Bush dumb, Gore bright?

President George W. Bush – despite his post-Sept. 11 performance – remains dumb, says "West Wing" producer Aaron Sorkin.

Bush's stratospheric popularity, claims Sorkin, results from our collective refusal to admit Bush's stupidity: "That illusion [of a fully-engaged Bush] may be what we need right now, but the truth is we're simply pretending to believe that Bush exhibited unspeakable courage at the World Series by throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium, or that he, by God, showed those terrorists by going to Salt Lake City and jumbling the first line of the Olympic opening ceremony. The media is waving pompoms, and the entire country is being polite."

Why, then, did "brainy" Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore lose to his obvious intellectual inferior? Sorkin offers this analysis: Gore, reluctant to demonstrate his superior intelligence, pulled his punches against Bush. In an upcoming "West Wing" episode, Sorkin intends to pit his fictional smart Democratic President Josiah Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen (who once called Bush a "moron"), vs. a less-than-bright Republican candidate. Sorkin explains, "Bartlet is going to be running against Gov. Robert Ritchie, of Florida, who's not the sharpest tool in the box but who's raised a lot of money and is very popular with the Republican Party. ... It was frustrating watching Gore try so hard not to appear smart in the debates – why not just say, 'Here's my f---ing resume, what do you got?'"

In this fictitious Gore vs. Bush II contest, President Bartlet's communications director, often portrayed as the White House's conscience, psychoanalyzes the boss and offers the following advice: "You don't want to lose as the smartest kid in class who's running against an everyman. But I'm telling you, be the smartest kid in your class. Be the reason why your father hated you. Make this an election about smart and stupid, about engaged and not, qualified and not."

Gore, according to Sorkin, possesses an impressive f---ing resume, but what about Gore's f---ing academic performance and his f---ing grades?

First, prep school. Although Gore received a SAT math score of 730, a former St. Alban's teacher called his performance in physics "terrible." What about chemistry? The former professor said, "He didn't do too well in chemistry."

After his graduation from St. Alban's High School, Gore entered Harvard. "In his sophomore year at Harvard," according to The Washington Post, " Gore's grades were lower than any semester recorded on Bush's transcript from Yale [emphasis added]." Gore, later the author of the environmental call-to-arms book, "Earth in the Balance," received a D in a Harvard science course. The Post described Gore's sophomore year: "[That was] the year Gore's classmates remember him spending a notable amount of time in the Dunster House basement lounge shooting pool, watching television, eating hamburgers and occasionally smoking marijuana."

On to graduate school. In 1971, Gore enrolled in Vanderbilt Divinity School. The Washington Times says, "It is said that Mr. Gore failed to hand in his book report on time. Thus, his incomplete grade turned into an F, one of five Fs Mr. Gore received at divinity school, which may well be a worldwide record." He later dropped out.

Gore then enrolled in law school, but also failed to finish. The Boston Globe said, "Nor did Gore graduate from Vanderbilt Law School, where he enrolled for a brief time and received his fair share of Cs."

Not only did Bush academically outperform the "intellectually superior" Gore, Bush scored a higher verbal SAT score than Rhodes scholar and former Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley, with Bush scoring 566 to Bradley's 485. True, Gore scored a higher verbal SAT at 625, but the "smart, engaged, and qualified" former vice president scored only 59 points higher than the allegedly intellectually deficient Bush.

Stupidity, it appears, flows from the ideological eye of the beholder. Reporters constantly asked the late JFK Jr. when he intended to run for president. The Kennedy glow never dimmed even when he flunked the New York bar twice before finally passing it. Recently in Los Angeles, leftist candidate Antonio Villaraigosa ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Los Angeles. Villaraigosa took and flunked the California bar four times, never passing it. Yet because of Villaraigosa's ethnicity, his opponents – fearing a charge of racism – refused to raise the issue.

Don't misunderstand. Time magazine named Albert Einstein "Person of the Century," and President Bush will not demand a recount. But Al Gore, while performing well on standardized tests, and reportedly possessing a high IQ, nevertheless underwhelmed academically. If Gore possesses more brain power than Bush, what's more impressive? A Gore-like bright kid who refuses to apply himself, or the less-than-brilliant kid who gets the job done?

So the Shrub ain't too bright?

Many of you remember the post-impeachment scene in the Rose Garden when Gore said that future generations would come to see Clinton as one of the greatest presidents in our history. Uh huh!

For those who were paying attention back in 1993, an event occurred which should have alerted us that this Gore fellow is either not terribly bright or has major short-term memory problems. While his college transcripts (and flunking out of divinity school) make that case far better than I could here, that event demonstrated – at least to me – something far more troubling in this guy’s intellectual chemistry.

In January of 1993, Clinton and Gore – apparently to cement their bone fides as “men of da peeple,” organized a bus tour prior to their triumphant entry into Washington for their inauguration on January 20th. Their final stop before heading up to DC was at Monticello, Jefferson’s home atop that beautiful mountain in Charlottesville, Virginia. Mr. Jefferson’s final resting place is also there just down the slope from that grand house.

During the visit – which was covered live by C-SPAN and watched with interest as it unfolded by this humble writer – Gore was conducted on a tour of the home by the one of the Park Service guides. At one point, Gore was shown a group of portraits identified by the guide as Washington, Franklin and Madison. (For what it’s worth, your humble writer – possibly because I went through the government school system BEFORE the PC crowd and the NEA took it over -- recognized these Founding Fathers BEFORE the guide spoke.)

These portraits hang on a relatively short wall flanked on either side by a doorway. Gore spent a few moments contemplating the images of three of the leading Founding Fathers of the nation he and his new pal, Bill Clinton, would soon lead. Gore and the guide then strolled through the door to their right and – though off camera – could be heard making comments as they apparently viewed the portraits on the other side of this same wall.

About a minute or so later, Gore and the guide came back into view through the LEFT door and back to the SAME wall upon which hung the portraits of Washington, Franklin and Madison. Gore looked at them and, motioning to them, asked the guide “AND WHO ARE THESE FELLOWS?”

Who are THESE fellows??

I still recall my incredulity at the depth of the abysmal IGNORANCE of his question. No, strike that. Given that just a few minutes earlier Gore had seen these same portraits, the STUPIDITY of the question! There is no other term for it.

As I have reflected on that incredibly revealing incident during the years since, another frightening thought flooded in on me: This was a guy who, at the time of that Monticello visit in January of 1993, had served in public office at the national level for some 16 years and DID NOT RECOGNIZE THREE OF THE MEN WHO WERE INSTRUMENTAL IN CREATING THE VERY SYSTEM IN WHICH HE SERVED!

Anyone want to take a shot at how many times this guy had actually READ the Constitution he had by then sworn an oath to God to “…preserve, protect and defend it from all enemies, both foreign and domestic” MULTIPLE times? Who protects the Constitution from HIM? If you care enough to have read this far, you recognize THAT as a rhetorical question.

I thought I could hear a soft whirring sound in the background as Gore and Clinton used Monticello as a prop to further what was to become the most Constitution defying, scandal plagued administration in our history. I now believe it was Mr. Jefferson reaching speeds of 3,600 RPM in his grave down the hill.

A bit later in this same visit to Monticello, Bill and Al appeared on little stools on the porch. All that was missing were the little dunce caps. Assembled before them were a few hundred dutifully smiling and appreciative DC school kids trucked in as “props.”

During the clearly scripted Q & A by the kids, one of them asked Bill and Al why they wanted to go to Washington. I don’t recall exactly what Bill said (but I’m sure we all could come pretty close). I do, however, remember PRECISLY a portion of what Al said: “To make the world MORE BETTER…” for kids like them. “ MORE BETTER?”

And this guy was a journalist?

The Gore “Disinformation Squad” tells us that Dubya is not too bright?

Give me break!

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