> “How about rather than doing another meeting on this, I instead tell you now what each person will say.” Maybe he used the full force of his very illegal pro

> “How about rather than doing another meeting on this, I instead tell you now what each person will say.” Maybe he used the full force of his very illegal program to spy on Americans to get their arguments ahead of time? :-) I read (press secretary) McClellan's "What Happened", and two characterizations of GWB that stuck out, that match other impressions, is that first he's very "incurious". You can be smart and incurious, but it doesn't make it a good trait. The other was the story about when GWB behind closed doors, with trusted people, said that he "honestly can't remember" if he did cocaine in his wilder years. McClellan (who's not even done pot) found that absolutely unbelievable. Either you have or you haven't but you don't "forget" if you've done coke. I agree. It takes a very dishonest person (to himself, or just others? We don't know) to claim something that absurd. The only way it makes sense is if he did so many different drugs that he can't remember which he did and he didn't. Still though… you'd remember doing coke, or not doing it. I don't think his wilder years had the synthetic drug legal classification arms race we have now, where you could actually not know if you got coke or coke-like. Anyway, another argument is that he did actually manage to become president. That's not easy. The system may be corrupt, but the corruption cancels out a bit. You can't just coast because of who your (one-term) father is. You actually have to navigate politics to become the winner. But yes. Smart people can make stupid decisions. Especially if they're incurious. > This is a hard one, for liberals only. Do you assume that he is unintelligent because he made policy choices with which you disagree? If so, your logic may be backwards. “I disagree with choice X that President Bush made. No intelligent person could conclude X, therefore President Bush is unintelligent.” Might it be possible that an intelligent, thoughtful conservative with different values and priorities than your own might have reached a different conclusion than you? Do you really think your policy views derive only from your intellect? This is a good question, for people on the left and right. Too often do people assume ignorance, then stupid, and then malice.