"Country-boying" George W. Bush in Decision Points

Throughout George W. Bush's career on the national stage, I argued that the offspring of '41, born in New Haven, Connecticut and educated at Yale, offered a fake persona as a swaggering, near-illiterate Texan to garner votes from the lower classes. He was never as dumb as he pretended to be.

In his NY Times review of  George W. Bush's, Decision Points, Michael Kinsley describes the pose '43 adopts as if it's limited to the pages of his recently published memoir:

I believe the Texas term for what George W. tries to do in this book is “country-boying.” That is, pretending to be an unsophisticated hick who can smell a phony a mile away. 

But evidently, Dubya succeeded way too well in convincing the public of his ignorance. Kinsley's review continues:

But it’s not all country-boying. Although he never says so, Bush clearly resents the widespread suspicion that he’s not too (choose your euphemism) intellectually engaged, and loses no opportunity to clear that up. Referring to a book about Lincoln, he boasts that it is just “one of 14 Lincoln biographies I read during my presidency.” Elsewhere he reveals that “I read a lot of history,” from which he has concluded that presidents “who based decisions on principle . . . were often vindicated over time.” Bush and his Rasputin, Karl Rove, even had a book-­reading contest, measuring their reading by number of books, number of pages and square inches of type. That’s how much he loves books. Asked at one of the presidential debates who his favorite philosopher was, he thought of answering Locke or Mill, he says, but felt mysteriously compelled to answer, “Christ.” 

Kinsley's review offers a chuckle or two and even a few insights in response to Decision Points.


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