Richard Cohen is amazed that G.W. Bush is an avid reader. And he knows, for a fact that Bush is an avid reader because... Karl Rove told him. Seriously.
Still, the fact remains that Bush is a prodigious, industrial reader, and this does not conform at all to his critics' idea of who he is. They would prefer seeing him as a dolt, since that, as opposed to policy or ideological differences, is a briefer, more bloggish explanation of what went wrong. Still, in fairness to these critics (see Rove above), Bush himself has encouraged this approach. Aw shucks is an infuriating defense of a policy.And Cohen knows this because he read what Bush critics have to say, or because that's what Karl Rove told him about Bush's critics?
It's fascinating that Cohen can present his impassioned defense of Bush's intellect, but engage in the very sort of sneer he assigns to bloggers. Gee, Richie, maybe bloggers criticize your poorly reasoned columns due to "policy or ideological differences", not because they think you're a dolt.
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