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I don't see Bush as unintelligent.
Rather, I view his bumblings (such as word mispronounciations and folksy sort of pronouncements) to be a carefully orchestrated manuever to garner maximum support from the population.
For those of you abroad who wonder just what the hell is going on here, I'll present my analysis.
Most of the US population is still contained within small, rural cities--between 25,000 and 50,000 people.
There is a prevalent idea among the working class to be skeptical of the educated class--so we see a divide between those living in urban, professional regions and rural, working class regions.
An overwhelming proportion of US citizens identify with Christian values (~90% last time I looked at the figures). A vocal minority of that group are politically active and well-organized. While the majority don't want to impose their values on the rest of the population, the minority does, and, since the values are very similar, the majority of the people don't try to stop religious trends instigated by the minority.
When Bush speaks in a folksy manner, makes mistakes many people envision any other regular folk could make, and places the cherry on top of being a reborn Christian who is just trying to walk his religious sojourn in life, that creates a powerful affinity between him and a huge majority of the population--along with an incredibly powerful, well-organized, and politically active minority.
Behind the scenes, however, he doesn't share working class interests, although it appears like he is one of "us." He shares the interests of the corporate class, and regardless of whether he is "controlled" by them, he does things that benefit the corporate class because he is part of it. He shares the same values and acts accordingly.
When educated liberals point out that his actions are not in the long-term interests of the country (meaning that they are not in the interests of the majority of the population--the working class), it is perceived by them as another attack on the common folk by the ivory tower people.
Educated conservatives enter the foray and make two simultaneous arguments: one directed at other educated professionals justifying the logic of their actions and one directed at the working class arguing that liberals are destroying the values of the country (both moral and religious), anti-american, and engaging in class warfare. Banking on the skepticism of the working class toward professionals, they are able to claim that educated liberals really aren't in touch with them nor do they want to be. Their position gives the working class a feeling of political efficacy, since someone needs to be guarding the henhouse. Based on this, educated conservatives get a pass on their economic vision, which in reality, runs counter to the needs of the working class.
That's how I see it.
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"The theory of a free press is that truth will emerge from free discussion, not that it will be presented perfectly and instantly in any one account." -- Walter Lippmann
"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists." -- Abbie Hoffman
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