I think Americans would agree that intelligence – examining our complicated world and finding the best solutions for hard questions; reading; thinking; evaluating different points of view; etc. – is an important quality for a president to have. After all, the world that the president has to lead is a pretty complex place. The impacts of his decisions are massive. We’re talking life and death for people all over the world. President Bush is not embarrassed by his lack of intellect. In fact, in a 2001 Yale University commencement speech he seemed to flaunt his academic shortcomings by stating “and to you “C” students, you too can be president of the United States.” Well, I think we need a president who values academic success. We need a president with a thou htful, considered approach. Not someone who has to stumble his way through a press conference if he gets any questions that he hasn’t already memorized the answers to. Not someone who admits that he doesn’t read newspapers. Not someone who has squandered our good will with the world and has exacerbated deep divisions within our own country. And especially not someone who goes fishing and stays on vacation after receiving information that terrorists are imminently planning an attack in the United States. But this is what a president with a “C” average gets you.
I find it interesting that this current president likes to say John Kerry flip flops on the issues. Doesn’t George W. Bush look in the mirror at his own foreign policy flip flops? I remember Bush during his 2000 presidential campaign declaring so firmly that he didn’t believe in “nation building” and adamantly stating that the U.S. should have a “humble” foreign policy. Now looking back at our presence in Iraq, nation building and unilateral action has become the defining features of this administration’s foreign policy. In March 2003, Bush adamantly declared that the U.S. would seek a U.N. vote for the war with Iraq “no matter what,” and later that month Bush attacked Iraq without a U.N. vote after it became clear that the U.S. could only muster four votes in support of the administration’s decision. So much has come out about President Bush’s failure to lead before and after 9/11. Why, when Bush knew bin Ladin was planning an attack, were we so unprepared? Didn’t he take the threats seriously? Why when alerted by a staff member that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center did Bush fail to act for a full seven minutes. At some point it is time for the “leader of the free world” to take responsibility for his own actions and stop pointing the finger at others for flip flopping when his own record fares much worse. But I guess that’s what a president with a “C” average gets you.
Read further information on George Bush’s flip flops by clicking on the following links:
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=42263
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