People really forget now that Bush saying dumb shit was a pretty widespread thing during his time. My grandfather had a dumb bush quote a day calendar.
He said dumb shit but don’t think for a minute he wasn’t actually somewhat intelligent. I say that because people tend to write him off as being a stooge for Cheney and Rumsfeld vis-a-vis the invasion of Iraq when he was absolutely a full participant who actively lied about it all.
Bush really lowered the bar for how much dumb shit a US president can say in public. Trump wouldn’t have been possible without him normalizing that. Libs rehabilitating Bush is the best proof they have no object permanence.