The President of the United States, George W. Bush, is not blessed with “darn good intelligence,” and I’m not talking about the CIA reports he was given. That’s right, he is not a smart man.
The most common reaction to the above assertion goes something like this: “That’s not true. He may not be the most intellectual president we’ve had, but don’t underestimate him. He has street smarts.” I don’t buy it. Isn’t that just something we say about dumb people?
I might have accepted the “street smarts” thing if he had been raised in tough circumstances and fought hard to get where he is in life. However, Bush has had everything handed to him including an oil company, a baseball team, a state and a country and he managed to screw up each and every one of them.
In most cases, idiocy is an undesirable, yet mostly harmless trait. The problem is that Bush’s intellectual inadequacy often jeopardizes lives. One specific statement he made comes to mind in that regard: his infamously idiotic challenge to Saddam Hussein loyalists, issued sometime between the “end of major combat operations” and the present chaos in Iraq. “Bring it on,” proclaimed the Walker: Texas Ranger of international politics.
Bring it on?! As we like to say in the great state of Massachusetts, what are you, retahded? I could just imagine Colin Powell grimacing at that statement and whispering into the President’s ear something along the lines of “actually, Sir, most experts on the issue have concluded that if you taunt the terrorists, it only makes them want to kill us more.”
Although Bush’s approval rating has been in constant decline throughout the summer, I can’t for the life of me figure out why it is still hovering somewhere around his IQ level (around 45-50%). What is it that people like about what the Administration is doing? All of the major promises Bush has made over the past year have come up completely empty: no Osama bin Laden, no flowers being thrown at soldiers in Iraq, no Saddam Hussein, no weapons of mass destruction, and no economic recovery. Do people like that we beat Iraq in a war? That’s like Arnold celebrating an arm wrestling victory over Gary Coleman.
I think people actually like Bush because he’s not the brightest bulb on the chandelier, like they don’t want someone to be president who is smarter than they are. How did that happen? I want the President to be smarter than me. In fact I want him to be a lot smarter. I, for one, think its dangerous for the guy who has the power to unleash global nuclear war to have a record of passing out from choking on pretzels.
I blame Bill Clinton for the current “we want the President to be a regular Joe Six Pack” syndrome in America. He was almost too smart, and more importantly, too slick for his own good. There is a disparity in the oratory skills of Clinton and Bush. While Clinton was able to persuade the majority of the country that the word “is” can be interpreted in different ways, good old George still has problems pronouncing the word “nuclear.”
So, in the next election, I beg you, vote for a candidate who you agree with on the most issues, not who you think could funnel the most beers or do the most lines in his frat. It takes a little work to find out where the candidates actually stand, and I know you’re lazy, I am too, but the mainstream media is not going to tell you what you really need to know about the candidates. For instance, I’m sure that while every Howard Dean supporter knows that he was against the war in Iraq, many have no idea that the “liberal governor from Vermont” is a member of the NRA and supports the death penalty.
When you cast you’re vote for the next President, vote for whomever you agree with the most, and try to put everything else aside. Just because he has an abnormally long face and clown-like features doesn’t mean you shouldn’t vote for John Kerry if you admire his military service in Vietnam. Don’t let Joe Lieberman’s unbelievably obnoxious voice stop you from voting for him if you want more censorship and morality preaching. And don’t let any preconceived notions you might have about lunatics stop you from voting for Al Sharpton. Even though the preceding candidates have their personal detractions and may not be as cool to hang out with as Bush, they’re all much, much better (and smarter) candidates than Dubya.
Scott Conroy is a junior in the College. He uses two hands to brush his teeth.
