The President’s reading habits

After six years of complaining about what an ignoramus Bush is, the left bloggers are now criticizing the President for reading too much — or lying about it.

Regular readers of NewMexiKen know that I am no fan of this president. I truly believe he is the worst president this country has ever had. I would impeach him if I were in the House and find him guilty if I were in the Senate.

But reading 60 books (the number usually associated with this flurry) in 34 weeks (so far this year) does not strike me as unbelievable. That’s just less than two a week.

If Bush reveals anything about himself, it’s that he’s competitive and compulsive. Look at the work-outs, the bike riding, the brush clearing. Why not reading?

I’ve never thought Bush stupid, just mind-bogglingly lacking in curiosity. If this compulsion to read shows some new interest in the world around him, hurrah. We’ve still got him for 874 days.

4 thoughts on “The President’s reading habits”

  2. someone on MSNBC tried to get him to comment/critique Camus. (Kamoo!) He mumbled that he read 3 shakespeares, and dodged. Two things on this subject I don’t believe : Bush and that he really “reads”, you know, with interpetation and memory.

  3. The emphasis on this President’s reading habits is just an effort by his handlers to show that he is not a dummy. We are all dummies if we fall for this obvious public relations ploy. And let’s face it, the man should have better things to do than to read 60 books in 34 weeks. Perhaps he should read, AND PAY ATTENTION TO, some of the intelligence and information his government is providing him.

  4. NewMexiKen wrote the above, as you can see, on Wednesday. Maureen Dowd got around to it Saturday:

    W.’s claim of having read 53 to 60 books already this year has been met with some partisan skepticism — The American Prospect calls it “demonstrably ridiculous” — despite a Wall Street Journal article pronouncing speed-reading back in fashion among busy executives.

    But I’m tickled that W. is reading Shakespeare, even if it’s just to please his wife or win a bet with his strategist. The president has been so tone-deaf in dealing with the world, and even with his own father, that he can only benefit from a dip in the Bard’s ocean of insight about the vicissitudes of human nature and war. Not to mention the benefits of being exposed to the beauty and precision of the language.

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