Bush's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Karl Rove deployed his Wall Street Journal column yesterday to defend his old boss' intellectual bona fides. To hear Rove tell it, George W. Bush has devoted much of his free time to wading through weighty fiction (Camus) and nonfiction tomes. Just as Rove once tried to play up Bush's Texan roots, he now emphasizes his inner bookworm side, noting that Bush, at bottom, is an Ivy League man, sporting a history degree from Yale, no less.

Is Rove fibbing when he reports that Bush plowed through some 95 books last year? I think not. With Bush's poll ratings at a historical low, the president, as he heads toward his new home in an exclusive Dallas neighborhood, really has nothing left to gain by pretending any longer to be just plain folks. As pleasant as it sounds, however, book-reading should not be equated with wisdom or good judgment. Plenty of leaders in history have read lots of books with ill-effects for everyone else.

What's more, Bush may have ripped through a lot of volumes, but did he intellectually engage with them? Rove provides no evidence that he and Bush ever discussed the volumes they were reading. Instead, it sounds like an exercise in one-upmanship--to see who can polish off the most books in a year. It's hard to imagine that Bush, who once ordered Rove to fetch his jacket from a chair in the Oval Office, regarded him as worthy of debating. And as Richard Cohen points out in the Washington Post, none of the books on the Civil War or Abraham Lincoln that Bush seems to have devoured challenged any aspect of his thinking. They confirmed it. Cheerfully oblivious to the havoc he has wrought at home and abroad, Bush, you could, say is confirmation of the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.

As Rove seeks to bolster Bush's image, however, he will probably continue to insist on Bush's prodigious intellectual powers. Watch for further Rove columns reporting that Bush is headed to Greece to help assist an archeological dig in Athens, immersing himself in Latin texts, and attending a course at New York's New School on French New Wave films.

Comments

[Barrows1]

Ha! and Bush wants to put Jeb inthe Whitehouse, I think America needs to rehab from Past ,current bush administrations.

[shastaman]

what's his favorite color?

[shastaman]

I'd bet that he can't stay in the lines!

[CIM]

a speed reader: first page, last page and pictures.

[shastaman]

That's a whole lot 'a crayons!

[citizensrus]

Strange that Rove used the term "plowed through". Was he assigned to read these books? Most books that I read, I don't plow through. I consume with gusto.
Should this be true...and should they have been books that one has to "plow through" (what would that be?)...then it sheds a light on who was actually President. Bush is no Kennedy. He has already established himself as a person who doesn't read, despite the revision. If Bush read 95 books of substance, he wasn't on the job this past year. I doubt he was ever on the job. Which is why he has no real depth of understanding about what has happened in his watch. He says he crys alot. Yet, in the past, he said he slept fine at night. Or at least, Laura, said Bush slept well.

[2008CaliforniaFan]

About His reading...He never did answer the 'Big Question' everybody is asking....

Is Bushie more of a Batman or Superman reader......?
(Enquiring Minds want to Know)

[magen]

He readed 95 bookses??????

[robert234]

Your assumptions are infinitley to impossible: That he can read ,write ,speak, and think on his own!

[PureReason]

I think rove is counting all the copies of Mad Magazine (What, me worry??) and graphic novels he reads... that comes to about 95 right there...

"Republicans: Truth and facts are kryptonite to them. "

[daedelus]

If, by "plowing through", Rove meant "turning pages until the back cover was reached", then it seems quite possible.

[girlwild]

Well, if Bush actually read 95 books last year (about 2 per week), that's what he must have been doing instead of the job he was selected to do. I probably read about that many books last year but I don't govern the US of A.

[doublels]

Well...he WAS on vacation more than any other president. He had lots of time.

[fishgirl26]

If he had read that many books his vocabulary and grammar would be much better. The fact that the man isn't very bright can't be made up. He got into Yale as a legacy, not because he worked hard, had to pay his own way, and work towards a goal (unlike our new president that had to work his arse off!). He didn't want to serve in the military so he HAD to go to college in order to defer the draft which he, and wormongering Dick, managed to do. The ranch is a complete crock-o-crap and was a piece of stagecraft for the 2000 election. I guess Karl doesn't realize that the internet can disprove most of his theories.

[hark]

I don't believe for a second Bush plowed through 95 books, or 9 books. He has no intellectual curiosity, and is totally self-absorbed. I can believe he skimmed some works, hoping to identify himself with some other leader to build his imaginary legacy, after consulting with aides about where he should look.

This guy is as empty and narcissistic as anyone I've ever heard of. He doesn't read at all, in the sense that we mean the term. He is not reflective or introspective in the slightest. He is not a thoughtful man. The idea of Bush engaging himself with a book is ridiculous on its face. Laughable.

[LetMeUnderstandThis]

So you mean to tell me he can find time to read books (ROFLMAo) but he can't read the "Daily Intelligence Briefs"?