Quote:
That quote from the Atlantic Monthly seems bogus


I was forced to subscribe to the Atlantic so I could get regular doses of the writing of William Langewiesche. The quote in the little video (which I just watched) is taken from a letter by this doctor in response to a James Fallows story about the Kerry/Bush matchup and which touched upon perceptions about Bush's Texas-era debating skills.

I Googled up a faithful reprint of the whole letter here.

IANAN (I am not a neurologist) and neither is Price from the looks of it, but I don't think he is on too diagnostically shaky ground! Oooooh, I don't know. It is not as if Bush was incredibly well spoken in the Texas era. I bet George found it a bit easier to wrap his modest brain around Texas and to address more familiar issues like trying 14 year-olds as adults and whacking Karla Faye Tucker. When it comes to the whole U.S of A, though, my biggest impression is of somebody who is way out of their depth, but I have worked with enough people with varying degrees of dementia, Korsakov's and such that his assessment doesn't seem out of line and I would not be surprised to see Price's diagnosis confirmed (much as I was not surprised to have my impressions of Reagan's probable early Alzheimers confirmed. Yes. I thought that, and I wasn't just being mean.)

The most recent (November) Atlantic had an interesting, 2 page commentary by editor Chuck Todd called "After the Fall" where he raised the neglected question of what things are going to be like for the party that loses. Lots of unhappy people!

Given the brutal zeal that the Republicans showed in 2000 and the whatever-it-takes eagerness of subsidiaries like Smear Boat Veterans, if they *could* figure out how to put a helpful microphone into Bush's ear, I do not think that they would hesitate to do so. Did they? Could they? It would have to be one hell of a makeup artist.

In short, if I later find out that things are even *more* farked up than they appear to be, I am afraid I will not be awfully surprised.
_________________________
Jim


'Tis the exceptional fellow who lies awake at night thinking of his successes.