GWB’s has more formal education (MBA, Harvard) than the majority of world leaders.
Just checked in to see how this thread could still possibly be alive. 
I won’t accept the label of conservative, but I agree with December on this one.
It seems to me like it was 19 hijackers and four planes that have been most responsible for the Muppet’s successful legislative agenda. One must acknowledge, though, that the remarkable efficiency with which they have exploited distortion and fraud to further their policies would have been impossible for an administration with any scruples or sense of shame. For example, it takes a very special sort of chutzpah to immediately hand off the major Iraqi oil field contract to Halliburton. I wonder who came up with that idea. Yeah…definitely a repeat of Reagan.
I get it.
He’s stupid, and when he’s successful it’s because he has no scruples.
If the data doesn’t fit the theory, change the data.
Let me put it another way.
Kermit the Frog is an inanimate object made of felt.
Kermit the Frog can talk, sing and play the banjo.
No new data, just a different theory.
Like I said, a repeat of Reagan.
GWB’s has more formal education (MBA, Harvard) than the majority of world leaders.
The majority of democratic world leaders (and leaders in this country) earned their positions through hard work and serious attention to their schoolwork.
It is well known that “W” was a mediocre student at best.
Dubya gained his position on his fathers name alone.
Nice ocntribution to intelligent political debate. It’s not that I don’t like discussions about boobs, but this is the wrong kind.
I do agree however, that Bush’s father was a far superior statesman who got the shaft because he had to take the blame for Regan’s mistakes, though with a far inferior spin team.
Remember that Bush I wasn’t a self-made man nor was he a political newbie. Prescott (his father) was a US senator.
I found Bush I to be more of a mealy mouthed politician. I could never figure out what his principles were. Kind of like a Republican Clinton.
Was he smarter than Jr? Not sure. Maybe more educated (or got more out of his education), and with real military experience. There is a difference, though, between being smart and being educated.
Bush the Elder had served in China and in the CIA and had a much, much, better understanding of international relations. I think that is crucial. His son has managed to put the USA in confrontation rather than cooperation with a large part of the international community.
Yep, “Peril Under Duress of War” gets Congress a-hoppin’.
Actually it is well known that he was a mediocre student as an undergraduate. I’ve not seen anything about how he did as a graduate student, except that he did succeed in receiving his MBA degree…
Other leaders whose undergraduate results were as bad or worse include Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy, Al Gore, John McCain, and Bill Bradley. I don’t know what Teddy Kennedy’s grades were, but he was kicked out of college for cheating. However, Bush has a graduate degree, while these others do not. Gore flunked out of Vanderbilt Law School and Vanderbilt Divinity School.
Dec:
Nice post. Gave me a good laugh.
Now, this is pure speculation on my part, but I’d guess the reason Bush was a “C” student at Yale is that he liked to party and didn’t take his studies that seriously. Sounds like quite a few pretty smart guys I know. I’ve learned not to judge someone’s smarts by their GPA.
He does seem like one of the few modern presidents I would like to go out on the town drinking with (back in the days before he went off the booze). Clinton, Rhodes scholar that he is would probably try to steal your girlfriend. Gore (though not a pres) would have me snoozing before I had taken 2 sips of said beer. Bush Sr would probably say something like: “so this is what a bar looks like!”. Reagan-- not sure, but I’d bet he could tell a story or two. Carter… well, I don’t even want to think about that. Nixon would probably stiff the waitress.
Oh. I forgot Ford. Well that says something in and of iteslf. He’d probably trip on the stairs before he got in and the bouncer wouldn’t let him in, thinking he was already “over-served”.
So would Clinton, in a manner of speaking.
From Whack-a:
If I may profess my own idea of what this board is all about, of course subject to the corrections of the moderators, I think it is more about discussions than about debates. Every debate is a discussion but not every discussion is a debate. Am I right? It is all a matter of the emotional mood one brings to the discussion, whether it be a debate or a plain discussion. Now, here is the description of this board:
The risk of assuming a debating mood is that we may and very probably end up learning nothing new or different. Now, a discussion is more into sharing the observations and insights of each other, to find out other people’s views and grasp of facts and conclusions.
I think this board is broad enough to not be restricted to debates, but also and specially in my opinion it is inclusive of dialogues and colloquies and conferences.
Susma Rio Sep
I can admit that maybe “W” did well enough in school to qualify him as “educated”, but when I hear him speak I recieve the impression of a high school dropout. Perhaps he is only “talking down” to the level of most of his audience, but I have seen no evidence that he is able to converse on a level equal to his station. Never mind the Gore debates as none of the questions asked were of any kind of surprize to his well coached responses.
As for the idea that Dubya is on the wagon, when I saw him on the TV Saturday his face looked rather splotchy like the other alcoholics I have known. Don’t forget about the peanut episode also.
Well, thats rather odd, dec. Reagan the statesman, the collossus bestriding the world. Cetainly something to be proud of, according to some.
And yet…the Reagan papers. You remember, don’t you? How historians were eager to get their hands on the documents that would so clearly illuminate the glory of the Reagan Admin, and reveal to an adoring public all of the canny probity that went into such triumphs as Iran-Contra, and the barracks bombing in Lebanon.
And yet GeeDub will have none of it! You would think, wouldn’t you, that he would be eager to show off these gems of international wisdom?
Is it perhaps modesty? That long-standing principle amongst the Pubbies not to seem to be boastful and vainglorious as to thier epoch making achievements?
Yes, that must be it. Modesty. Only a scurrilous and snide lefty would imply that they are hiding something. Someone much like myself.
They’re hiding something. Lots of something. And they got away with it.
“And they got away with it.”
And how does that make you feel?
Like a ballgame on a rainy day.
John, how does it make you feel?