I missed this one, but it only props up what we all know

What Bush's Harvard Business School Prof Has To Say - By Mary Jacoby Sept.
16, 2004

For 25 years, Yoshi Tsurumi, one of George W. Bush's professors at Harvard
Business School, was content with his green-card status as a permanent
legal resident of the United States. But Bush's ascension to the presidency
in 2001 prompted the Japanese native to secure his American citizenship.
The reason: to be able to speak out with the full authority of citizenship
about why he believes Bush lacks the character and intellect to lead the
world's oldest and most powerful democracy.

"I don't remember all the students in detail unless I'm prompted by
something," Tsurumi said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "But I always
remember two types of students. One is the very excellent student, the type
as a professor you feel honored to be working with. Someone with strong
social values, compassion and intellect -- the very rare person you never
forget. And then you remember students like George Bush, those who are
totally the opposite."

Tsurumi said. "He showed pathological lying habits and was in denial when
challenged on his prejudices and biases. He would even deny saying
something he just said 30 seconds ago. He was famous for that. Students
jumped on him; I challenged him." When asked to explain a particular
comment, said Tsurumi, Bush would respond, "Oh, I never said that."

Bush, he recalled, "made this ridiculous statement and when I asked him to
explain, he said, 'The government doesn't have to help poor people --
because they are lazy.' I said, 'Well, could you explain that assumption?'
Not only could he not explain it, he started backtracking on it, saying,
'No, I didn't say that.'"

Bush once sneered at Tsurumi for showing the film "The Grapes of Wrath,"
based on John Steinbeck's novel of the Depression. "We were in a discussion
of the New Deal, and he called Franklin Roosevelt's policies 'socialism.'
He denounced labor unions, the Securities and Exchange Commission,
Medicare, Social Security, you name it. He denounced the civil rights
movement as socialism. To him, socialism and communism were the same thing.
And when challenged to explain his prejudice, he could not defend his
argument, either ideologically, polemically or academically."

Students who challenged and embarrassed Bush in class would then become the
subject of a whispering campaign by him, Tsurumi said. "In class, he
couldn't challenge them. But after class, he sometimes came up to me in the
hallway and started bad-mouthing those students who had challenged him. He
would complain that someone was drinking too much. It was innuendo and
lies. So that's how I knew, behind his smile and his smirk, that he was a
very insecure, cunning and vengeful guy."

Bush sometimes came late to class and often sat in the back row of the
theater-like classroom, wearing a bomber jacket from the Texas Air National
Guard and spitting chewing tobacco into a cup.

"At first, I wondered, 'Who is this George Bush?' It's a very common name
and I didn't know his background. And he was such a bad student that I
asked him once how he got in. He said, 'My dad has good friends.'" Bush
scored in the lowest 10 percent of the class.

"I used to chat up a number of students when we were walking back to
class," Tsurumi said. "Here was Bush, wearing a Texas Guard bomber jacket,
and the draft was the No. 1 topic in those days. And I said, 'George, what
did you do with the draft?' He said, 'Well, I got into the Texas Air
National Guard.' And I said, 'Lucky you. I understand there is a long
waiting list for it. How'd you get in?' When he told me, he didn't seem
ashamed or embarrassed. He thought he was entitled to all kinds of
privileges and special deals. He was not the only one trying to twist all
their connections to avoid Vietnam. But then, he was fanatically for the
war."

Tsurumi told Bush that someone who avoided a draft while supporting a war
in which others were dying was a hypocrite. "He realized he was caught,
showed his famous smirk and huffed off."

Tsurumi's conclusion: Bush is not as dumb as his detractors allege. "He was
just badly brought up, with no discipline, and no compassion," he said.

He said other professors and students at the business school from that time
share his recollections but are afraid to come forward, fearing ostracism
or retribution. And why is Tsurumi speaking up now? Because with the
ongoing bloodshed in Iraq and Osama bin Laden still on the loose -- not to
mention a federal deficit ballooning out of control -- the stakes are too
high to remain silent. "Obviously, I don't think he is the best person" to
be running the country, he said. "I wanted to explain why."

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Yes, we knew, or suspected all of this, but its always nice to get it from the horse's mouth, as it were.

It's great that this was posted. Thanks!!

There's an excellent fair and balanced documentary which describes the lives of both presidential candidates from the time of their youth. It was presented very matter-of-fact and with well investigated and documented evidence for verification purposes on both sides.

After watching, I was reassured  more than ever why Kerry is in fact our best option for president; our best hope for honest, strong and efficient leadership (military and otherwise).

The Choice

FRONTLINE's two-hour dual biography of George W. Bush and John F. Kerry reveals how the two men from similar backgrounds grew to hold competing views. Historians also weigh in with the leadership qualities that they feel are essential for presidential success.

More:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/choice2004/


Please note that there isn't any bashing here. It's just an eye-opening, objective reflection and personal look into the lives of these two candidates.