Best Lead of the Month

'Is it possible that for the past seven years we've gotten President George W. Bush wrong? Is it possible that that effortless stupidity and inexplicable arrogance that have become his hallmark are all just an act? Like Borat--only dumber? Is it possible Bush figured he could accomplish more for the commonweal if he didn't come off as just another responsible, competent world leader? Perhaps he assumed if he assumed the guise of a strutting, bumbling, dim-witted ass, everyone would give him a wide berth, much the way drivers slow down when they see a car swerving madly up ahead. Genius, right? Perhaps Bush was Rove's brain! Perhaps the vice president actually does report to the president. Perhaps Bush doesn't go to bed at 9:30, but instead, like Castro, works through the night in some candlelit aerie in the West Wing, his Promethean intellect humming away as he dots the i's and crosses the t's of his devilishly clever master plan. Maybe he's not the incurious, isolated simpleton the press makes him out to be. Perhaps the president has been playing chess while the rest of us have been playing checkers.'
--from Graydon Carter's editor's letter in the October issue of Vanity Fair, in which he recaptures much of the slashing bite of the late, lamented Spy Magazine, which he co-founded. You can review prior Best Leads of the Month here and here.