Is George W. Bush trained to act dumb?

Question

Do Americans misunderestimate him?

Answer 1

Yes and yes we misunderestimate him. hehe

Seriously, have you ever watched that MSNBC (I know... cable news... I rarely watch it) documentary a female journalist did for them where she traveled with Bush Jr for a year during his campaign in 2000?

They didn't show it until last year... if you can ever see it, you will see why. It shows how unqualified as president he is; but, near the end, the journalists are talking to each other and one says, "He charmed the pants off of us."

Now charm wouldn't be the word I would have used but as you watch the documentary then in then end when you realize how he had manipulated all of them... the media... you realize that he is not the idiot he appears to be. It's like you said... trained to act dumb... because it is human nature to cut the dumb ppl slack. We are harder on ppl we know can take it.

Also being dumb... or acting less sophisticated relates to 'common folk'.

Answer 2

Bush was not a great speaker but he was quite intelligent. Much more so than people give him credit for. He never bragged about his achievements but preferred to allow people to underestimate him.

At a minimum I hope you will test your own assumptions and thinking about our former President. I offer a few questions to help that process.
•Upon what do you base your view of President Bush’s intellect? How much is it shaped by the conventional wisdom about him? How much by verbal miscues highlighted by the press?
•Do you discount your estimate of his intellect because he’s from Texas or because of his accent? Because he’s an athlete and a ranch owner? Because he never advertises that he went to Yale and Harvard?
•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?

And finally, if you base your view of President Bush’s intellect on a public image and caricature shaped by late night comedians, op-ed writers, TV pundits, and Twitter, is that a smart thing for you to do?

Answer 3

You must have confused stupid with dumb as dumb can not learn or plan things like Bush has done & trained means a level of learning,,a dumb person will never learn,,,,,haaaaa...chow F.P

Answer 4

No, I think he is a natural! And I know exactly what he is capable of.................I think he is about to the end of his rain of terror! He won because there are so many stupid Republicans out there that have suddenly seen the light but it's a little too late now isn't it????????? The republicans I work with are even ashamed!!!

Answer 5

Just because the man is not a great orater, does not mean he is dumb.
The man has a higher IQ than most people on this board.

Yale graduate too.

He just is horrible at speaches. like many Presidents are.


get over yourselves.

Mike...

Answer 6

No. His glazed eye, deer in headlights look looks too legit
I dont think even the best actor could pull that off

Answer 7

Hah, what a good laugh so early in the morning. What a great question. Thanks ! He is what we used to call a burn out. His brain is fried. He may not have started slow but he sure finished that way.

Answer 8

In terms of being and acting dumb, he is au natural.

Answer 9

No, he's trained to act smart! His training just doesn't always come through-like whenever he ad libs.

Answer 10

Smart enough to beat Gore and Kerry. What does that say about the Democrats? You also forget that Clinton won with less than 50% of the vote each time.