"Early on we were told that 'the President is not a big reader.'"

[journalist3072]

From Pages 243-244 of Richard Clarke's book Against All Enemies:

Bush was informed by talking with a small set of senior advisers. Early on we were told that "the President is not a big reader" and goes to bed by 10:00. Clinton, by contrast, would be plowing through an inbox filled with staff memos while watching cable television news well after midnight. He would exhaust the White House staff's and departmental staff's expertise and then reach out to university and other sources. More often than not, we would discover he had read the latest book or magazine articles on the subject at hand.

-snip-


There were clearly innumberable differences between Clinton and Bush, most of them obvious, but the most telling for me was how the two sought and processed information.


The moral of the story here, ladies and gentlemen? There are consequences to having an intellectually lazy and uncurious president.

[opihimoimoi]

1. The Incurious Mind leads to the inefficient Mind.The Mind that is uninform

ed

the mind that is challenged if I may...

The leader who is challenged canardly lead....can he?

[OneBlueSky]

2. now now . . . Bush has read over 60 books this year, don'tcha know . . .

he is, undoubtedly, the most literate and well informed president in our nation's history . . .

[ClintonTyree]

6. You forgot the :sarcasm: smiley.

But we all know you weren't serious. ;)

[OneBlueSky]

11. ya know, I actually had the sarcasm smiley, and I removed it . . .

felt it was unnecessarily elaborating the obvious . . . :)

[Marr]

3. But he's read 60 books this year. And three Shakespeares!

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060820/28presidency.htm

But really- Bush's incurious nature is the reason he was run in the first place. He's surrounded by Reaganites. They hit on their "mascot President" formula in the 80's with Reagan, and they repeated it with Bush Jr.

[Aristus]

5. Check this out regarding the "three Shakespeares".

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=5586564

:+

[Marr]

8. lol, maybe that explains it.

:D

[ClintonTyree]

4. What do you mean?

He's read 60 books this year including Camus and Shakespeare! ;) Or so they'd like us to believe anyway. You're correct, the dunce doesn't like to read.

"I appreciate people's opinions, but I'm more interested in news. And the best way to get news is from objective sources. And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world".
Interview with Fox News' Brit Hume 9/23/03

Yeah, he's fountain of knowledge is our president. :puke:

[Marr]

7. Dick Cheney: Objective News Source

What a laughable concept. The man who couldn't even pass along information from the CIA without reworking it to favor his policies is Bush's best "objective source" for information.

[TahitiNut]

9. The Cult of Mediocrity - the deification of the 'normal'

Don't be 'extreme' ... a grade of 'A' is extreme. If it wasn't for them damned eggheads, we'd get better grades! (Let's wait for 'em after school and teach 'em a real lesson!) Three cheers for home-schooling!

:puke:

[emmadoggy]

10. I think these differences are obvious..

just by looking at, watching, and listening to these two men. Clinton is sharp as a tack, very well read and informed, knowledgable about many topics, and is a great speaker. His intelligence and appetite for knowledge comes across just listening to him. He appeared to take his job very seriously (a few notable snafus aside) and worked hard at it.

With Bush, it's the exact opposite and it's obvious. He comes across as an ignorant buffoon. He seems to know little about anything and doesn't seem to care. He is incredibly challenged to just put a few coherent sentences together. He makes rude and inappropriate jokes in times of seriousness indicating a lack of seriousness about his job and basically appears to be a slacker. He loves the image and power of being president, but seems to think he's only there to be bowed down to. He likes to advertise all the high-brow books he is supposedly reading, yet seems unable to give any information about the contents of the books.

These things were obvious to me even before he was annointed President and despite so many people thinking it was a great thing to have a president that you would "want to have a beer with", I personally would rather have a president with intelligence, compassion, an ability to speak, and a sense of tact and diplomacy. Not to mention the fact that Bush is exactly the arrogant, obnoxious, drunk frat-boy type of guy that I most certainly would NOT want to have a beer with. I'd much rather have a beer with someone who can carry on a conversation and crack some great jokes.

Yes, the consequences have been severe. :hurts: