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George W. Bush is smarter than you

keithhennessey.com

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Re: George W. Bush is smarter than you

#4

Post by randall »

I appreciate this because it's a bit of a challenge to a narrative. I think in startup landia, we see the same thing. Everyone knows company x is next to ipo, everyone knows company y doesn't have a shot.

And while sometimes those public projections are correct, other times they're carefully orchestrated pr masterpieces.

Without giving too much away, our company has chosen to go quietly along, trying to attract the right attention that'll get us noticed by our customers, without alerting our (actual) competitors[0].

GW Bush connected more effectively with the middle class than Romney, and that might have been his best weapon in a fight against another likable candidate.

Whether you'd like to admit it or not, public narrative effects business / presidential / fundraising / customer acquisition outcomes. If you're the one in control, everyone else can be a pawn in your game.

[0]: I'm sure our current close competitors are acutely aware of us, but they're not the ones I fear. Our game is much longer than the current space we occupy (getting social media on tv) and so keeping our head down and just impressing customers is the best way to get us to the goal. Raising money, especially from places like YC or the kind of investors everyone wants, would put a target on our back. So instead we just lay low, and get all the flexibility we need to try out a bunch of different business models.

Re: George W. Bush is smarter than you

#6

Post by rayiner »

It's a huge error to assume that people who disagree with you are dumb. Bush is like 4th generation Yale, and his father is extremely smart. It makes more sense to pin e.g. his record at Yale to being a slacker than the apple falling so far from the tree.

Re: George W. Bush is smarter than you

#9

Post by benihana »

>There is a bias in much of the mainstream press and commentariat that people from outside of NY-BOS-WAS-CHI-SEA-SF-LA are less intelligent, or at least well educated. Many public commenters harbor an anti-Texas (and anti-Southern, and anti-Midwestern) intellectual bias. They mistakenly treat John Kerry as smarter than George Bush because John Kerry talks like an Ivy League professor while George Bush talks like a Texan.

As a southerner living in New York City, this rang especially true. I grew up around brilliant people who the "intelligent elite" discounted simply because they weren't born in the proper region. It's such an arrogant and sad stance to take.

Re: George W. Bush is smarter than you

#10

Post by edwardunknown »

I understand that even a "dumb" president is probably smarter than the average person but on the other hand starting the Iraq war and ignoring the housing bubble are pretty convincing evidence that he was an idiot in all the ways that count.

Also impressive how fast these guys appear from under their rocks when they're called upon.

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