Ok, so GOP cheerleader Peggy Noonan was unimpressed with the interview George Bush gave Tim Russert this weekend on Meet the Press. It should have been a slam dunk: taped, not live; in the Oval Office, not NBC studios. It wasn't. But what is this about Bush being smarter than he appears? Is she kidding?
Mr. Bush is as bright as John Kerry, just as Mr. Reagan was as bright as Walter Mondale, who was very good at talking points. They all are and were intelligent. Yet neither Mr. Bush's interviews and press conferences nor Mr. Reagan's suggested anything about what they were like in the office during a crisis: engaged, and tough. It's something else.
I haven't read Ron Suskind's new book in which he recounts interviews with former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, but my guess is that "engaged" isn't a word that O'Neill would use to describe Bush. Or "bright" for that matter.