Bush mastered political strategy in… poker

Bush mastered political strategy in… poker

U.S. Republicans formally placed into nomination the names of Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney for the forthcoming presidential election.

Republicans also approved a conservative platform that was opposed to abortion and critical of gay marriage.

US President and Republican candidate recently was reported on his striking skills in poker.

According to Americanthinker.com, George W. Bush is the very first President to hold a Masters Degree in Business Administration. His management style, which usually is referred to Harvard Business School, has more substantial background.  Some reports link Bush’s strategy to the essential base of poker game which includes both rational and psychological approaches. As usual, skilful poker players are very experienced in their ability to figure out the odds and to out-psych the opposition. This talent may be very important in many other fields of human activity, aside from the poker table.

Thomas Lifson, who was in Harvard Business School with the President, noted that by reputation George W. Bush was a very avid and skillful poker player when he was an MBA student. One of the secrets of a successful poker player is to encourage your opponent to bet a lot of chips on a losing hand. This is a pattern of behavior one sees repeatedly in Bush’s political career. He is not one to loudly proclaim his strengths at the beginning of a campaign. Instead, he bides his time, does not respond forcefully, a least at first, to critiques from his enemies, no matter how loud and annoying they get. If anything, this apparent passivity only goads them into making their case more emphatically.

Some experts emphasize that this Bush’s poker tactics had a great impact on his political career. “He is not one to loudly proclaim his strengths at the beginning of a campaign. Instead, he bides his time, does not respond forcefully, a least at first, to critiques from his enemies, no matter how loud and annoying they get. If anything, this apparent passivity only goads them into making their case more emphatically,” comments the journalist.

The compliment appeared in the media along with the issue regarding the advertisement of heroic features of candidate Kerry during the Vietnam War and the denouncement of these reports by his opponents. According to Telegraph.co.uk, this case was the one card that trumps Bush's leadership in the war on terror and he bet everything on it.

The reports on Bush’s poker skills gained political background with a controversial meaning. The ability to develop rational strategy and tactics says about high intellect. At the same time skilful poker player, as usual, uses bluff in order to mask his own position. This observation seems to bring negative feature to the candidate’s record.

So far, the main candidates to win the presidential race are Bush and Kerry. Their odds are almost equal and a concluding event will be Bush’s speech this week. Though the President is not considered to be a great orator, he can gain significant support in his favour with his optimistic forward-looking speech full of jokes.

Though the last word is to be said by voters, the initial prediction may be compiled from reports of betting companies. According to Intertops.com, an offshore gambling company which collected more than 3,500 political bets on Bush and Kerry this season, Bush has odds in his favour. The company currently lists Kerry at 1.74 and Bush at 1.87. Bodog.com says that Bush is considered to win with the odds at 130 to Kerry's 110. Intrade.com, an Ireland-located company, is offering Bush’s odds at 52 while Kerry's odds at 48.