"I must admit that Bush appears stupid to me at times. I also have to admit that I stuggle with a tendency to be as arrogant and elitist as many liberals I know."
You dont know many arrogant elitist conservatives? I can think of a handful right here.....;-)

"As dumb as liberals want to portray him or as I may perceive him, I am fairly confident he is a decent man with a better grasp of things than he gets credit for. "
He may be a decent man, but I don't know him personally. I know of his politics, and I know I don't like a lot of them.
I don't think he is quite as dumb as portrayed but it's close. His grasp of things - IMO - is questionable. Witness him without a script. I don't care that he malaprops every other word, but he has no bloody clue what to say. Take the major post 9/11 speech. A great speech and well delivered. Just what the country ordered. Take the press conference afterwards, a spectacle that I had to turn off because I was too embarrassed for the guy - and I don't like him!

"In any case he is easier to take than the lying, unsavory, unprincipled swine that preceeded him or, for that matter any of the democrat presidents (including that dumb ass Johnson) that came after JFK (it WAS only about sex with him)."
So you are under the second hand also.....

Cheers,
Tony