Who Is Smarter Than The President?

I finally got my sea legs back from this calf injury I've been nursing for months - gradually building up to my usual Sunday Long Run ~over 1 hour through the park mainly on trails. I got to thinking. I know, you hate it when I start regurgitating thoughts thunk up on my dawn related run-infused musings. But hey, I do my best cogitation out on the AM jaunt through the woods.

So, I got to thinking. For the first time in history, we finally have a sitting president by comparison whom I actually feel a grade smarter. This is not that I've gotten smarter, but that this President, Bush, actually seems substantially more dim witted than your average president.

Carter, I remember, as he ushered us through the Bicentennial. By comparision, I'm a slacker in the humanitarian smarts.

Reagan - again, smarter than me. He brought us the me generation through the 1980s effectively killing financial aid to college students and squashing my right to drink legally every year one day before I could be grandfathred in. He was a brilliant PR guy, practically perfecting the "plausible deniability" genera of presidential acting.

Bush after him, proved himself extremely smart by not actually going to Baghdad, unlike his son. In a quiet, subdued way, he was able to mastermind a very successful middle-east intervention. Definitely smarter than me.

And Clinton, the master of spin, providing the leadership to pull our country out of massive debts built over time by Republican Leadership. Seriously more smart than me.

Bush, on the other hand, has proven time and again that he is one of the most foolish people to lead our country of all time. He still thinks his cause in Iraq was right, and it's accomplishing the goal of keeping our country "safe." The debt accrued to pay for the "war" alone will sag like a 2 ton albatross hung around lady liberty's neck. He thinks the illusion of security and the charade of protection is a fair trade for the freedoms we have sacrificed for his "noble" cause.

Have a look at recent article about the TSA and the problems with traveling by air today:

How we got to this point is an interesting study in reactionary politics, fear-mongering and a disconcerting willingness of the American public to accept almost anything in the name of “security.” Conned and frightened, our nation demands not actual security, but security spectacle. And although a reasonable http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifpercentage of passengers, along with most security experts, would concur such theater serves no useful purpose, there has been surprisingly little outrage. In that regard, maybe we’ve gotten exactly the system we deserve.

Even so, the President is still working hard to lever the case for his "war" in Iraq off the backs of the GIs he sentenced to die there:

Dan and Maureen Murphy are two of these people. In June 2005, their son—Lt. Michael Murphy, a Navy SEAL—was conducting surveillance in Afghanistan when his four-man team came under attack. Lt. Murphy moved into a clearing where he could get a signal to call for help for his men, knowing it would make him a target. As he made the call, he came under heavy fire that cost him his life. In a meeting before I presented Maureen Murphy with her son’s Medal of Honor, she spoke of the boy she’d raised to manhood. I came away from that day hoping that Lt. Murphy’s story would inspire all Americans to live lives worthy of the sacrifices that have been made for our freedom.

Proving once again, that, not only is Bush one of the most foolish presidents of the modern era, but that he will sink to lows without limit to promote his war. Using dead GIs and his parents to support his agenda is perhaps the most reprehensible political parlor tricks and ploys I've experienced from this man. And In my book, makes him not only foolish, but stupid for thinking that we still buy this gambit.