Dan:
I think that your analysis is pretty close. Trying to label a person
always has to be done in context and no one is either a complete 10
or complete zero at anything. Our society wants to label everything
but the real world does not work that way, at least the natural
world. Computers operate on 0's and 1's but we do not. We after all
are products of biology, engineered by an entity or by nature, and
even if we started as a perfect design nature has eroded/modified our
design through time.
I believe Bush practices "Blink" decision making. I believe such
decisions are very dependent on previous knowledge and experience in
the context of the decision. Bush has been around many campaigns in
his life and would have absorbed much knowledge and experience about
campaigns. On the other hand I am certain that he was not present
when his dad was performing the duties of ambassador or Director of
the CIA nor did he actually serve in combat so his personal knowledge
and experience of these areas comes to him second hand and often
slanted. Once isolated in the White House I suspect that information
becomes even more screened. This is why scrutiny of a candidate's
entire history is so important when deciding who to vote for.
If his primary advisors, Cheney and Rove, are his source of the
information he uses to make decisions then one would seem to have
business and defense business background and the other
campaigning. Rove will try to find a way to use every event too
strengthen a campaign such as turning 9/11 and terrorism into a
positive for the Republican party. Cheney will focus on
strengthening business particularly oil and defense where he has
great experience. Note the absence of soldiers. Colin Powell was an
outsider during the first term and the top military man was replaced
due to disagreements. Is it any wonder that the decisions seem to be
going the way they are.
Having said this he cannot be excused for mistakes that he makes. The
buck stops on his desk as Truman said, even if it is because
President Bush has surrounded himself with the wrong advisors.
Chris F.
On Jul 6, 2006, at 10:39 AM, Dan Minette wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:brin-l-
[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of jdiebremse
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 8:14 AM
To: Killer Bs Discussion
Subject: Re: SCOUTED: Bush is Not Incompetent
--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], Doug Pensinger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
But he didn't _run_ the campaign at all. He smiled, waved and read
canned speeches. Rove et al ran the campaign.
I won't pretend to have any real day-to-day knowledge of how the
Bush '00 and Bush '04 campaigns were run. It is worth noting,
however, that before running for Governor of Texas, Bush was a
political hack and campaign strategist. He may, in fact, be the
first
former "political operative" to become US President. As such, I
would
expect that, when it came to the running of the campaigns, it is
unlikely that he was just an empty suit letting others handle it for
him.
I would tend to agree with this view, with some caveats. GWB gives
every
indication of "getting" the political process. I would not rate him
at Karl
Rove's or Bill Clinton's level of political strategy, but I'd put
him well
ahead of Kerry, Gore, and his own father. In particular, he shines
in a
campaign setting vs. Gore, Kerry and Bush Sr.
I also think that he is a man who acts on his own strong convictions.
People like Dick Cheney may have significant influence over him,
but GWB has
never struck me as a man who is just a front. He acts on fundamental
beliefs, picks people he trusts, and then delegates responsibility
to them.
The caveat is that I don't think he possesses a superior intellectual
capacity for problems. While I think he has a good feel for
politics, I
think Karl Rove was the chess master of his campaigns. Further, I
don't
think he has the intellectual capacity for grasping complex issues
possessed
by the two previous presidents. I think he governs more by feel
than by
analysis.
Contrasting him with his father, I see him as the better
campaigner, while
his father was the more efficient and capable manager as president.
Dan M.
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