modern technology and posted at a blog. According to Dan Froomkin's invaluable White House Briefing column at the Washington Post, it said:

"Saddam Was A Threat --
"Sworn Enemy of US…
"Destabilizing Force…
"Volatile part of world…
"Had Weapons of Mass D . . .
"Tied to terrorist orgs . . ."
__________________________________________________

[Syrinx]

1. I don't think Bush is as dumb as a lot of people here think

Clearly, he has very poor verbal skills, but he is very smart politically. What we are seeing now is his lifelong arrogance catching up with him. Not lack of intelligence, but inbred arrogance!

EDIT: I didn't mean what it sounded like I meant, so I fixed it. :)

[wake.up.america]

6. The Republicans put up people like Raygun and Bush because...

They appeal to flag, mom and apple pie type persuaded people, who don't bother to analyze. The Democrats have got to spend less time bashing Bush and more time trying to educate people on how to analyze policies, news, etc. Bush is in power because 50% of the populace is lazy, stupid or both. It doesn't take much smarts to scream USA, USA.

Rove is being defended by the GOP operatives, directed by Rove, who tells these guys to tell the public that an attack on him is an attack on the war on terror, that an attack on him is typical Democrat left wing tactic to attack the President, blah, blah. I am not convinced,but many others are convinced,those who do not take the time to think.

[Syrinx]

9. I couldn't agree more

And Bush and Rove have milked that system perfectly. Maybe their arrogance, though, is about to bite them in the ass. I hope so anyway.

[chalky]

2. Smart men make terrible puppets.

All that pesky question-asking and such.

[snot]

10. Exactly my thought. Why they'll never really support McCain--

he can't be manipulated.

[DanCa]

3. Is that why thy voted for him though?

Kerry made people think up, President Bush made them think Down. We ran a Delorean they ran a pick up. Kerry won all three debates. People felt comfortable with Bush they didnt feel comfortable with Kerry.
Your right though the dumbing down of America is a very dangerous thing. How do you explain the sucess of the Simple Life? One good thing about having Bush as President I like having a GPA thats higher. Bush 2.0 Me. 3.0

[tridim]

4. Bush has "surrounded himself with smart people"

Remember that argument?

Smart, evil, criminally insane people.

[madeline_con]

5. "The most powerful position in the world ...

... held by a self-conscious sociopath with an attitude?"

A person with the personality profile DUH-bya seems to have could easily be talked into being a puppet. He probably believes he's doing us a big favor by "leading". God told him to be prez, after all. He's just dumb enough to be talked into the PNAC and the whole deal.

If he's so much smarter than he gets credit for, maybe he should show it by saying something that uses 2 syllable words.

His family name was a great door opener. Think of Kelly Osbourne getting into a recording studio, kind of like that.

[Syrinx]

7. Kelly Osbourne

Great analogy! LOL

[newswolf56]

8. Remember there are at least two definitions of "smart":

One is the literature/art/science definition: the person who questions everything (and out of that lifelong questioning achieves greatness). The other is the business/political definition: one who is such a characterless puppet he (pronoun deliberate) is suddenly trusted with access to not only the levers of power but the doomsday button itself. Interesting too that the questioner, often scorned as a "nurd," is utterly despised by the puppet -- just as der Bushler obviously despises not just questioners but all working families and literally everyone who is not of his "kind."

Even so, I agree with respondent #1: despite Bush's appalling inarticulateness, he is much brighter (in the corporate/exploitative/hateful sense) than most of us here reckon, and we "misunderestimate" him at our own very great peril.

Hitler was dismissed (by the German Left) as stupid too, and his Storm Troopers were belittled -- just as some of us belittle the Christofascists -- as hopelessly illiterate thugs who could not possibly take over a nation so civilized and culturally superior as Germany.

Never, ever underestimate the enemy.

[JawJaw]

11. Image not loading

from the atrios site.

Is there a mirror anywhere else?

[leftofthedial]

12. stupid = easier to handle

less likely to balk at blatantly illegal, immoral things