That giant of journalistic prowess, Metro, informs me that George W Bush’s biographer believes the American President to be, contrary to popular belief, extremely clever. This Robert Draper says “he has a visceral intelligence at odds with his image”.
Metro explains that Mr Draper formed this opinion when he interviewed Bush and found him to be “chatty, charming and unshakeably confident in his abilities and decisions”.
I would point out to Mr Draper that Jade Goody is also chatty, David Beckham is considered by many to be charming, and Boris Johnson is without doubt unshakeably confident in his abilities and decisions – but these qualities do not necessarily amount to intelligence, visceral or otherwise.
Draper admits that this self-assurance does have its liabilities: “a tendency for opinions to harden, an unwillingness to consider alternative points of view and also the facts”.
An unwillingness to consider the facts???? Mr Draper, the word for what you appear to be describing is STUPIDITY.
