How Bush Thinks: Intuition over Intellect

[southpaw]

L.A. Times August 5, 2005
Jonathan Chait:
How Bush thinks: intuition over intellect

As somebody who doesn't have the slightest feeling one way or another about baseball star Rafael Palmeiro, I have to say that it seems pretty clear Palmeiro has used steroids. Palmeiro recently tested positive for steroid use. And then there's former teammate Jose Canseco's allegation that he and Palmeiro both used steroids, which is impossible to verify but would seem to explain why Palmeiro's annual home run total nearly doubled after Canseco joined him on the Texas Rangers. None of this is ironclad proof, but it seems the simplest way to reconcile the available data.

President Bush, though, doesn't see it this way at all. When asked about Palmeiro's positive steroid test, Bush — who knew Palmeiro when the president owned the Rangers — replied, "Rafael Palmeiro is a friend. He testified in public and I believe him. He's the kind of person that's going to stand up in front of the Klieg lights and say he didn't use steroids, and I believe him."

This statement perfectly crystallizes Bush's thinking. Facts don't matter to him. What matters is how he feels about the person in question. In 2001, for instance, Bush met with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, and the two hit it off. As Bush later told Peggy Noonan, Putin recounted to him a story involving a cross given to him by his mother.
<snip>
Personally, I put less weight on the fact that Putin got a cross from his mother, and more on the fact that Putin has smothered Russian democracy by outlawing opposition parties, shut down any remotely skeptical media outlet and subjected his critics to political show trials. Yet this sort of evidence has had barely any effect on Bush. Two years later, he was still praising Putin's desire for "a country in which democracy and freedom and rule of law thrive."

more...
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-chait5aug05,0,712059.column

[Dudley_DUright]

1. He has perfect intuition

His gut instinct is always wrong. If you always did exactly the opposite of what Bush thinks is correct, you would be batting 1000.

[quiet.american]

2. Right on the money with that. n/t

[SammyWinstonJack]

3. I don't want bush to use his intuitive skills anymore

They and he, suck.

[Flying Dream Blues]

4. I'd guess that the driving force is *'s ego, not intuition.

In other words, he knows what he wants to be true, for his own purposes, so he finds selectively only those things that validate what he wants. Classic narcissism.

[Greeby]

5. Bush thinks?

Thats the ultimate oxymoran :eyes:

[Arkansas Granny]

8. That was my first response, also.

I'm afraid that if he actually thought, he'd be more dangerous than he already is.

[opihimoimoi]

6. He don't read....result,..... he don't know enough...

He has to wing it.....

He is guessing....

The Proverbial Bully who gets his way

[Straight Shooter]

7. bush has zero intuition. He has knee-jerk and limbic brain responses.

Big difference. Intuition is a rather sophisticated process. Check out the book "The Gift of Fear." It explains intuition rather well.

I remember reading years ago that the more successful CEOs relied on their intuition as well as the facts. Can anyone name one thing that bush has been successful at, other than destroying and tarnishing everything he touches?

bush has zero intuition and I resent the hell out of any writer implying that he does.

[southpaw]

9. Did you read the article?

It's clear that the writer is critical of Bush's tendency to be influenced by the warm-fuzzies rather than looking at the facts.

The writer's concept of 'intuition' may differ from yours, but try to look past semantics and see the point of the article.

[ochazuke]

10. Reagan was like that

Gipper's instincts were better, though. He believed in Gorbachev and Jim Brady.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

11. Didn't Reagan also use astrology to reinforce his intuitions?

I recall hearing something about that. Or maybe it was Nancy's intuitions and astrological charts.

[ochazuke]

12. That was Nancy.

But to give her credit for something good: I think she was pushing Ronnie to make nice-nice with the Rooshkies. She wanted a legacy of peace or some such liberal thing.

Thank you, president Reagan, you otherwise lousy bastard.

[oioioi]

13. Faith trumps reason

That about sums it up.

[alcibiades_mystery]

14. As a big fan of intuition a la Henri Bergson

I would have to strongly disagree with the assessment that Bush uses any "intuition" at all.