The press always "misunderestimates" George W, and The American Thinker's Thomas Lifson thinks he knows why:
The comparatively small amount of attention paid by the political press to the President’s Harvard MBA partially reflects a generalized ignorance of, and hostility toward, the degree itself. More importantly, acknowledging that he learned any valuable intellectual perspectives would contradict the storyline that young W was a party animal, who coasted through his elite education, scarcely cracking a book.
Thomas attended Harvard Business School at the same time as the President and believes the lessons the B-school taught have had a significant influence on the decision-making process of his administration. For example:
The case study method . . . features intense discussions of alternative plans for defining and then resolving the problems described in the B-school’s famous cases . . . President Bush’s preference for keeping senior advisors of different persuasions, such as Colin Powell and Paul Wolfowitz, reflects the value he places on hearing the best case made for alternative courses of action. Critics who speak of a power struggle which needs to be resolved in favor of one side or the other, completely miss the point.
Another point about GW that the press just doesn't get:
By reputation, the President was a very avid and skillful poker player when he was an MBA student. One of the secrets of a successful poker player is to encourage your opponent to bet a lot of chips on a losing hand. This is a pattern of behavior one sees repeatedly in George W. Bush’s political career. He is not one to loudly proclaim his strengths at the beginning of a campaign. Instead, he bides his time, does not respond forcefully, a least at first, to critiques from his enemies, no matter how loud and annoying they get. If anything, this apparent passivity only goads them into making their case more emphatically.
654224: Hey, does anyone know where I can find a list of gas stations with low prices in my area?
Posted by: Debra Riley | October 17, 2005 at 09:22 PM