on thu aug NUMBER NUMBER at NUMBER NUMBER NUMBERpm NUMBER robert harley wrote an apparent quote from dubya from the times sent to me by my dad URL URL claim president george w bush proclaimed the problem with the french is that they don t have a word for entrepreneur origins yet another french fried george w bush is dumb story has been taken up by those who like their caricatures drawn in stark bold lines according to scuttlebutt that emerged in the british press in july NUMBER president bush britain s prime minister tony blair and france s president jacques chirac were discussing economics and in particular the decline of the french economy the problem with the french bush afterwards confided in blair is that they don t have a word for entrepreneur the source was shirley williams also known as the baroness williams of crosby who claimed my good friend tony blair had recently regaled her with this anecdote in brighton lloyd grove of the washington post was unable to reach baroness williams to gain her confirmation of the tale but he did receive a call from alastair campbell blair s director of communications and strategy i can tell you that the prime minister never heard george bush say that and he certainly never told shirley williams that president bush did say it campbell told the post if she put this in a speech it must have been a joke this is far from the first time bush has been made the butt of a jibe meant to showcase what some perceive as his less than stellar intellectual abilities without straining our memories too hard we can come up with three other instances we ve chronicled on this site in the summer of NUMBER the joke of the moment centered upon a supposed study that had resulted in the ranking of presidential iqs with george w bush being pegged as the chief executive who scraped the bottom of the intelligence barrel in december NUMBER it was a fake nostradamus quatrain which pontificated that the village idiot would win the NUMBER presidential election and in the spring of NUMBER it was the story of bush s waving at stevie wonder that set folks to chortling up their sleeves stories that illustrate this widely believed intellectual shortcoming will always waft after george w bush because they seemingly confirm what many already hold as true about this public figure that he s not the brightest fellow that s ever been it is human nature to revel in yarns that the hearer at some level agrees with thus tales of this sort will always fall upon appreciative ears barbara ears of corn mikkelson last updated NUMBER july NUMBER URL 