George W. Bush is smarter than you

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I teach a class at Stanford Business School titled “Financial Crises in the U.S. and Europe.” During one class session while explaining the events of September 2008, I kept referring to the efforts of the threesome of Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and Tim Geithner, who were joined at the hip in dealing with firm-specific problems as they arose.

One of my students asked “How involved was President Bush with what was going on?” I smiled and responded, “What you really mean is, ‘Was President Bush smart enough to understand what was going on,’ right?”

The class went dead silent. Everyone knew that this was the true meaning of the question. Kudos to that student for asking the hard question and for framing it so politely. I had stripped away that decorum and exposed the raw nerve.

I looked hard at the 60 MBA students and said “President Bush is smarter than almost every one of you.”

More silence.

I could tell they were waiting for me to break the tension, laugh, and admit I was joking.

I did not. A few shifted in their seats, then I launched into a longer answer. While it was a while ago, here is an amalgam of that answer and others I have given in similar contexts.

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During my 3.5 years in Iraq, I based nearly all of my work on a vision given to me by President Bush. He said that the Iraqi people are just like we are. They value their family and want the best for them. I found that true and the families I interacted with proved that. Looking out for our family is a basic responsibility all parents assume. They love their children and will do what they can to protectt hem. Like my parents, they wanted a better livfe for me and my siblings. President Bush was 100% right. If only his Satae Department and USAID would have followed his advice. I still get emails and phone calls from those Iraqi people I interfaces with during my time there. He was not only a smart man, but he could relate to those of us who are not considered part of the high society.

Seems you created an awkward moment with our outlandish remark. If he is is smarter than ‘most’ of those in a class at Stanford, that’s not very encouraging. But no, he was a very, very stupid person. I hate to think he was evil enough to know exaclty what he was doing.

@This one:

The post is about GWB, not Obama. I agree, though: Obama is a very stupid man.

@This one: And he’s a damn sight smarter than you.

This one
HE was not the show of , he did not display his intelligence
he used it instead with WISDOM to accompany it,
we miss him now because of his no fake qualities,
he did not exibit himself, he delegate humbly leaving the glory to his peers.
he was loved by the MILITARY,
that’s the best compass you could get,
and HE WAS DEMONIZE by OBAMA who uses the BUSH FAULT words so many times it got him elected on that alone , he added more lies to it with his MEDIA jigeling with tinggels in their legs
to get votes from the UNINFORMED like you,
only the intelligent people figured it, the CONSERVATIVES WARNED THE PEOPLE from the first lie, it said
IT”S BUSH FAULT,
they knew he could not stand on his own without blaming
IT”S BUSH FAULT, now HE IS BLAMING THE CONGRESS< AND THE REPUBLICANS FOR HIS OWN SEQUESTRER