Sorry to regurgitate a thread that hasn't been posted on for a wee while, but I think there's something nobody's really being saying. Bush isn't that stupid. Undoubtedly, he makes an arse of his lines and struggles to act without advisors etc, but this doesn't mean he's a moronic puppet of people who work outwith the public eye (although I accept that business has a lot more control over politics than anyone ever lets on). Firstly, the American political system being so PR based, it's imperative for someone like Bush to react on the basis of advice, especially as he knows he tends to say the wrong thing. Taking the September 11th thing mentioned a few posts above, if Bush had immediately went to the media, he wouldn't have had time to prepare a statement and would have said the wrong thing, as I don't doubt most people would. It may be hard to personally know how to react to such a situation, but the PR teams were bound to have contingency plans for that kind of event. Secondly, Bush has a public image of someone who says what he thinks, which comes across as more important than actually saying the right thing. On top of this, hasn't anyone noticed that despite Bush seemingly being an idiot, the Democrats have never been able to make the most of this? This suggests two things to me. Either, the Democrats are collectively as stupid as Bush, or Bush isn't as stupid as he appears. It seems unlikely that the whole Democratic Party are thick, so I tend to go for the second option. I'd also agree with the person who said that the Democrats put up bad candidates against Bush. It's the same reason why Thatcher and Blair have had successful reigns.