As a UK citizen, how could America the most advanced country in the world, choose a moron to be its leader?

Question

This is a serious question.
I am flabbergasted by the fact. In the UK we have an understanding that the leader of the country should be intelligent. In the Uk people either like or dislike Tony Blair but everyone respects his intellect and oratory skills. Whereas Bush just seems like an useless baffoon who gets told what to do by advisers. He can hardly string a sentence together.
Bush would never get close to office in the Uk. How could he in America?

Answer 1

ahaha money runs America and it helps to have your daddy as a past president.. and your brother as the Governor of Florida.. the state where they FU*KED up the votes in 2000... then when we're in a war we're also less likely to change presidents.. so we were stuck with him again.. but its funny that Blair is Bush's lap dog.. he does what ever bush wants.. that's where his criticisms came in when he invaded Iraq with Bush... never the-less it is a shame that Bush is our President

Answer 2

Man, you got it all backwards. Think about it- you WANT a moron leading your country. Look at all the crazy crap we get away with- wars, bombings, the ability to give the world the finger and a total lack of logical polices- do you think we could get away with all this stuff if we had a reasonable intelligent leader? Hell no! We know Dubya is as dumb as bricks, but he does the stuff we kinda need to do and we can blame it all on him.
Look, in a post-Enron world, no one with a brain wants to be at the top. People in charge take 100% of the blame, and the mid-level guys get away. If you are at the top, you might as well paint a bullseye on your head, because you will get blamed for everything. SO, put a child like moron in charge and a few smart guys around him making all the real decisions (to make sure his tonka truck does not slip and hit the Nuke button).
When Dubya is out we’ll all say “Whew! I’m so glad that idiot is gone” but inside well all be grateful that we could still do crazy, self-interested and irresponsible things and pin the blame on a cowboy idiot.

It The American Way!

Answer 3

We don't know how that ever happened either. Once was bad enough, but we elected the buffoon twice. Okay, he never had the popular vote, but we still put the idiot in office.

He carried the senior citizens and right wing voters. But no other segment of our society was interested in him.

Voter apathy is one problem we have in the USA. Another is the electoral college, which allows a candidate to win an election without carrying the majority of the popular vote.

And by the way, we love Tony Blair :-)

Answer 4

You mistake the newspaper reporting for fact. President Bush will go down in history as one of the greatest presidents that served. I have lots of respect for Blair, Churchill and Thatcher. They have all been steadfast leaders very similar to Reagan and Bush. I agree that Bush is not the best communicator but I did not vote for him based on his speaking skills, I voted based on his moral strength. I am flabbergasted by the candidates that are put forth by the Democrats, talk about buffoons.

Answer 5

It is complicated. I will take a stab at explaining it to you.

First and foremost, the best, brightest, and smartest of the US went into various business interests during the 1980s and 1990s. Many of them went into the technical field. This left a void of talent for national leadership.

During the same time, coming out of the Vietnam era, including but not limited to the Nixon resignation and scandals, there was a prevailing attitude that politics were corrupt. This again drained the talent pool.

From 1982 through 2000 the US was embroiled in what we call the Culture Wars. The secular left was under scrutiny by the religious right. Over time, through the expansion of the Southern Baptist Church, Conservative Christianity became the predominant expression of the conservative culture of the United States.

For the most part these people are rural, shy of advanced education, suspicion of science and education, with a very narrow world view. They are a people who look for a leadership that exemplifies the puritan ethic of the Calvinist traditions.

In 2000 George W. Bush came out of political grooming in Texas to speak to the base of the GOP. These people make up the majority of the GOP base today.

They are looking for men to be leaders who pay mouth service to their belief system. They would like the leadership to be honest pious evangelical men, but will settle for the best they can get. Bush exemplifies when they are looking for, a simple man, with simple ideals, who looks to God for guidance, and is not burdened by advanced education in philosophy, science, sociology, psychology, and leans heavily on the Bible for guidance.

Answer 6

He represents the money people in our country and it takes money to get elected. He uses religion and "old fashioned values" to win over people who wish America could always be the way it was in the 1950's.

You're lucky, you get to view him from a distance.

My question is, why does a man as "intelligent" as Tony Blair go along with the Buffoon in all his decisions? I would have hoped an intelligent PM could talk a stupid President out of making some of the decisions he's made. Hell, in some instances, I was counting on it.

Answer 7

Remember that Bush lost the popular vote but, thanks to the Supreme Court, won the electoral college vote. However, it comes down to who his main competitor was: Al Gore, while competent enough, made many campaign mistakes in 2000. John Kerry, a more competent guy, just never connected. Bush had piles of money, and when you combine that with the fact that no wartime president has ever lost (forget for a minute that he started the war), Bush had 2004 in the bag. Thank goodness for term limits--we'll have someone new in 2008. (No Cheney, either!)

Answer 8

Well, part of the reason Bush carried Ohio in the last election (Ohio was the turning point) was because smarmy Brits wrote letters to the residents of Ohio urging Yank voters to vote for Kerry...good work.

American leaders typically DO things instead of yapping at each other in a House of Commons or Parlianment.

Answer 9

Well we didnt know when we elected clinton he was such a worthless leader. He shamed the country and let our people die without fighting back. We learned tho and elected a great leader in George Bush. Im glad you little people in the UK see that Adolf Clinton was a moron

Answer 10

It was basically a choice between a moron and a cowardly moron in the last election. At least George Bush isn't afraid to kick some tail.