http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200611u/bush-smart
The amazing aspect was that this man sounded smart....But it also reflected a person who understood clearly the realities of his situation. And as delivered it was coherent, quick, and precise. Both "cumulative" and "nevertheless" flowed right off his tongue (as opposed to being shown off as trophy words, which the President is proud to have come up with) and were the right words for those moments. Each sentence is correctly formed.
Over six years we've become unbearably familiar with the tongue-tied George Bush of "the Google," of "is our children learning," of the anguished and humiliating pauses as he tries to fish out an appropriate word. After I described the startling contrast between the relatively glib Bush who governed Texas and the aphasic-seeming character who was our President, a number of readers wrote in to suggest that his increasingly-halting expression was in fact a sign of clinical mental deterioration, even of early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
Mental deterioration ? My conclusion today is the same as it was when Fallows wrote his first article about how articulate Bush was in the past.Bush's verbal mis-steps were an act all along. He is indeed very smart, and a very smart liar. His verbal gaffes are deliberate acts to ingratiate himself with his Republican base, and to induce his enemies to misunderestimate him.
Looking back at Fallows' 2004 article, I see an interesting observation
"There are some skills Bush can use with little or no effort; according to friends, he can quickly size people up and detect their vanities and weak points."
Sad to say, I can think of at least one Asian Elder Statesman that Bush managed to make very good use of.
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