Bush suddenly an interesting character again

[Flint]

Still, it was actually refreshing to see some of the guy's natural charm return, and he seemed bright and alert and a little funny, like he used to be. Totally gracious to Obama. You could see why his voters had a good gut-level feeling about him. The question then becomes why he lost that nature while in office. The sense I get, now, is that he was too overwhelmed to also be charming in any way.

Undertoad, I'm sure you can find a video somewhere on the internet of his 1994 debate against Ann Richards, then governor of Texas (who went to school on a debate scholarship) in which he is quite articulate and on-the-ball.

I've remarked before that either he has some kind of degenerative neurological disease, or that at some point, for political reasons, it was decided that he would be more successful if he pretended to be more like a regular guy--that is to say, dumber.

I heard him this morning on the radio, and he was, you know, likeable.

My dad always liked him, and thought he seemed like a good kind of guy.

I always thought he had a smug bastard face that needed to be punched in.



Regardless of how irrelevant... in politics, people have to "like" you.