It can be "widely perceived as factual" because there is an organized attempt to jam this concept into the brains of American citizens by the Democrats, their myrmidons in the press and on talk shows, and congenital idiots like Bill Maher. This strategy has been successful in the past, being used on Ronald Reagan, Dan Quayle, and others both inside and outside of politics.

And the strategy is amazingly simple:

Look for verbal mistakes, Spoonerisms, or obscure facts the victim does not have on the tip of his tongue. (Ha Ha! He doesn't know who the Assistant Prime Minister of Botswanaland is!) People who do not talk with constant eloquence, and have a photographic memory for numbers and facts, are, of course, stupid. Of course, pay no attention any such speech problems in those on the Left. Ted Kennedy's lapses into drooling incoherence during his speeches are, of course, ignored.

Keep hammering at these mistakes, writing articles, making jokes, doing monologues, drawing cartoons, etc. until the paradigm of a blithering boob is firmly imbedded in the American psyche. After that, it's easy. It becomes one of those things that "everyone knows," totally divorced from any pertinent facts.

Take a search engine like Google, and put in the separate words "Bush" and "stupid," if you want examples of this constant fusillade.

If you have any objective evidence that the man is an idiot, I'd love to see it.

Meanwhile, Clinton gets respect for his intelligence, because he was only a blithering idiot in his "personal life." I have yet to see an example of anything "brilliant" he did politically, other that covering his own sorry ass with the consummate skill of a born liar and cheater.