Bush Is Actually Smart

by: Matt Stoller

Mon Nov 24, 2008 at 14:00

In June, 2005, Bernanke was sworn in at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. One of his first tasks was to deliver a monthly economics briefing to the President and the Vice-President. After he and Hubbard sat down in the Oval Office, President Bush noticed that Bernanke was wearing light-tan socks under his dark suit. "Where did you get those socks, Ben?" he asked. "They don't match." Bernanke didn't falter. "I bought them at the Gap-three pairs for seven dollars," he replied. During the briefing, which lasted about forty-five minutes, the President mentioned the socks several times.

The following month, Hubbard's deputy, Keith Hennessey, suggested that the entire economics team wear tan socks to the briefing. Hubbard agreed to call Vice-President Cheney and ask him to wear tan socks, too. "So, a little later, we all go into the Oval Office, and we all show up in tan socks," Hubbard recalled. "The President looks at us and sees we are all wearing tan socks, and he says in a cool voice, 'Oh, very, very funny.' He turns to the Vice-President and says, 'Mr. Vice-President, what do you think of these guys in their tan socks?' Then the Vice-President shows him that he's wearing them, too. The President broke up."

We've known that Bush and his whole crew are a bunch of humorless antisocial freaks, but since Atrios and Yglesias have called for today to be blogosphere reminiscence day, I'll pick my favorite silly and widely held illusion.  Remember back when it was considered an open question whether Bush was an intelligent guy?  What about when John DiIulio, the first Bush whistleblower, apologized for saying that Bush's administration ran a "White House in which politics trumps policy?"  We really were living in a loony bin.

Ah, good times.  Except for being in the throes of a multi-trillion dollar give-away and a transition to a new President who is supported by legions of people who think he has a secret plan of enacting progressive policies by installing Republicans and financial scam wizards in high-ranking cabinet positions, the country is no longer buying into silly illusions.  Thank God.