The intellectual insecurity of George W. Bush

Fred Becker of Wonkette notes George W. Bush lording his office over Samuel W. Bodman, his PhD-holding Secretary of Energy, yesterday:

THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate the Secretary of Energy joining me today. He's a good man, he knows a lot about the subject, you'll be pleased to hear. I was teasing him -- he taught at MIT, and -- do you have a PhD?

SECRETARY BODMAN: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, a PhD. (Laughter.) Now I want you to pay careful attention to this -- he's the PhD, and I'm the C student, but notice who is the advisor and who is the President.

You think someone's a little insecure? Sure seems like it -- Bush actually used the same line on Andrew Biggs, one of his Social Security officials, back in February:

THE PRESIDENT: Tell them whether or not we got a problem or not, from your perspective.

DR. BIGGS: Put simply, we do, in fact, have a problem.

THE PRESIDENT: By the way, this guy -- PhD. See, I was a C student. (Laughter.) He's a PhD, so he's probably got a little more credibility. I do think it's interesting and should be heartening for all C students out there, notice who's the President and who's the advisor. (Laughter and applause.) All right, Andrew, get going. (Applause.) Andrew's got a good sense of humor.

Bush also pulled rank in March on Jeff Brown, a professor:

I've asked Jeff Brown to join me. He is a professor. He can tell you where -- where do you profess? (Laughter.)

DR. BROWN: I have a PhD in economics, and I teach at a business school.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. It's an interesting lesson here, by the way. He's an advisor. Now, he is the PhD, and I am a C-student -- or was a C-student. Now, what's that tell you? (Laughter and applause.) All you C-students at Auburn, don't give up. (Laughter and applause.)

What it tells me is that some people pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, and others were the son of the president of the United States.

Given Bush's frequent need to mock experts with graduate degrees, it's no wonder his administration has a pathological aversion to expert advice. After all, who's the president?

Update 6/23: Welcome Wonkette readers!

Comments

[carsick]

I wonder what line he uses when he introduces our military leaders?

[A Unique Alias]

Bush learned his lesson in 1978, in the only race he's ever lost:

"[Bush's opponent] began telling crowds: "Yale and Harvard don't prepare you as well for running for the 19th Congressional district as Texas Tech does." It really got to Bush. He complained to a local newspaper about being pigeonholed as the outsider:

'We've been attacked for where I was born, for who my family is, and where my money has come from. I don't think that's fair.'"

Bush incessantly brags about his faux-mediocrity to appeal to the public. Based on the results we saw in 2004, it works.

[Nancy Winslow]

Too bad Mr. Bush is an "F" president.

[carsick]

"I joined the Reserves in a time of war and all I got was my teeth cleaned. Colin Powell here spent his whole adult life in the armed services yet who's Commander in Chief? Heh heh. Like that one Colin?"

[Dan K]

George the First used to do much the same. He would say to his aids: "If you're so smart, why aren't you president?"

However, in 41's case I don't think it was insecurity. For George the Second, his insecurity is just one more factor to explain his bullying nature.

[JR]

Why do these guys continue to work for him? The money's not that good. Do they just enjoy being humiliated in public?

[Crackpot Press]

Can't this guy get one good joke writer???

Stephen Colbert perhaps?

[Chewbacca]

What a Moron!

[Sense]

Wow. Look at me. I'm making fun of the President.

What a bunch of losers. My political knowledge decreased from this waste of time blog.

[Jon]

Nice find.

Bush also tends to repeat himself on his preference for dicatorship over democracy.

[Will Clarke]

What's the big deal about repeating a joke a few times? On the campaign trail the repeat the same jokes every damn day. Maybe I'm just defensive... I was a C student too.

[The Screed]

Unique couldn't be more wrong. Bush's mediocrity is no more faux than his smugness. He's just a flaming prick with no idea that, as Brendan points out, he'd be nothing if his daddy wasn't president before him.

[snarkymark]

This is not funny. It is down right unpatriotic. This is wartime and Bush is our wartime leader. We should support him 100%. And do so by giving him the Cliff Notes for My Pet Goat.

[Michael Koplow]

The first time I heard Bush say this--"All you C students, you too can be president"--it seemed kind of endearing. A little self-deprecating humor from this guy who has a rep for arrogance, a nice change of pace. But after a while, I began to realize that it was just a cover for more arrogance.

I don't know about the pop-psych aspect of it. George W. Bush is insecure? Maybe. Who knows, who cares? We should be cautious about buying into long-distance head-shrinkage; it often does more harm than good, and it's often wrong. In this case (I'm repeating myself), who *cares* if the puppy is insecure?

[rees jones-jones]

C students don't know the meaning of nepotism.

[Tom Paine]

C Student, B Cheerleader, F Oilman, D Govenor,
F President, D Christian

One sorry record.

[Michael Koplow]

Tom Paine's giving Bush a grade as a Christian reminds me of something Garry Wills wrote a few years ago (and I may be getting some of the deets wrong, so don't go around quoting this and saying it was Wills--it would be better to say something like "This Mike guy, who isn't very reliable, commented on a blog, which also doesn't bode well reliability-wise, thinks Garry Wills said this stuff").

Anyhow, where was I? Right. I **think** Wills commented on the bogosity of Bush's statement that Jesus is his fave philosopher in the *New York Review of Books* a few years ago. Jesus wasn't a philosopher at all--he was an aphorist, and an activist. He didn't philosophize, for example, on capital punishment--he went out and stopped an execution.

[MaryCh]

The first 'C student' reference I remember was at...Yale!

It was in early-mid 2001, after some hemming and hawing about whether to accept an invitation to Y's bicentennial (?). He used it to encourage the C students, you know, "you too can..."

I'd like to think the best of Elis, especially now that only the brighter legacy students get in, but there may have been a higher proportion of mediocre sons and daughters of the elite in that audience, taking heart in the the unspoken 'don't worry, you'll get yours' than in any other crowd he's addressed.

Harumph^3

[Kevin Andrew Murphy]

There is something inherently tacky in talking about your GPA when you're no longer in school, or waving your degrees about in a field where they do not apply.

If the president's advisors have degrees in the field they're working in, it's relevant. But the "nyah-nyah, look who's smarter now" business isn't worthy of a student body president, let alone the President of the United States.

A cheerleader won a popularity contest to be president. Wow. Like that's never happened before.

[gzombie]

"THE PRESIDENT: Yes. It's an interesting lesson here, by the way. He's an advisor. Now, he is the PhD, and I am a C-student -- or was a C-student. Now, what's that tell you?"

Actually, that explains a lot about the last five years. I hadn't thought about it that way, Mr. President. Thanks.

[yeranalyst]

It didn't work for me. I'm a goddamn moron and and an F student. So how come I'm not presiden?

[cymack]

jon, thanks for the dictatorship link---of course the Putin one was well-commented on.

Talk about giving facefuls in public!

[karena]

Good job Brendan. As someone pointed out C is Bush's highest grade, so his Yale years are his greatest accomplishment. Lot's of insecure people repeatedly harken back to a time many years ago when they did something they were proud of. Bush is insecure. And he, as Brendan puts it, likes to "lord" over the experts. He can't possibly introduce someone without pulling rank. He isn't joking, he is dead serious.

[Miguel]

Two quick things:

1. If Dubya more insecure about his grades than Kerry, who sealed his military records to hide that they were lower?

2. I seem to remember (from the Kerry grades controversy) that Bush had an A and a couple of Bs while at Yale.

[Metaludo]

George Will in a 1999 column, "He's No Intellectual - and So What?", wrote that Bush looked and walked like a president; as for brains you could hire all the intellectuals you needed. In a recent column on Harriet Miers, Will says of Bush: "He has neither the inclination nor the ability to make sophisticated judgments about competing approaches to construing the Constitution.'(The sound of a rat jumping ship?)

[Rebecca]

Reading all your comments is so funny...it's hysterical!! And I mean that in EVERY sense of the word. It takes no rocket scientist to see that President Bush is smarter than all of YOU; he knows enough to surround himself with people who are experts in their field so he doesn't have to pretend that he knows it all. You people are sorry. If you hate him so much come up with a better plan than he has, and the vast majority of Americans who voted him in for a second term might listen. He won the most votes of any presidential candidate in history, so that must mean that SOMEONE thinks he's doing the job. If YOU don't have a plan, shut your hole!