Bush Smarter than Kerry?
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| Fri, 08-06-2004 - 8:57pm |
'THE KERRY BRAIN
http://dbsoxblog.blogspot.com/#109162538493538368
Something’s been bothering me about John Kerry. I just don’t think he’s that smart.
One of the axiomatic dynamics of this presidential race has been that Bush is a dolt while Kerry is highly intelligent. But if Kerry is so bright, where has he been hiding his allegedly fearsome intellect? Does “I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it†sound like the workings of a brilliant mind? And yet the Adam Nagourneys of the world continue to insist that Kerry is remarkably “complex†with an uncanny sense for nuance. But I’ve come to a conclusion: He’s not particularly smart.
Let’s take a look at his academic record for illustration. As a control for our study, let’s use another party who for the purposes of this analysis we’ll call George W. Bush. As we all know, Ivy League admission back in the 60’s and 70’s was highly political. If you had the right connections, your ticket was all but punched. Thus, Kerry and Bush had no trouble gaining admission to Yale. Both hailed from the same prestigious prep school and had a surfeit of family “pull.â€
At Yale, Bush was a famously indifferent student. Once out of Yale, Bush was an even more famously indifferent national guardsman. And yet a few years after emerging from New Haven, Bush gained admission to Harvard Business School, no doubt thanks to family connections and an academic performance that though quite unimpressive suggested that he would be able to handle the work at HBS.
Now the allegedly big-brained Kerry graduated Yale a couple of years before Bush. Kerry, unlike the President, is not a famously dunderheaded student; he was supposed to be blessed with his preternatural sense for nuance in the crib. After graduating Yale, Kerry burnished his resume by being a war hero first and a media star second. So after this impressive performance, where did he go to law school? Boston College.
(None of what follows is intended as a slight towards Boston College or its law school. B.C. is a wonderful institution that has produced many wonderful graduates including Michael Adams and Doug Flutie.)
If you’re not from Boston, you might be unaware of the following truth: No one here, in spite of Boston College’s undeniable strengths, would eschew an invitation to attend Harvard Law School to attend B.C. It’s simply not done. Thus we can reasonably infer that Kerry did not get in to Harvard Law.
And that’s remarkable. Given his family connections and his post graduate work both in the war and later protesting it, his admission should have been a given. The only thing that would explain Kerry not getting into Harvard would be that he performed dreadfully at Yale. Indeed, he would have had to perform at a level that would have raised the prospect that he couldn’t handle the work at Harvard. His efforts were probably so weak, they could even be described as sub-Bushian.
The reason this matters is because a key subtext for the Kerry campaign is that he’s smarter than the incumbent. The Senator, with his ear for subtlety and his eye for complexity would have seen through intelligence errors that fooled the rest of the world. Or so his campaign would have you believe.
I’ve scrutinized Kerry’s record searching for evidence of his purportedly giant intellect. I’ve found none. His academic biography includes no Latin words like “laude†or “magna.†Who knows? Maybe Kerry’s just being modest and doesn’t want to boast about decades old accomplishments. But I doubt it.
Of course, the Kerry campaign could prove me wrong by releasing transcripts of his time at Yale and Boston College. What about it, Kerry campaign – care to weigh in on this?
(Correction: Bush and Kerry did not go to the same prep school. One went to St. Paul, the other to Andover. I can't keep straight who went to which - sorry.)'
Renee ~~~

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Bush peeled back the corn husk, took a big bite of the corn, looked dumbstruck and said....
"That's the worst tastin' banana I've ever eaten."
Miffy - Co-CL For The Politics Today Board
They don't call her metrochick for nothing. ( ; ) MC)
The dueling corn photos were amusing. It was obvious Kerry couldn't figure out what do with the ears he was given.
Renee ~~~
Here's the link: http://www.blogsforbush.com/mt/archives/001624.html
At least Bush knew it was a food, not something you use to wave down a passing car! :-) LOL!
I wonder if Bush likes Chili better then Teresa, who wasn't sure what that was either! :-) John & Teressa need to get out more, mingle with the average joe, and see what fun we all have!
Debbie
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~ ~ Follow your passion!:&n
Renee ~~~
Renee ~~~
First of all in the 7 minutes that Bush didn't do anything, how do we know he wasn't thinking about what to do next, or that the SS had already told him what they were doing and just to wait. We weren't there. Plus he was in shock at what was happening to the country, we all were. You can't say you have never been shock over something that you just sat there with a blank look. As far as him not just running out of the classroom when he was told what was going on I think was great, because do some of you know how hard it is to get a chaotic classroom back to order.
Second Kerry can't say he would have done something faster (I've heard him say that), because he wasn't in Bush's situation. None of us can say what we would have done unless we personally were in his shoes.
Third about going to Yale, Harvard or whereever. Both Bush and Kerry come from wealth off families and could go to any school they wanted. It must be nice to have that luxury.
Fourth, yes unfortunately Bush has said some things wrong and they have to play it over and over again. Such as when he said the following: "Everyday the terroists are thinking up ways to harm us, and so are we." Yes it was kind of funny, but it was also sad that noone corrected or made a quick comment. The thing is sometimes when people say the wrong thing we don't catch it right away. Again I know we've all said things that people look at us in weird way or even say "did you just say..."
So those are just my opinions. Have a great day.
Hi tuppervida!
Welcome to the board!
Miffy - Co-CL For The Politics Today Board
I agree it's pretty scary about NORAD and the FAA. Apparently some air traffic controllers tracking the hijacked planes made an audio tape of a debriefing meeting in which they went over events of that morning, but their supervisor destroyed it months later by "crushing the cassette in his hand, cutting the tape into little pieces and dropping them in different trash cans around the building." That's not too fishy, huh...
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/07/national/07TAPE.html?ex=1092283200&en=ae8aff359f87c3b3&ei=5070
Tape of Air Traffic Controllers Made on 9/11 Was Destroyed
By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: May 7, 2004
WASHINGTON, May 6 — At least six air traffic controllers who dealt with two of the hijacked airliners on Sept. 11, 2001, made a tape recording a few hours later describing the events, but the tape was destroyed by a supervisor without anyone making a transcript or even listening to it, the Transportation Department said Thursday.
The taping began before noon on Sept. 11 at the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center, in Ronkonkoma, N.Y., where about 16 people met in a basement conference room known as the Bat Cave and passed around a microphone, each recalling his or her version of the events of a few hours earlier. The recording included statements of 5 or 10 minutes each by controllers who had spoken by radio to people on the planes or who had tracked the aircraft on radar, the report said.
Officials at the center never told higher-ups of the tape's existence, according to a report made public on Thursday by the inspector general of the Transportation Department.
A quality-assurance manager at the center destroyed the tape several months after it was made, crushing the cassette in his hand, cutting the tape into little pieces and dropping them in different trash cans around the building, according to the report. The tape had been made under an agreement with the union that it would be destroyed after it was superseded by written statements from the controllers, the report said.
The quality-assurance manager told investigators that he had destroyed the tape because he thought making it was contrary to Federal Aviation Administration policy, which calls for written statements, and because he felt that the controllers "were not in the correct frame of mind to have properly consented to the taping" because of the stress of the day.
None of the officials or controllers were identified in the report.
The inspector general, Kenneth M. Mead, said that keeping the tape's existence a secret, and then destroying it, did not "serve the interests of the F.A.A., the department, or the public," and would raise suspicions at a time of national crisis.
The value of the tape was not clear, Mr. Mead said, because no one was sure what was on it, although the written statements given later by five of the controllers were broadly consistent with "sketchy" notes taken by people in the Bat Cave. (The sixth controller did not give a statement, apparently because that controller did not speak to either of the planes or observe them on radar.)
Mr. Mead had been asked by Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who is chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, to look into how well the aviation agency had cooperated with the federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. McCain said in a statement that he looked forward to "appropriate disciplinary actions" and that he might investigate this matter further.
A spokesman for the 9/11 commission, Al Felzenberg, said Mr. Mead's report was "meticulous" and "came through the efforts of a very conscientious senator." Mr. Felzenberg said that the commission would not comment now on the content of the report, but that it "does speak to some of the issues we're interested in."
The quality-assurance manager destroyed the tape sometime in December 2001, January 2002 or February 2002. By that time he and the center manager had received an e-mail message from the F.A.A. instructing officials to safeguard all records and adding, "If a question arises whether or not you should retain data, RETAIN IT."
The inspector general ascribed the destruction to "poor judgment."
An F.A.A. spokesman, Greg Martin, said that "we have taken appropriate disciplinary action" against the quality-assurance manager.
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