Bush Anything But Moronic

[Guest guest]

I was moved by this one, too. I, too, think Bush is not simply a "dumbass" (not

so - the bureaucratese that comes out of the man's mouth is sometimes

brilliantly constructed, if opaque). Mr. Whyte's article comes closest to my

own perceptions of the disingenuous disconnect between words and body language

I see without fail in this President. Failure to see this gap is to me

complicity at some level in the President's own death- and revenge-dealing

attribute -- his track record on the death penalty as Governor of Texas is

itself ample proof of his capacity for unbridled bloodlust.

If we are going to bring the sacred sciences of India (which for me also include

those transplanted from India into Tibet) to America and other parts of the

world, we should strive to oppose false leaders who work to undermine the

values of such sacred sciences. I will never compromise on this point.

Sincerely,

J.I. Abbot

>From The Toronto Star in Canada

Bush anything but moronic, according to author. Dark

overtones in his

malapropisms President

MURRAY WHYTE

ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER

When Mark Crispin Miller first set out to write

Dyslexicon:

Observations on a National Disorder, about the

ever-growing catalogue

of President George W. Bush's verbal gaffes, he meant it

for a laugh.

But what he came to realize wasn't entirely amusing.

Since the 2000 presidential campaign, Miller has been

compiling his own

collection of Bush-isms, which have revealed, he says, a

disquieting

truth about what lurks behind the cock-eyed leer of the

leader of the

free world.

He's not a moron at all - on that point, Miller and Prime

Minister Jean

Chrétien agree. But according to Miller, he's no friend.

"I did initially intend it to be a funny book. But that

was before I had

a chance to read through all the transcripts," Miller, an

American

author and a professor of culture and communication at

New York

University, said recently in Toronto.

"Bush is not an imbecile. He's not a puppet. I think that

Bush is a

sociopathic personality. I think he's incapable of

empathy. He has an

inordinate sense of his own entitlement, and he's a very

skilled

manipulator. And in all the snickering about his alleged

idiocy, this is

what a lot of people miss."

Miller's judgment, that the president might suffer from a

bona fide

personality disorder, almost makes one long for the less

menacing notion

currently making the rounds: that the White House's

current occupant is,

in fact, simply an idiot.

If only. Miller's rendering of the president is bleaker

than that. In

studying Bush's various adventures in oration, he started

to see a

pattern emerging.

"He has no trouble speaking off the cuff when he's

speaking

punitively,when he's talking about violence, when he's

talking about

revenge.

"When he struts and thumps his chest, his syntax and

grammar are fine,"

Miller said.

"It's only when he leaps into the wild blue yonder of

compassion, or

idealism, or altruism, that he makes these hilarious

mistakes."

While Miller's book has been praised for its "eloquence"

and "playful

use of language," it has enraged Bush supporters.

Bush's ascent in the eyes of many Americans - his

approval rating hovers

at near 80 percent - was the direct result of tough talk

following the

Sept.11 terrorist attacks. In those speeches, Bush

stumbled not at all;

his language of retribution was clear.

It was a sharp contrast to the pre-9/11 George W. Bush.

Even before the

Supreme Court in 2001 had to intervene and rule on

recounts in Florida

after a contentious presidential election, a corps of

journalists were

salivating at the prospect: a bafflingly inarticulate man

in a position

of power not seen since vice-president Dan Quayle rode

shotgun on George

H.W. Bush's one term in office.

But equating Bush's malapropisms with Quayle's inability

to spell

"potato" is a dangerous assumption, Miller says.

At a public address in Nashville, Tenn., in September,

Bush provided one

of his most memorable stumbles. Trying to give strength

to his case that

Saddam Hussein had already deceived the West concerning

his store of

weapons, Bush was scripted to offer an old saying: Fool

me once, shame

on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. What came out was the

following:

"Fool me once, shame ... shame on ... you."

Long,uncomfortable pause.

"Fool me - can't get fooled again!"

Played for laughs everywhere, Miller saw a darkness

underlying the

gaffe.

"There's an episode of Happy Days, where The Fonz has to

say, `I'm

sorry'and can't do it. Same thing," Miller said.

"What's revealing about this is that Bush could not say,

`Shame on me'

to save his life. That's a completely alien idea to him.

This is a guy

who is absolutely proud of his own inflexibility and

rectitude."

If what Miller says is true - and it would take more than

just

observations to prove it - then Bush has achieved an

astounding goal.

By stumbling blithely along, he has been able to push his

image as "just

folks" - a normal guy who screws up just like the rest of

us.

This, in fact, is a central cog in his image-making

machine, Miller

says: Portraying the wealthy scion of one of America's

most powerful

families as a regular, imperfect Joe. But the depiction,

Miller says, is

also remarkable for what it hides -

imperfect, yes, but also detached, wealthy and unable to

identify with

the"folks" he's been designed to appeal to. An example,

Miller says,

surfaced early in his presidential tenure.

"I know how hard it is to put food on your family," Bush

was quoted as

saying.

"That wasn't because he's so stupid that he doesn't know

how to say,

`Put food on your family's table' - it's because he

doesn't care about

people who can't put food on the table," Miller says. So,

when Bush is

envisioning "a foreign-handed foreign policy," or

observes on some point

that "it's not the way that America is all about," Miller

contends it's

because he can't keep his focus on things that mean

nothing to him.

"When he tries to talk about what this country stands

for, or about

democracy, he can't do it," he said.

This, then, is why he's so closely watched by his

handlers, Miller says

- not because he'll say something stupid, but because

he'll overindulge

in the language of violence and punishment at which he

excels.

"He's a very angry guy, a hostile guy. He's much like

Nixon. So they're

very, very careful to choreograph every move he makes.

They don't want

him anywhere near protestors, because he would lose his

temper."

Miller, without question, is a man with a mission - and

laughter isn't

it.

"I call him the feel bad president, because he's all

about punishment

and death," he said. "It would be a grave mistake to just

play him for

laughs."