The Misunderestimated Man - How Bush chose stupidity. By Jacob Weisberg: "The most obvious expression of Bush's choice of ignorance is that, at the age of 57, he knows nothing about policy or history. After years of working as his dad's spear-chucker in Washington, he didn't understand the difference between Medicare and Medicaid, the second- and third-largest federal programs. Well into his plans for invading Iraq, Bush still couldn't get down the distinction between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, the key religious divide in a country he was about to occupy. Though he sometimes carries books for show, he either does not read them or doesn't absorb anything from them. Bush's ignorance is so transparent that many of his intimates do not bother to dispute it even in public."

This is the best, and most damning, paragraph in a good piece on Bush's intelligence. Weisberg arguest that Bush has shown the ability to work hard in the past, but has actually chosen stupidity and mental laziness.

I think he nails a lot of the problems with this president, and points out (again) that the political ramifications of this kind of president is somehow to excuse Bush of his own responsibility. And, for those few times that he approaches articulate, (approaches is probably strong) he gets rewarded. Hell, if he pronounces or even remembers a name correctly, he gets bonus points. If John Kerry speaks out of turn at all, he gets hammered.