But you will need a lot more than a business school anecdote to convince me that the man behind the Iraq War (launched on false pretences, with bad intelligence, and disastrous first- and second-order consequences) is a top-tier analytical intellect.
"[..]Professor Thomas Römer, an Old Testament expert at the university of Lausanne, was rung up by the Protestant Federation of France. They asked him to supply them with a summary of the legends surrounding Gog and Magog and as the conversation progressed, he realised that this had originally come, from the highest reaches of the French government. President Jacques Chirac wanted to know what the hell President Bush had been on about in their last conversation. [..]"
Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2009/a...
Even if you assume Bush's motives were purely malevolent (or realpolitik if you prefer) then he was still terrible at it.
The whole world watches Hollywood films and buys American brands. If America becomes uncool and unpopular, that will be a loss that no number of aircraft carriers could make up for.
The comment I reply to was downvoted. I don't know why, it contributes to the discussion.
Lately, I feel like there have been a lot of reddit-like dislike-downvoting here on HN.
I hope the admins find a way to preserve the "maturity culture" I have always loved about HN.
*I know that will sound strange to you when you think about Bush and Trump, but remember that they did attract enough supporters to win the presidency.