[Logic]

New'Bushism' Born at Bill Signing

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we," Bush said. "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

Sad but true......

[voodoo]

Only 4 months to go...

[MindFad]

*Sigh* Must be all the prescription drugs? Someone should buy him a beer. (lawl)

[voyageur]

Oh, my....

[xi_hyperon]

Cool. New quote for my sig.

[MindFad]

Originally posted by xi_hyperon:
Cool. New quote for my sig.

Beat ya. You can put it in yours, too, though. We can be sig buddies.

[xi_hyperon]

Originally posted by MindFad:
Beat ya. You can put it in yours, too, though. We can be sig buddies.

Dammit.

[KaBlooey]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Logic:
[B]New'Bushism' Born at Bill Signing


Even with his secretive administration, dubious intelligence and wreckless imperialism, the truth almost always finds a way to squeak out somehow. I think we should acknowledge Uncurious George for at least telling the truth for once.

Of course the official spin on this is that "even plain-spoken people mis-speak at times". Good ol' plain speakin', smirkin' George. Three months. The national nightmare is almost over.

[KaBlooey]

Furthermore...

I have heard more than once, various people defending the Prez's um, quaint speakin' style thusly: "He may not be the smartest president, but at least he means what he says."

Ladies and gentlemen...that's what we're afraid of.

[chris v]

I'm torn. Guileless idiot, or bumbling moron? It's hard to impute all the scheming and deception to such a feeble-minded gass bag, but I guess there's still Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove around to do the "thinking."

Sheesh.

CV

[sanity assassin]

I can't believe he still trots out that paranoid crap about 'the enemies wanting to destroy America' Uh huh, that's good for FOX news and the soap dodging right-wingers in their black and white yeeehaaw worldviews; but falls apart when you actually see what the so called enemies are fighting for.

It's a good clarion call to split opinion in two, either with us, or against us; you either believe what we tell you, or you don't.

Anyway, Bushy the man-idiot let slip basically what we all knew already.

[soul searching]

I don't laugh out loud often, but that did it. I can't wait for the late night shows tonight .

[doctorkeyser]

"More seldom than not, the movies gives us exquisite sex and wholesome violence that underscores our values. Every two child did. I will."

[LoganCharles]

It 'sounds' worse in print form. Many people talk like this in everyday conversations. It's funny though.

[LoganCharles]

Originally posted by sanity assassin:
I can't believe he still trots out that paranoid crap about 'the enemies wanting to destroy America' Uh huh, that's good for FOX news and the soap dodging right-wingers in their black and white yeeehaaw worldviews; but falls apart when you actually see what the so called enemies are fighting for.

It's a good clarion call to split opinion in two, either with us, or against us; you either believe what we tell you, or you don't.

Anyway, Bushy the man-idiot let slip basically what we all knew already.

Ah, fodder like this really brings out the trolls. Back in your hole.

[MindFad]

Originally posted by LoganCharles:
It 'sounds' worse in print form. Many people talk like this in everyday conversations. It's funny though.

Oh, no, it sounds pretty bad in audio, too.

[voodoo]

Originally posted by MindFad:
Oh, no, it sounds pretty bad in audio, too.

OUCH it sounded even worse when he said it!

[Logic]

Originally posted by LoganCharles:
It 'sounds' worse in print form. Many people talk like this in everyday conversations. It's funny though.

Is the education system in the US really that bad?

[LoganCharles]

Originally posted by MindFad:
Oh, no, it sounds pretty bad in audio, too.

Nah. Typical Bushism. It's funny. If you sh*t marble I could see how you would be bothered by it.

[voodoo]

Originally posted by LoganCharles:
Nah. Typical Bushism. It's funny. If you sh*t marble I could see how you would be bothered by it.

You remind me of a kid whose older brother was just caught stealing gay magazines.
Think about it.

/back on topic

[LoganCharles]

Originally posted by voodoo:
You remind me of a kid whose older brother was just caught stealing gay magazines.
Think about it.

/back on topic

So you sh*t marble?

[LoganCharles]

Originally posted by Logic:
Is the education system in the US really that bad?

Better than yours.

[MindFad]

Originally posted by LoganCharles:
Nah. Typical Bushism. It's funny. If you sh*t marble I could see how you would be bothered by it.

Nah, I think it's perfectly fitting—his best Freudian slip yet—with what he's doing to affect the future of the country. While I laughed, I also felt a little disturbed.

[MacGorilla]

Originally posted by MindFad:
Nah, I think it's perfectly fitting—his best Freudian slip yet—with what he's doing to affect the future of the country. While I laughed, I also felt a little disturbed.

[voodoo]

Originally posted by LoganCharles:
So you sh*t marble?

For the future of your nation I hope you're not older than 15?

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by voodoo:
For the future of your nation I hope you're not older than 15?

Response prediction:

"Older than you."

I'll be accepting bets now.

[KaBlooey]

In a related story...sort of...MSNBC showed a clip yesterday of Kerry on stage at a rally looking at some booklet (I didn't catch what it was, probably a government issued something or other) and he remarked that the middle section of the booklet "even has some pictures..."

Some guy in the audience hollered "Those are for Bush!" Kerry got a chuckle out of it.

[MindFad]

Originally posted by Spheric Harlot:
Response prediction:

"Older than you."

I'll be accepting bets now.

I got 5 rubles on it.

[LoganCharles]

Originally posted by MindFad:
I got 5 rubles on it.

Your preferred currency I see.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by LoganCharles:
Your preferred currency I see.

Wow, that was lame.

But hey, democracy is democracy - be it Russian or elsewise.

[chris v]

Originally posted by doctorkeyser:
"More seldom than not, the movies gives us exquisite sex and wholesome violence that underscores our values. Every two child did. I will."

To be fair, that appears to be from a Saturday Night Live skit. I'd love it if you could prove otherwise, of course.

CV

[MindFad]

Originally posted by Spheric Harlot:
Wow, that was lame.

But hey, democracy is democracy - be it Russian or elsewise.

Ahh, it got the right reaction. You people are hilarious.

[LoganCharles]

It's funny how Bush bashing is a circle jerk kind of thing.

Notice how I utilize the thumbsup smilie to point out how correct I am.

[MindFad]

You kidding? This whole damn forum is one big circle-jerk.

[LoganCharles]

Yep. Looks like we can agree on something.

However that smilie has got to be one of the crappiest I have seen.

[Krusty]

Originally posted by MindFad:
Oh, no, it sounds pretty bad in audio, too.

pffft ... The video is worse still -- he give's the neck-crooned-forward-monkey-guy look at the points of emphasis ("and so are we" and "and neither do we")

[MindFad]

Originally posted by LoganCharles:
However that smilie has got to be one of the crappiest I have seen.

Originally posted by Krusty:
pffft ... The video is worse still -- he give's the neck-crooned-forward-monkey-guy look at the points of emphasis ("and so are we" and "and neither do we")

Lordy, you're not kidding. You can pinpoint the moment when Rumsfeld begins struggling with not looking over at George. It's great.

I never did like the "I'm really serious" forward neck croon and goofy smile. I always thought it was odd. Like, seriously—not in a Bush-bashing circle-jerk kind of way.

[Logic]

Originally posted by LoganCharles:
Better than yours.

And on what do you base that?

[BRussell]

God I'm gonna miss this guy. I think I'll vote for Bush just because it's so much more fun to come to MacNN and make of him than it will be to have to defend Kerry.

[xi_hyperon]

Originally posted by Krusty:
pffft ... The video is worse still -- he give's the neck-crooned-forward-monkey-guy look at the points of emphasis ("and so are we" and "and neither do we")

Wow. Nice to wake up in the morning with a cup of joe and a good hearty chuckle. Good stuff

[MacGorilla]

Awesome!

[chris v]

The video makes it look as though he has a prepared script. Was that one of his "extemporaneous" moments, or did one of his speech writers ACTUALLY COMMIT THAT TO PAPER?

[RonnieoftheRose]

Originally posted by chris v:
The video makes it look as though he has a prepared script. Was that one of his "extemporaneous" moments, or did one of his speech writers ACTUALLY COMMIT THAT TO PAPER?

They are all idiots anyway.

[MacGorilla]

Originally posted by RonnieoftheRose:
They are all idiots anyway.

I don't think so but I think the truth is even scarier. I believe that all of W's advisors tell him what to say and how to act in public and when he gets out there, he can't do anything because he's too busy trying to keep his mental scripts straight.

[voyageur]

Personally, I think he doesn't have many neurons left. But Jacob Weisberg of Slate thinks differently. He believes Bush chose stupidity. Here is his assessment (Link) :

The question I am most frequently asked about Bushisms is, "Do you really think the president of the United States is dumb?"

The short answer is yes.

The long answer is yes and no.

Quotations collected over the years in Slate may leave the impression that George W. Bush is a dimwit. Let's face it: A man who cannot talk about education without making a humiliating grammatical mistake ("The illiteracy level of our children are appalling"); who cannot keep straight the three branches of government ("It's the executive branch's job to interpret law"); who coins ridiculous words ("Hispanos," "arbolist," "subliminable," "resignate," "transformationed"); who habitually says the opposite of what he intends ("the death tax is good for people from all walks of life!") sounds like a grade-A imbecile.

And if you don't care to pursue the matter any further, that view will suffice. George W. Bush has governed, for the most part, the way any airhead might, undermining the fiscal condition of the nation, squandering the goodwill of the world after Sept. 11, and allowing huge problems (global warming, entitlement spending, AIDS) to metastasize toward catastrophe through a combination of ideology, incomprehension, and indifference. If Bush isn't exactly the moron he sounds, his synaptic misfirings offer a plausible proxy for the idiocy of his presidency.

In reality, however, there's more to it. Bush's assorted malapropisms, solecisms, gaffes, spoonerisms, and truisms tend to imply that his lack of fluency in English is tantamount to an absence of intelligence. But as we all know, the inarticulate can be shrewd, the fluent fatuous. In Bush's case, the symptoms point to a specific malady—some kind of linguistic deficit akin to dyslexia—that does not indicate a lack of mental capacity per se.

Bush also compensates with his non-verbal acumen. As he notes, "Smart comes in all kinds of different ways." The president's way is an aptitude for connecting to people through banter and physicality. He has a powerful memory for names, details, and figures that truly matter to him, such as batting averages from the 1950s. Bush also has a keen political sense, sharpened under the tutelage of Karl Rove.

What's more, calling the president a cretin absolves him of responsibility. Like Reagan, Bush avoids blame for all manner of contradictions, implausible assertions, and outright lies by appearing an amiable dunce. If he knows not what he does, blame goes to the three puppeteers, Cheney, Rove, and Rumsfeld. It also breeds sympathy. We wouldn't laugh at FDR because he couldn't walk. Is it less cruel to laugh at GWB because he can't talk? The soft bigotry of low expectations means Bush is seen to outperform by merely getting by. Finally, elitist condescension, however merited, helps cement Bush's bond to the masses.

But if "numskull" is an imprecise description of the president, it is not altogether inaccurate. Bush may not have been born stupid, but he has achieved stupidity, and now he wears it as a badge of honor. What makes mocking this president fair as well as funny is that Bush is, or at least once was, capable of learning, reading, and thinking. We know he has discipline and can work hard (at least when the goal is reducing his time for a three-mile run). Instead he chose to coast, for most of his life, on name, charm, good looks, and the easy access to capital afforded by family connections.

The most obvious expression of Bush's choice of ignorance is that, at the age of 57, he knows nothing about policy or history. After years of working as his dad's spear-chucker in Washington, he didn't understand the difference between Medicare and Medicaid, the second- and third-largest federal programs. Well into his plans for invading Iraq, Bush still couldn't get down the distinction between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, the key religious divide in a country he was about to occupy. Though he sometimes carries books for show, he either does not read them or doesn't absorb anything from them. Bush's ignorance is so transparent that many of his intimates do not bother to dispute it even in public. Consider the testimony of several who know him well.

Richard Perle, foreign policy adviser: "The first time I met Bush 43 … two things became clear. One, he didn't know very much. The other was that he had the confidence to ask questions that revealed he didn't know very much."

David Frum, former speechwriter: "Bush had a poor memory for facts and figures. … Fire a question at him about the specifics of his administration's policies, and he often appeared uncertain. Nobody would ever enroll him in a quiz show."

Laura Bush, spouse: "George is not an overly introspective person. He has good instincts, and he goes with them. He doesn't need to evaluate and reevaluate a decision. He doesn't try to overthink. He likes action."

Paul O'Neill, former treasury secretary: "The only way I can describe it is that, well, the President is like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people. There is no discernible connection."

A second, more damning aspect of Bush's mind-set is that he doesn't want to know anything in detail, however important. Since college, he has spilled with contempt for knowledge, equating learning with snobbery and making a joke of his own anti-intellectualism. ("[William F. Buckley] wrote a book at Yale; I read one," he quipped at a black-tie event.) By O'Neill's account, Bush could sit through an hourlong presentation about the state of the economy without asking a single question. ("I was bored as hell," the president shot back, ostensibly in jest.)

Closely related to this aggressive ignorance is a third feature of Bush's mentality: laziness. Again, this is a lifelong trait. Bush's college grades were mostly Cs (including a 73 in Introduction to the American Political System). At the start of one term, the star of the Yale football team spotted him in the back row during the shopping period for courses. "Hey! George Bush is in this class!" Calvin Hill shouted to his teammates. "This is the one for us!" As governor of Texas, Bush would take a long break in the middle of his short workday for a run followed by a stretch of video golf or computer solitaire.

A fourth and final quality of Bush's mind is that it does not think. The president can't tolerate debate about issues. Offered an option, he makes up his mind quickly and never reconsiders. At an elementary school, a child once asked him whether it was hard to make decisions as president. "Most of the decisions come pretty easily for me, to be frank with you." By leaping to conclusions based on what he "believes," Bush avoids contemplating even the most obvious basic contradictions: between his policy of tax cuts and reducing the deficit; between his call for a humble foreign policy based on alliances and his unilateral assertion of American power; between his support for in-vitro fertilization (which destroys embryos) and his opposition to fetal stem-cell research (because it destroys embryos).

Why would someone capable of being smart choose to be stupid? To understand, you have to look at W.'s relationship with father. This filial bond involves more tension than meets the eye. Dad was away for much of his oldest son's childhood. Little George grew up closer to his acid-tongued mother and acted out against the absent parent—through adolescent misbehavior, academic failure, dissipation, and basically not accomplishing anything at all until well into his 40s.

Dubya's youthful screw-ups and smart-aleck attitude reflect some combination of protest, plea for attention, and flailing attempt to compete. Until a decade ago, his résumé read like a send-up of his dad's. Bush senior was a star student at Andover and Phi Beta Kappa at Yale, where he was also captain of the baseball team; Junior struggled through with gentleman's C's and, though he loved baseball, couldn't make the college lineup. Père was a bomber pilot in the Pacific; fils sat out 'Nam in the Texas Air National Guard, where he lost flying privileges by not showing up. Dad drove to Texas in 1947 to get rich in the oil business and actually did; Son tried the same in 1975 and drilled dry holes for a decade. Bush the elder got elected to Congress in 1966; Shrub ran in 1978, didn't know what he was talking about, and got clobbered.

Through all this incompetent emulation runs an undercurrent of hostility. In an oft-told anecdote circa 1973, GWB—after getting wasted at a party and driving over a neighbor's trash can in Houston—challenged his dad. "I hear you're lookin' for me," W. told the chairman of the Republican National Committee. "You want to go mano a mano right here?" Some years later at a state dinner, he told the Queen of England he was being seated far away because he was the black sheep of the family.

After half a lifetime of this kind of frustration, Bush decided to straighten up. Nursing a hangover at a 40th-birthday weekend, he gave up Wild Turkey, cold turkey. With the help of Billy Graham, he put himself in the hands of a higher power and began going to church. He became obsessed with punctuality and developed a rigid routine. Thus did Prince Hal molt into an evangelical King Henry. And it worked! Putting together a deal to buy the Texas Rangers, the ne'er-do-well finally tasted success. With success, he grew closer to his father, taking on the role of family avenger. This culminated in his 1994 challenge to Texas Gov. Ann Richards, who had twitted dad at the 1988 Democratic convention*.

Curiously, this late arrival at adulthood did not involve Bush becoming in any way thoughtful. Having chosen stupidity as rebellion, he stuck with it out of conformity. The promise-keeper, reformed-alkie path he chose not only drastically curtailed personal choices he no longer wanted, it also supplied an all-encompassing order, offered guidance on policy, and prevented the need for much actual information. Bush's old answer to hard questions was, "I don't know and, who cares." His new answer was, "Wait a second while I check with Jesus."

A remaining bit of poignancy was his unresolved struggle with his father. "All I ask," he implored a reporter while running for governor in 1994, "is that for once you guys stop seeing me as the son of George Bush." In his campaigns, W. has kept his dad offstage. (In an exceptional appearance on the eve of the 2000 New Hampshire primary, 41 came onstage and called his son "this boy.") While some describe the second Bush presidency as a restoration, it is in at least equal measure a repudiation. The son's harder-edged conservatism explicitly rejects the old man's approach to such issues as abortion, taxes, and relations with Israel.

This Oedipally induced ignorance expresses itself most dangerously in Bush's handling of the war in Iraq. Dubya polished off his old man's greatest enemy, Saddam, but only by lampooning 41's accomplishment of coalition-building in the first Gulf War. Bush led the country to war on false pretenses and neglected to plan the occupation that would inevitably follow. A more knowledgeable and engaged president might have questioned the quality of the evidence about Iraq's supposed weapons programs. One who preferred to be intelligent might have asked about the possibility of an unfriendly reception. Instead, Bush rolled the dice. His budget-busting tax cuts exemplify a similar phenomenon, driven by an alternate set of ideologues.

As the president says, we misunderestimate him. He was not born stupid. He chose stupidity. Bush may look like a well-meaning dolt. On consideration, he's something far more dangerous: a dedicated fool.