{"id":7147,"date":"2004-10-20T13:16:11","date_gmt":"2004-10-20T20:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/10\/20\/what-a-difference-a-decade-makes.html"},"modified":"2013-06-04T15:37:28","modified_gmt":"2013-06-04T21:37:28","slug":"what_a_differen-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/10\/20\/what_a_differen-2.html","title":{"rendered":"What a difference a decade makes"},"content":{"rendered":"

An striking (if narrow) video look at the difference between the George W. Bush of ten years ago<\/a> — as a candidate for Texas governor — and the sitting candidate for president today.<\/p>\n

\n

In the July\/August Atlantic<\/em>, James Fallows wrote an illuminating piece on the then-upcoming debates between George W. Bush and John Kerry. For his article, rather than talking to campaign spinners for each side and reporting what they said, he dove into the archival record of each man’s debates, and made an astonishing discovery: 10 years ago, George W. Bush was an articulate, forceful debater. Tough to believe, but when Fallows reviewed the tapes of Bush’s 1994 debate with Anne Richards, he found that not only did Bush win the debate, but he spoke well.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And, yes, the video shows a bold, forceful, polished speaker at the Texas debate, a true “Yale graduate and Harvard MBA” — intercut with more recent appearances of a greyer, slower, more word-stumbling Dubya as we’ve come to know him.<\/p>\n

Pre-senile dementia, as one quoted doctor suggests? It seems far too easy to toss around diagnoses like that with limited proof (and in the course of a couple of edited minutes of video) — though the question of when Alzheimers began to strike down Ronald Reagan — and who knew about it at the time — should make us at least a little careful.<\/p>\n

Still, the Bush of a decade ago was “merely” a candidate. He could rest, prepare, focus on debate speeches to his heart’s content. The Bush of today has, at a minimum, gone through three years of one of the toughest jobs on the planet, one well known for wearing down and aging a man (take a look at Bill Clinton in 2000 vs. Bill Clinton in 1990 as an example, though you can see it in pretty much all presidents). For all that people joke about it, Bush still has that job, and its effect on his ability to focus on debate prep has to be substantial.<\/p>\n

It is ironic that while some folks attack Bush as someone who’s always been dim, poorly spoken, and a dolt, the video’s hypothesis is that, only a decade ago, he was sharp, fluent, and erudite, and only now<\/em> is dim, poorly spoken, and a dolt. Despite the “before” and “after” clips being highly selective, it does make one wonder.<\/p>\n

Of course, now I’m waiting for the John Gill comparisons<\/a> (“with Skip Homeier<\/a> as Karl Rove!”<\/em>) …<\/p>\n

(via BoingBoing<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An striking (if narrow) video look at the difference between the George W. Bush of ten years ago — as a candidate for Texas governor — and the sitting candidate…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52,360],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-2004","category-media-tv-star-trek"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30623,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/16\/tweets-from-2012-10-16.html","url_meta":{"origin":7147,"position":0},"title":"Tweets from 2012-10-16","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 16-Oct-12 10:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I appear to have stayed up too late last night. Also, I appear to have left my Kindle at home. #notagoodstart # Doing Write: So maybe, maybe not Link #nanowrimo # 4 of 5 stars to The One Minute Manager Anniversary Ed by Kenneth H. Blanchard Link # Pretty good\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11737,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/02\/13\/when_will_someone_say_no.html","url_meta":{"origin":7147,"position":1},"title":"When will someone say “No”?","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 13-Feb-08 9:19am","format":false,"excerpt":"Bush continues to act as though he has carte blanche to dictate laws -- and Congress, even ostensibly with a Democratic majority, continues to accept that. 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It wasn't so much that I thought that being a spy was glamorous...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10986,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/05\/01\/timetables.html","url_meta":{"origin":7147,"position":4},"title":"Timetables","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-May-07 8:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Feel free to chortle over some no-nothing backwater state Governor stomping his foot and demanding the President set clear exit strategy conditions and a timetable for the troops to come...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":127516,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/14\/jeb-promises-only-appropriate-use-of-torture.html","url_meta":{"origin":7147,"position":5},"title":"Jeb! promises only "appropriate" use of torture","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 14-Aug-15 1:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Will Jeb! 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