Bush denies being dyslexic...or dodges the issue. although his brother Neil admits to it. Here is a story on it...
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In the three months of research for a Vanity Fair profile of Governor George W. Bush, I used my usual method of saturation reporting –85 interviews with 70 of Bush's friends, classmates, business associates, and top campaign aides. It was his chronic scrambling of spoken thoughts that continued to puzzle me. How could a man educated at some of America's finest educational institutions -- Andover, Yale, and Harvard—make so many mistakes? The press had assumed he was intellectually limited. But chatting with him on the campaign trail, I found him to be very bright, quick-witted, and possessed of a good memory, although often carelessly uninformed on issues outside of Texas.
Several speech experts in his home state, familiar with the Bush family history (his brother Neil is a diagnosed dyslexic), told me on the record that the mistakes Governor Bush makes are consistent with someone with dyslexia. When I raised the question with his campaign chairman, Don Evans, Evans became flustered and said, "What do you mean -- ask him, I don't know: I wasn't there in the 3rd grade:. I know he was in school patrol, he must have been a good student. I don't know-- ask him. " The next day, campaign spokeswoman Karen Hughes informed me curtly, "The governor will not be able to participate in your profile."
Before the story closed, I called Evans to check facts and told him of further evidence that dyslexic traits run in families and might possibly account for Bush's malapropisms as well as his extraordinary "people skills." He agreed with me that only the governor could properly respond and promised the campaign staff would get back to me. They never did.
After publication, the Bush camp falsely claimed that I had been told the governor was not dyslexic. They also charged that I had confused George W with his brother Neil when I reported that, as late as 8th grade, George was kept inside on Saturday mornings so his mother could drill him with flash cards. My source, Doug Hannah, was George's contemporary, not Neil's. In any case, I did not say George Bush is dyslexic. I simply raised the question.
The governor fumbled his own response when questioned by other reporters on his campaign plane on Sept 15: "The woman who knew that I had dyslexia—I never interviewed her." He did acknowledge he has never been tested. (Neither, I assume, were the famous figures I mentioned who also have been "diagnosed at a distance" as probably having been dyslexic: Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, and Winston Churchill.) The more honest response from Bush would have been that he does not know whether or not he carries any dyslexic trait. Experts estimate that somewhere between 15 and 20 percent of the population is dyslexic. But Bush and his aides have reacted as if being dyslexic is the same thing as being stupid. The candidate missed an opportunity to dispel that cruel stereotype. He could have empowered millions of children for whom he genuinely seems to feel compassion – those with learning disabilities who would benefit from his reading initiative. These are children who often think their learning difficulties are their fault. Maybe George Bush once thought so, too.
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