George Bush is an idiot

Pro has taken on the onerous task of defending Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS), the mental affliction by which Bush critics duck debate on the issues by calling Bush an "idiot" and dismissing all rational argument as irrelevant. For those suffering from BDS, Pro need not show up for the debate. To the BDS afflicted, it's all just so obvious that anyone who disagrees with them is an idiot that there is no need to argue issues. Let's start with the definition. Pro is attempting an equivocation on "idiot." He claims idiot = fool = funny. The opening statement made it clear that the debate was not about humorous behavior, it was all about "mental capacity." The motivation for ridiculing Bush's stumbling speech is not that it is funny, it is that they can use it as an excuse to not treat policy issues as policy issues and debate them as such. The way it goes, BDS style: "Everyone knows we cannot win in Iraq. It is so completely obvious that only an idiot cannot see it. Look at Bush's stumbling speech. He's an idiot. So that ends the discussion." Of course, not everyone suffers from BDS, and there were very legitimate discussions of policy by opponents. But those discussion were not by people who relied on the "he's an idiot" claim to bolster their superiority. 1. I certainly grant that Bush had a problem with stumbling speech. It's also true, for example, that President Roosevelt needed a wheelchair. The question is whether either president's impediment had an impact on their respective ability to make decisions. Pro has provided no evidence whatsoever of any diminished decision-making capacity. He wastes an enormous amount of space citing Bush's verbal stumbling, but offers no evidence of anything else. For example, there is no evidence of his becoming forgetful or disoriented or unable to properly conduct meetings. Bob Woodward, who uncovered Watergate, wrote a book about the decision making process that led up to the Iraq invasion.http://www.amazon.com... Woodward concluded the Bush asked all the right questions of all the right people. Bush is noted for his encyclopedic ability to recall names and faces, an important ability for politicians. There is no evidence of that ability being diminished. 2. Pro claims that there is some correlation between speaking ability and mental capacity. There is some consensus among historians that the worst speaker among U.S. Presidents was James Madison. He was so poor a speaker that he was not allowed to give the valedictorian address at Princeton, his alma mater. By all accounts his speaking ability was about a one on a scale of ten. Madison was "pale complected, a poor speaker, a perpetual hypochondriac and secret epileptic, pursued by bouts of depression ... And yet his political achievements and intellectual legacy are monumental." http://astore.amazon.com... The point is that a good deal worse than stumbling speech can be wrong with a president without him being in any meaningful sense an "idiot." Calling Bush policies "idiotic" is nothing more than a desire to be arrogantly dismissive, it is not evidence. 3. Pro contends that Bush's poor speaking is consistent with an onset of dementia. Right, and the appearance of crop circles is consistent with the theory that Vegans have come across the galaxy to stomp our wheat. Being consistent with a wild theory does not prove the theory. In this case, one problem is that there is no objective evidence that Bush's speaking problems has worsen. He was a poor speaker when he began his tenure as president. My observation is that he improved during his time in office, but I have no objective evidence of that either. Bush's Farewell speech had one small stumble ("would ... should"). If his mental ability had diminished as claimed, it should have been a complete mess. It was a fine speech. http://video.google.com...# It could not exist under Pro's contention. Recently Bush gave his first speech since leaving office. "One attendee ... said Mr. Bush appeared to speak without a prompter and only occasionally referred to notes." http://www.nytimes.com... I saw television press reports that claimed his speaking style was much improved compared to his presidential style. A logical explanation is that the pressure of being president caused his verbal stumbling. Compare it to stuttering. 4. I ask Pro and the readers of this debate to perform a thought experiment. Imagine someone with a camera follows you around for every minute you are in public. Imagine they do this for a day, a week, a year. Then the video is given to a large team of people whose joy in life is portraying you as an idiot. It takes about a couple dozen YouTube clips to make the case. How do you think you would fare? Tell me Pro, how would you do? I wouldn't do well. Bush's speaking ability is not nearly as bad as his obsessed critics would have you believe. He gave many speeches with few stumbles. There is a parallel case of President Gerald Ford being tagged with being clumsy. He tripped coming out of an airplane once, and thereafter every misstep was a news event. Chevy Chase made a living falling down on Saturday Night Live in mockery of Ford. In truth, Ford was an outstanding college athlete and if anything our least clumsy president. It's just a whole lot easier to mock someone than argue with them. 5. The President gets a thorough physical examination every year, with the significant results made public. There were no diagnosis of any mental deterioration. Pro is hereby encouraged to entertain us with a conspiracy theory. Those visitors from Vega can do more than stomp wheat, you know. 6. Bush is intelligent. Prior to 1974, the SAT was an IQ test. The 80% correlation of SAT to IQ was as close as any IQ test correlated to any other IQ test. The original SAT concept was that (verbal + math)/10 would equal IQ, but it turned out that some correction tables are required. Bush's SAT score was 1206, as revealed by his Yale transcripts. One published table http://members.shaw.ca... proved a correspondence to an IQ of 125. Another conversion http://www.braingle.com... yields an IQ estimate of 129 from Bush's scores. By definition, the average IQ is 100, and Bush is in the upper 3%. Bush may be compared to the IQ estimates of 143 for Richard Nixon and 117 for John Kennedy. Bush had a point or two over John Kerry. Barrack Obama has concealed his test scores and educational records, but his failure to qualify for National Merit Scholarship recognition puts an upper limit of 129 on his IQ. http://voxday.blogspot.com... Bush received an MBA from Harvard. His grades were better than John Kerry's. 7. If BDS critics really thought that verbal gaffes were a since of mental problems, they would be nailing up Joe Biden. Biden told us how President Roosevelt went on television after the Market crash of 1929 and explained the whole thing to the American people. The two problems with that being that Roosevelt wasn't president then, and television hadn't been invented. Biden gaffes abound. http://politicalhumor.about.com... The YouTube search for Biden gaffes produces 115 videos. http://www.youtube.com... So do we have an idiot a heartbeat away from the Presidency? Nah, not a problem. The very same people who are eager to find Bush an idiot don't have the slightest concern. Clearly, it is all about ideology. ============== The "Bush is an idiot" mantra is nothing more than an attempt to dismiss arguments rather than make them. The claim is most often made while ranting like an idiot.