Reply #22: that's "misunderestimating"!

[Lisa]

Bush does has a few assets going for him -- he's tremendously manipulative and knows how to use people. He knows when to appear charming and when to freeze people out ... and he's cunning enough to know that with his family name, he can intimidate or bribe people into going along with him. He wasn't attentive or charismatic enough to be "the coolest guy in class" but he knew the tricks.

And also, he can be ruthless. Remember that he was his dad's enforcer on the campaign team in 1988. He actually learned this when he was quite young -- his mom put him in charge of bossing around his younger siblings, in his father's absence. The fact that he's willing to get his hands dirty and be the guy who says "you're fired" meant that he was able to gain a lot of power -- people who were too scared or squeamish to do that would delegate authority to him, and he capitalized on it.