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My conspiracy theory on George W. Bush
I responded to someone's elitist thread on E08 but also wanted to post it separately here.
I find it so laughable that Bush has been able to hoodwink our nation and the world. He might act like Joe the Plumber, but people need to only dig beneath to figure out that he went to Philips Academy Boarding School in MA (aka "Andover"), Yale for undergrad, and Harvard for Business school.
I really think he puts on an act and it worked. If I can find some links to his old debates for when he was running for Gov of TX, you will barely recognize him since he sounds somewhat intelligent. Also, I still cannot fathom how the average American thinks GW is fun to have a beer with when he is the epitome of an elitist northeasterner. He was born in CT and then he got shipped off to boarding school at 14. How Texan can he be?
Thoughts?
Re: My conspiracy theory on George W. Bush
You're dead-on.
Palin -- while she doesn't have the same educational background -- has followed his lead in adopting a bizarre accent to try to relate to "the real Americans." If you watch her 2006 debate footage, she has very little accent. It's hilarious.
But apparently, that's what works.
Eh, I started to question his intellect when he could only articulate that he thought Gore's plan was "fuzzy math".
Oh man, now I have to look for that debate footage. The accent kills me!
But he coasted through all that school, right? I know an awful lot of rich kids that went to good schools who I wouldn't trust to cook my eggs. It continues to amaze me how the vast majority of truly stupid people get along in this world without ruining their credit or poisoning themselves, so hoodwinking the free world with only a smidgen more intelligence isn't that far out of the realm of possibility.
I really don't feel qualified to make a personal judgment on the man, but what seems most plausible to me is that he's just kind of a stubborn puppet who's surrounded himself with brilliantly crafty people who are the masterminds. I almost feel like they've fed him as much as he's fed us.
I certainly wonder where the intelligent man who ran for Texas Governor went.
But as for what people see in him, I think it only marginally has to do with his accent, and I don't think anyone is unaware that he grew up a 'poor little rich boy'.
What makes W relatable, imo, are his flaws. The fact that he had an alcohol problem and was found guilty of drunk driving. But even moreso that he conquered his deamons with the help of his faith and his family (mainly Laura). "Yeah, he might have grown up with all the money in the world and the doors opened to him, but at the end of the day, he's a flawed man, just like me, who overcame those flaws by turning to God."
I guess... but didn't Clinton have flaws he was crucified for? "not inhaling" and all the affairs?
It's something more than that. Or about the audiences they are playing to, respectively.
But did he ever have a 'come to Jesus' moment? Even still, Clinton was also a very relatable, down-to-earth president, despite also being a Rhodes scholar.
It is partly the flaws, but it's moreso the religious aspect, I believe. And it's not just from the crazy folk. A lot of people are religious, and even those who find it to be a very personal matter can still appreciate and relate to a person who worked through his flaws through his faith.
Evangelicals love repentance. So long as a sinner repents and claims a newfound love for God, all is forgiven. The problem is that Clinton never really did this or, perhaps more significantly, never begged forgiveness from the "correct" religious leaders.
I'm a bit jaded about evangelicals because I have several in my family and could go on for ages about them, but I frequently joke that Christians can sin all they want Monday through Saturday so long as they show up in church on Sunday. This isn't a fair characterization but you get the gist. Dubya showed up for church; Clinton didn't.
I never even thought of it that way, interesting.
That was my first reaction until I realized that Clinton's faults seem more unforgiveable to some due to the fact that he did it while he was in office. GWB's issues all took place prior to him taking office from what I can gather.
Pescalita, in regards to your comment about GWB coasting through all of those schools, you are correct. However, that still doesn't mean he was able to get out of all work necessary to graduate from one of the top b-schools in the world. There is only so much coasting you can do, KWIM?
dit-to. It's like that riddle:
'What do you call a guy who graduates at the bottom of his med school class?'
'Doctor.'