Slate.com Editor Jacob Weisberg can now add "medicine" to his list of expertise. Weisberg told an audience the awkwardness some claim Bush shows during speeches can be attributed to a learning disability.
Weisberg linked it back to a pattern of dyslexia in the Bush family.
"I agree with that," Weisberg said when presented the possibility that Bush has a "learning disability." "The other thing I've done is collect ‘Bushisms' over the years and I sort of joke this book is my penance for doing that, because one of the things ‘Bushisms' do is I think they make Bush sound stupider than he is, or stupid in a way he isn't. And I do think he does have some sort of language processing impairment that is probably akin to dyslexia, and dyslexia does run in the family. But, I don't think it is dyslexia because if you watched the State of the Union, you could see he has no trouble reading a teleprompter."
Weisberg appeared at Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C., on January 30 to promote his new book, "The Bush Tragedy." He ruled out dyslexia as Bush's learning disability because of his fondness for reading.
"He is a reader actually," Weisberg said. "He's become a reader. I think in the White House, he reads a lot of history in part because he is looking for vindication in it. But, I think there is some language problem which makes him sound stupid."
However, Weisberg did give Bush some credit and say Bush's business interests were not the determining factor in the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. During the early stages of the war, many on the left said desire for oil was the reason Bush invaded Iraq. Weisberg attributed it to Bush's desire to "one-up" his father, but said Iraq was chosen because it was a strategic location.
Slate.com is an online magazine owned by The Washington Post Company (NYSE:WPO). It was founded in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley. The Post purchased Slate in December 2004.
