Is Bush Actually Smarter than McCain?

For months, Obama has been arguing that a McCain presidency would be just a continuation of the failed policies of the Bush administration. Now that sounds pretty bad, but what if it's actually worse than that? It's nearly impossible to imagine, I agree. How could we sink any lower? Well, things could always be worse, and by looking at the facts it's clear that our current commander in chief, our CEO president, the now infamous George W. Bush, is probably more intelligent than John McCain. The proof:

Decision Making: Cheney has been, of course, a terrible vice-president. He's awful. But the truth is, Cheney was carefully chosen. He filled in a number of gaps in Bush's portfolio. He was a seasoned pro with experience in foreign policy and in working with the legislative branch, plus he was completely aligned with Bush's philosophy. Cheney was good at campaigning too, he kicked Sen. Lieberman's ass during the vice presidential debates almost as bad as I want to kick Senator Lieberman's ass right now.

Palin, on the other hand, was, shall we say, not so carefully chosen. When he couldn't get the party to line up behind his first choice (and who can blame the party, Lieberman? Really John?) McCain impulsively reached up and pulled an untested Palin out of the Last Frontier. Bush didn't make that sort of mistake. For better or worse (worse for us, better for him) he picked a winner.

Appointments: While McCain has not said much about whom he would appoint, his few actions speak volumes. While working as his top economic adviser, Phil Gramm was widely assumed to be McCain's natural choice for Treasury Secretary. But then, after he called America a "nation of whiners," Gramm was hustled off stage. Good thing too, as the subsequent economic meltdown exposed how Gramm's senatorial efforts to block SEC regulation had sowed the original seeds of the crisis. So much for McCain's first choice.

So then McCain, during the second debate, offered up Meg Whitman as a possible Treasury Secretary. Putting aside the irony of offering up the former CEO of the world's largest garage sale at a time when many Americans were losing their homes, there is no indication that Whitman had the requisite experience necessary to run one of the world's largest and most complex economies. Bush, on the other hand, has appointed three Treasury Secretaries (O'Neil, Snow, Paulson) whom, while at times controversial, nevertheless had extensive experience both in private and, more importantly, government roles before their appointments. Whitman's credentials are infinitely weaker. According to Wikipedia, "Before eBay, Ms. Whitman was with toymaker Hasbro, overseeing global management and marketing of two of the world's best-known children's brands, Playskool and Mr. Potato Head." That's right, McCain wants to hand the keys to our economy over to the mastermind behind Potato Head.

Discipline: Bush has been sober and unwavering in his boneheaded decisions, sticking to clear, consistent messages throughout both his campaigns and his time in office, only rarely changing policy. For eight years, he has also kept an almost pathological control of the messaging. McCain, on the other hand, has swerved wildly from one bonehead move to the other. Theatricality seems to rule the day for McCain and disorganization seems to reign at his campaign, from being caught lying to Letterman about going back to D.C. to "suspending his campaign" while not really suspending it to saying he wouldn't use Jeremiah Wright as a campaign issue and then, lo and behold, using Jeremiah Wright as a campaign issue.

Organization: The Republican Get-Out-The-Vote effort under Bush was truly frightening and phenomenal. Under Rove's leadership, they managed to beat off an almost equally well-organized Kerry campaign. McCain, on the other hand, has run a campaign that is being outflanked on voter registration and has already been run out of Michigan. Some of the Democrat's success is a reflection of the dissatisfaction with failed Republican policies, but much of it is just bad politicking. When Joe Scarborough reported this morning that McCain has "no ground game" it was a serious indictment of McCain's organization and, ultimately, of the man who sits a top the campaign. He just hasn't mastered the basics about running for national office. Which leads to the final, crushing point:

Bush Beat McCain: While the Senator from Arizona will insinuate that he lost the 2000 primaries because of Bush's dirty politics in South Carolina (though he is now not above using the same robo-calling firm, FLS, that Bush used against him) the fact is he also lost the race in New York, Ohio, Georgia, Missouri, California, Maryland, and Maine before dropping out. He got beat. He got beat bad. He lost to someone with less respect and less experience. He lost to someone who could barely string a coherent sentence together. He lost for many reasons, including the fact that he had less money, just like he has less money now. (Side note: How does someone from the Republican Party, a party that serves the interests of the plutocracy, manage to have less money than a Democrat? Maybe he's a victim of McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform, in which case he somehow managed to shoot himself in the foot, not very bright.)

So, in appointments, in discipline, in organization, in decision-making, and even in just plain winning, all attributes one would like to see in a president, McCain has shown himself to be weaker than George Bush. Perhaps Bush learned more while sliding through Yale and Harvard than McCain learned while partying to the bottom of the Naval Academy's ranks. Perhaps Bush just had the right killer instinct in choosing the people who knew how to win. I don't know.

The fact of the matter is we have suffered through eight years of dangerously short sighted, woefully blockheaded, belligerent, obstinate and ignorant leadership. Yet there are many signs that what we have just experienced is fundamentally better than what we would suffer with a president named John McCain.

Comments

[jobecky20]

This is the scariest thing I've ever read. This needs to be printed in every American newspaper. OMG...worse than Bush? That is a risk we cannot take.

[HateLieCheatKillRepubWay]

Bush is undoubtedly smarter than McCain. If the Obama campaign wanted to they could have adopted the slogan "McCain - Worse Than Bush".

[tdbach]

I think you have it backwards. McCain is a little smarter than Bush, but Bush was fortunate to be propped up by fairly smart, if nefareous, men who ran him and his campaign. Bush is dumb enough to think he's in control, too. McCain is smart enough to not let anyone really control him, but dumb enough to think he can run the show successfully. In other words, he's smarter than Bush but dumber than his handlers - and a lot dumber than Obama.

Do you really thinl Bush picked Cheney?

[Joe-P]

It's scary but Bush seems to have more leadership qualities than McCain.

Toby, your post was on point.

[MathIsTruth]

Cheney was carefully chosen?

Isn't it true that Cheney was put in charge of the VP selection team and he chose himself.

[Toby Barlow - Huffpost Blogger]

Yes, that is true, but he had to make an argument for himself and my guess is, not having been there, that he had to overcome some cynicism to succeed. So, he probably had to be at least somewhat rigorous and balanced in his analysis of the other contenders. It was a such a different time, really, if you recall it was played out in the press as if it were an almost ceremonial vetting, not like the red light special madness that preceded Palin's appointment.

[MathIsTruth]

Thank you for the reply. You are probably right, and I am probably overly cynical.

It certainly would be a challenge to vet a candidate LESS than Palin was.

But my experience is that most people, and certainly any semi-talented politician, have the ability to start in their mind with a desired result, and work backwards to an elaborate justification of that result.

My humble guess is that this is what happened with Cheney in 2000.

[waverly]

Thank you for stating what I deduced over the last two months. I have only one positive thing to say about Bush and that is CONSISTENCY. Whether you agreed with him or not, he did not alter his view. I can't imagine the nightmare we would have with McCain as president. He would change direction daily. Plus McCain's associates given cabinet positions is frightening.....and then there is his "love for war" issue....!!!!

[jqcitizen]

Not that long ago, (during the time I, John McCain and thousands of others were on active duty in the military) the United States of America had a president that received not even A SINGLE vote from from it's citizens. Unelected Pres. Ford anointed two people, DONALD RUMSFELD and DICK CHENEY to positions of power.

These two geniuses are the fathers of what is now a disaster.

The current GOP crowd should take some advise from the current occupant of the White House--"IS ARE CHILDREN LEARNIN'"?.

[BlackJAC]

More like Cheney was there at the behest of Bush Sr. "You work for me, Dick. You make my boy look good."

[OneVoiceOfReason]

Comparing McCain to Bush is an insult to Bush.

[WmC]

Seems to me that you could attribute Bush's better record of success to laziness. He was perfectly happy to go along with whatever Karl Rove told him to do as long as he could be in bed by 10:00 and didn't have to read any memos longer than 3 pages (double-spaced). If Bush's handlers had allowed him to ad lib as freely as McCain does, I'm not sure the 2000 election decision would ever have been close enough to go to the Supreme Court.

[Jesster]

As recently as say three months ago, I would have said that nothing could be worse than Bush/Cheney - but McCain/Palin have seriously challenged that assumption.

And Phil Gramm as Secretary of the Treasury only makes the equation more terrifying....

[Stephanie71]

Not that it applies to their ability to be a president, but Bush is also a better pilot.

[ThinkCreeps]

LOL. Absolutely true.

AND.. maybe GWB had the good sense to realize he still wasn't very good, and to keep out of action.

[joesnuffy]

This is an interesting article and could be another line of attack for Obama to use, should he even need one. Yes, John, you are not George W. Bush. You are worse!

[Maggy Hawk]

I agree. In fact, the last month or so I had felt this awful chill: if this guy got elected he'd be worse than Bush. A lot worse. For one thing, he never saw a war he didn't like. He has a hair-trigger temper and he's made astoundingly stupid, bellicose statements all his life. I will give credit where credit is due: when Bush was pushed to the wall in Nov. 2006 he (or someone around him) made a wise choice in Bob Gates. There have been incremental but positive changes in his foreign policy, like talking to North Korea, etc. McCain should never have made it this far. People have given him credit for "being a maverick" when all he did was swim upstream at the most inopportune times. When people loved Bush, he went against him. When they hated Bush, he embraced him. No instincts. None.

[pennsykid2000]

I agree. I never would have guessed a few months ago that Bush might compare favorably to McCain in terms of competence and intelligence, but it's true. Moreover, Quayle compares very favorably to Palin, and who would have thought anyonein the VP slot would be more of a lightweight than Quayle? McCain-Palin is truly a joke ticket. I predict their farcical moves will forever be used as a negative reference point for future tickets; nominees will study their moves to see what to avoid doing.