Sunday, October 03, 2004

The Elephant in the Room

Check out this transcript (courtesy of Wampum) of a post-debate interview with Aaron McGruder (creator of Boondocks) on CNN's Newsnight.

Rob

Labels: Posted by Rob S. at 8:55 PM

5 comments:

Andrew said...

During the debate, Sharon recalled a quote she had read. I don't remember it now, but the gist was that Bush is no dummy. If he wanted, he could pronounce nuclear just fine. It's part of his whole plainspoken man of the people image. I think that assessment is dead on.

I think we saw the same thing happen in this debate as in the first 2000 debate. This time, however, Bush was on the receiving end.

10/04/2004 8:19 PM
Rob said...

Bush is the Forrest Gump of Politicians.

Seriously though, how does a smart man get C's as an undergrad, barely skate by in grad school? Answer: Daddy put him there. How about running 5 comapnies into the ground? Answer: Daddy put him there. Oh but wait - what about being governor? Answer: the people of Texas put him there because of his daddy. And now he's president because - say it with me: "DADDY PUT HIM THERE." He's not smart.

10/04/2004 9:36 PM
Rob S. said...

I tend to think of Bush's smarts as falling under the Mr. Waturi rule. As he shouted incessantly in Joe vs. The Volcano: "I know he can GET the job -- but can he DO the job? I KNOW he can get the job -- but can he DO the job? I'm not arguing that with you! I'm not arguing that with you! I know he can GET the job -- but can he DO the job? I'm not arguing that with you!"

Sorry. Got carried away.

I think Bush is smart enough to get the job. (Of course, with Karl Rove pulling his strings, a trained monkey might be smart enough to get the job. Come to think of it, Bush is exhibit A for that, too.)

But for doing the job? Bush doesn't have nearly the wattage upstairs that we should want in our cheif decision maker. Sure, he surrounds himself with smart people. But a) they're smart, but they're wrong; and b) what if they don't agree? All those people pulling his strings, something's gonna snap.

Rob S.

10/05/2004 11:06 PM
Andrew said...

Maybe he got where he is based on Daddy's connections and Karl Rove's spin-machine. Personally, I think if elder Bush had a choice, he'd have annointed Jed. He was certainly perceived as the heir until Junior won Texas.

Maybe he's just a puppet who relies on the sinister forces of Cheney and Rove. That's possilbe, but I think they could have found a more charismatic idiot.

Me, I'm not going to make those assumtions. It's fun to Bush-bash and make fun of his bad grammer. But in the end, the simpleton-Bush perception helps Bush.

It helps his "man of the people" persona. It lowers expectations thereby improving perception of performance. It insulates Bush from the spew of Cheney (et al), making their attacks more effective. Etc., etc.

In this election, Bush is the foe. I'm not going to make the mistake of underestimating him.

10/07/2004 10:37 AM
Rob S. said...

To a certain extent, I agree. But I think there's a difference between "man of the people" and "deer in the headlights."

For instance, men of the people often shoot deer in the headlights.

10/09/2004 10:43 AM

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