Let me preface this by saying that most, most people who make it to the level that they do politically are not dumb people. Even people like Ted Cruz are Ivy League kids, so I doubt that they are legitimately dumb people. I really want to steer this away from a Bush/Quayle/Biden/Thatcher/Cameron/Abbott hate thread and focus on probable lesser known Congressmen/Senators who you genuinely think aren’t the sharpest knife in the drawer and quite possibly have their staff do most of their work for them. Have you met them in person? Followed them closely? Know for a fact daddy got them the backing and they really are a true Philistine in person? I wanna hear about it.
And for the love of God, give some back-up to your answer.
I met Alma Adams, my new Congresswoman for North Carolina’s 12th, in person and listened to her talk at a county Democratic convention and I was less than impressed. I still don’t even remembered what she said, but I know that 4 people spoke that day and I really enjoyed listening to 3 of them. I don’t understand why she’s a Congresswoman and, to be honest, it’s people like her that make me aspire to politics and realize that I can do it if she can do it. I’m sure she’s a sweet lady, but my grandma’s a sweet lady and she ain’t no Congresswomen.
IMHO it is hard to beat James Buchanan when he referred to the territorial issue of slavery as “happily, a matter of but little practical importance.”
And then he likely influenced the supreme court about how to render the Dred Scott Decision, and essentially fiddled while [del]Rome[/del] the Union burned on the way to Civil War.
I’ve never believed that. I think Bush was a pretty intelligent man. I feel his problem was mental laziness - he was smart enough to get by in life and he didn’t exert himself.
My theory is that he was very intelligent in “street smarts” for the political world.
But that was essentially it, his laziness (that does not offer much of a practical difference from dumbness) also showed when the ones that helped him win appointed themselves to his cabinet. In more ways than one it looked as if Nixon had gotten back in power and Bush was just enabling things.
And this reminded me that Nixon is also in the run for the dumbest politician title when we take his cabinet and plumber choices into account, hard to think of a move like that that leaves such a legacy of under miners like Cheney to get into high levels of government and to come back again (under Bush) like a bad penny but with more power.
Let’s not forget the twin paragons of folksy ignorance, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. Either they are truly as stupid as their quotes would indicate, or they are merely perfectly calibrated tuning forks that emit sounds that resonate with the most ignorant of the right wing.
That’s clearly giving into wishful thinking, and trying a scheme that didn’t work (“Maybe if I get the Supreme Court to say that slavery is constitutionally protected, the issue will go away”), but I don’t think it’s stupidity.
He got elected President. And then re-elected. That’s something very few people have succeeded in doing. And let’s not kid ourselves - that’s not something that gets handed to you by other people.
And while you and I may think a lot of things he did as President were wrong, keep in mind he was able to do them. Bush was a pretty effective President in terms of getting the policies he wanted enacted into law.
choices into account, hard to think of a move like that that leaves such a legacy of under miners like Cheney to get into high levels of government and to come back again (under Bush) like a bad penny but with more power.