Karl Rove On Bush's Books

With only five days left, my lead is insurmountable. The competition can't catch up. And for the third year in a row, I'll triumph. In second place will be the president of the United States. Our contest is not about sports or politics. It's about books.

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At year's end, I defeated the president, 110 books to 95. My trophy looks suspiciously like those given out at junior bowling finals. The president lamely insisted he'd lost because he'd been busy as Leader of the Free World.

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In the 35 years I've known George W. Bush, he's always had a book nearby. He plays up being a good ol' boy from Midland, Texas, but he was a history major at Yale and graduated from Harvard Business School. You don't make it through either unless you are a reader.

Something to remember when you read gushing reports from the media over Barack Obama's capacity for intellectual thought and his love for reading. We could have seen those reports all along for W, but didn't.

The fact is that Bush is not a stupid man, as measured in the usual way by intellectual and educational achievements. Those hoping for change with Barack Obama because of his intellectualism may do well to remember that. Either educational and capacity for intellectual thought don't help as much as you think with critical decisions that need to be made on the presidential level, or Bush may have had good rational reasons to make the decisions he did every step along the way.

Oh and also Jimmy Carter made it through Admiral Rickover's nuclear program, clear evidence for a brilliant mind, and his presidency wasn't exactly the best ever either. So again, those who are telling us that Obama will be great because he's sooo smart? .... makes me worried.