[rrpjr]

Anybody who has lived a reasonable length of time in this world (anybody, that is, with the discernment and worldliness to own a Porsche), must knows the meaningless of the “articulateness” yardstick of intelligence. I hope they do, anyway.

No, it is just this: there are many on the left invested in the idea of Bush’s stupidity. They don’t really believe it themselves. In fact, they wish it were true. Then, they think, they might find a way to knock him over. On the other hand, if Bush were suddenly to start orating like Demosthenes, it would do nothing to change their essential view of him as totally unsuitable to the office. The stupidity charge, made by not a single person who has met him, simply feeds a stereotype and thus obviates the need for a better argument. It is lazy. It is also smug. For many well-educated liberals just detest the idea of a simple-minded Texan who refuses to see the world in their infinite shades of gray presiding over the government which clearly should be in the hands of a smarter and more sophisticated crowd, one which would know far better how to run our lives. Government, after all, is their dominion. But after a while one has to wonder about people who persist in trying to get traction from such a treadworn charge, which the average citizen who pays an average amount of attention knows is ridiculous.

Incidentally, G.W. Bush’s SAT scores upon entering Yale were 200 points higher than Bill Bradley’s upon entering Princeton.