On 04 Nov 2004 15:25:51 GMT, (Jay Masino)
wrote:


I guess one of the problems I have with him is that he obviously can't
think QUICKLY. Even if you put asside the 7 minutes he sat, after the
2nd plane hit (screw the damn school kids. they'll get over it), anyone
who's watched him stumble over his words, continuously, over the last 4
years (heck, he can't even read off of a damn'ed teleprompter) has to come
to the conclusion that he is NOT a very quick thinker. If he was running
for City Council, I'd say "no big deal", but I expect more from my
President.

Gail Sheehy wrote an article about Bush for Vanity Fair during his
first run to the presidency. In the article (among several other
things) she explored the possibility that Bush was dyslexic. She did
not call him dyslexic, she just interviewed people who were expert
with the symptoms and were willing to look at his malapropisms and
tortured english and comment, in their capacity as experts in the
field.

One of the things that was observed, which is a fact and not subject
to spin, is that dyslexia tends to run in families and Bush's brother
was a diagnosed dyslexic. The other thing that was observed was that
every symptom of Bush's speech and reading that was held up for
observation by the interviewed experts was labeled as being commonly
associated with diagnosed dyslexics.

Bush and his aides have categorically denied that he is dyslexic but
in fact he claims he has never been tested for it, so they literally
cannot know if he is or is not. The problem is, if he is not
dyslexic, as he and his aides claim, then what is causing the speech
and reading difficulties? Because no one is denying that he has
speech and reading difficulties.

Being dyslexic does NOT mean being stupid although it's possible Bush
or Bush's people think that it would be a political liability to admit
such. It is claimed that Winston Churchill, whom Bush is said to
admire, was dyslexic. They are other great thinkers who were
dyslexic, or at least showed the symptoms of dyslexia so it's not like
it should be considered a fault, and obviously, Bush has overcome
whatever is afflicting him in monumental fashion. The electorate
obviously doesn't care, they elected him twice without knowing why he
frequently mangles english.

In my opinion being dyslexic goes a LONG way towards explaining his
lack of reading ability and difficulty with the english language. For
dyslexics, reading is especially difficult, it's "hard work" ;-).
Another datapoint: Bush depends mostly on spoken briefings as opposed
to reading reports. (Aside: had Bush been a voracious reader, would he
have thoroughly read the fated Presidential Daily Briefing that
outlined the danger of el Qaida prior to 9/11 which he admits he did
not do? We'll never know). For this reason, Bush is especially
dependent on his advisors and their ability/interpretation of what's
important. But that's what they're there for.

The second thing that bothers me is that he's a religious zealot. In
fact, you could almost argue that his religious convictions are as
extreme as the Islamic extremists that we're fighting.

Bothers me too.

Corky Scott