George Bush is a moron

Well that's got the attention of the anti-Bush brigade so now comes the story. Sites such as this "I just have to mention it. Thursday's episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Oh my God. How funny was it? And for a very wrong reason indeed. I've already shared it with others. George W Bush thought Nelson Mandela is dead? Dude! How wrong could he possibly be! It was incredibly funny though. Especially Jon Stewart's reaction.", this "Usually he’s just too easy a target to bother posting on his many gaffes, and after almost two full terms you’d think you’d get used to this president, but unfortunately George Bush still conspires to surprise with another incredible dose of the stupid. Part of the reason why there is not this instant democracy in Iraq is because people are still recovering from Saddam Hussein’s brutal rule. I thought an interesting comment was made when somebody said to me, I heard somebody say, where’s Mandela? Well, Mandela is dead, because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas. He was a brutal tyrant that divided people up and split families, and people are recovering from this.", this "The Daily Show just showed another classic Bushism: "Today I hear people say, 'Where's Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead." Did I miss a meeting? Just for contrast John Stewart's now interviewing Bill Clinton...", this "Nelson Mandela is still very much alive despite an embarrassing gaffe by U.S. President George W. Bush, who alluded to the former South African leader's death in an attempt to explain sectarian violence in Iraq. "It's out there. All we can do is reassure people, especially South Africans, that President Mandela is alive," Achmat Dangor, chief executive officer of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said as Bush's comments received worldwide coverage. In a speech defending his administration's Iraq policy, Bush said former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's brutality had made it impossible for a unifying leader to emerge and stop the sectarian violence that has engulfed the Middle Eastern nation. "I heard somebody say, Where's Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas," Bush, who has a reputation for verbal faux pas, said in a press conference in Washington on Thursday. Jailed for 27 years for fighting white minority rule, Mandela became South Africa's first black president in 1994. He won a Nobel Peace Prize for preaching racial harmony and guiding the nation peacefully into the post-apartheid era. References to his death -- Mandela is now 89 and increasingly frail -- are seen as insensitive in South Africa.", this "Strap Him Down and Sedate Him - Fast
I saw this last night on the Daily Show, a breathtaking example of how utterly screwed up America's presidency has become. It was George w. Bush hisself opining on the sad fate of Nelson Mandela: "I heard somebody say, Where's Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas." George Bush, by all accounts is not a stupid man. Oh hell, he is so."

So it's clear, George Bush is a moron, he thinks Sadam Hussein killed Nelson Mandela. Well no, that wasn't what he said or meant; this is what he said "Part of the reason why there is not this instant democracy in Iraq is because people are still recovering from Saddam Hussein's brutal rule. I thought an interesting comment was made when somebody said to me, I heard somebody say, where's Mandela? Well, Mandela is dead, because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas. He was a brutal tyrant that divided people up and split families, and people are recovering from this. So there's a psychological recovery that is taking place. And it's hard work for them. And I understand it's hard work for them. Having said that, I'm not going the give them a pass when it comes to the central government's reconciliation efforts." You can read the whole transcript here. George Bush was using an analogy, he was explaining why in Iraq there was no Nelson Mandela type figure as there had been in South Africa. As you can read at the Captains Quarters "Bush didn't claim that the Nelson Mandela himself was specifically dead -- he used Mandela as a metaphor for the lack of civil disobedients that could have facilitated a peaceful transition of power. Those that had existed in Iraq got murdered by the tyrant, a fate that did not befall Nelson Mandela in South Africa.
It's really a simple analogy. In fact, it's so simple that everyone but a Reuters journalist could figure it out. That does mean a moron attended the press conference, but it wasn't the man behind the podium."

Thanks to Tim Blair for the heads up.

For more on the perceived stupidity of George Bush take a look at this previous article of mine.