Everyone's looking back at GWB's presidency and weighing in on whether or not it was a failure or a terrible failure. I had intended to post a Part II to follow on my Part I, but a fellow blogger, TAO, has done a better, more articulate job than I could, so with his permission, I'm linking to his perceptive, in-depth, fair and balanced assessment of the past eight years.
I will, however, post a few choice quotes from outgoing President Bush, which give us the opportunity to see how his mind works and how he perceives himself and his administration.
"Abu Ghraib, obviously, was a huge disappointment, during the presidency. You know, not having weapons of mass destruction was a significant disappointment," he said. "I don't know if you want to call those mistakes or not, but they were -- things didn't go according to plan, let's put it that way. . . . Look, I have often said that history will look back and determine that which could have been done better or, you know, mistakes I made."
"I've thought long and hard about Katrina; you know, could I have done something differently," Like what? "[L]ike land Air Force One either in New Orleans or Baton Rouge."
"My view is is that most people around the world, they respect America. And some of them doesn't like me..."
"Do you remember what it was like right after 9-11 around here? People were saying, "How come they didn't see it? How come they didn't connect the dots?" Do you remember what the environment was like in Washington -- I do -- when people were hauled in front of Congress and members of Congress were asking questions about, "How come you didn't know this that or the other?" And then we start putting, you know, policy in place -- legal policy in place to connect the dots, and all the sudden, people were saying, "How come you're connecting the dots?"
"It turns out, this isn't one of the presidencies where you ride off into the sunset."
"So I analyzed that and decided I didn't want to be the president during a depression greater than the Great Depression, or the beginning of a depression greater than the Great Depression." --George W. Bush, Washington D.C., Dec. 18, 2008
"People say, well, do you ever hear any other voices other than, like, a few people? Of course I do." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 18, 2008
"I've abandoned free market principles to save the free market system." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 16, 2008
"You know, I'm the President during this period of time, but I think when the history of this period is written, people will realize a lot of the decisions that were made on Wall Street took place over a decade or so, before I arrived in President, during I arrived in President." --George W. Bush, ABC News interview, Dec. 1, 2008
"I've been in the Bible every day since I've been the president." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Nov. 12, 2008
"This thaw -- took a while to thaw, it's going to take a while to unthaw." --George W. Bush, on liquidity in the markets, Alexandria, La., Oct. 20, 2008
"I didn't grow up in the ocean -- as a matter of fact -- near the ocean -- I grew up in the desert. Therefore, it was a pleasant contrast to see the ocean. And I particularly like it when I'm fishing." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Sept. 26, 2008
"Anyone engaging in illegal financial transactions will be caught and persecuted." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2008
"Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter." --George W. Bush, in parting words to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at his final G-8 Summit, punching the air and grinning widely as the two leaders looked on in shock.--Rusutsu, Japan, July 10, 2008
"And I, unfortunately, have been to too many disasters as president." --George W. Bush, discussing flooding in the Midwest, Washington, D.C., June 17, 2008
13 comments:
He does sound pretty moronic in these quotes, doesn't he? The only thing he could have done worse is to have taken false credit for having created the Internet.
The right-wingers will probably be able to come up a list of bad quotes at the end of Obama's 8 years, too. Obama's a much more gifted public speaker, so it will likely be shorter, but everyone slips up. Bitter working-class voters in Pennsylvania who still cling to the Bill of Rights will be watching too.
Even Bill Clinton, also more silver-tongued than GWB, is capable of saying some stupid clumsy things. Depending on what the meaning of is is....
My favorite Bushism is the one where he said "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream" in La Crosse in 2000. The first part is clumsy, but the last part is strikingly poetic. None of it intended.
We will be having cleansing ceremonies - several commenters this a.m. at Eschaton discussed, decided bundles of herbs and a sweepup - but do see Hecate's blog. They have a really nice cleansing scheduled the 19th.
Go ride your mountain bike George. The greatest bicyclist ever to occupy the White House pedals off into the sunset. Back into his soon to be gated community in Dallas (a neighborhood not far removed from covenants barring Jews and Blacks bye the bye) where he can do whatever it is he does to occupy his time. I guarantee that with no political campaigns in the future the clearing of brush at the 'ranch' will come to an end.
Chopping brush without TV cameras present is a drag.
Adios George.
You won't be missed. Even more, you won't be forgotten. Your destruction of the US economy and US foreign policy and your legacy of torture and domestic spying will linger years after you go to that big mountain bike round up in the sky,
http://www.tmbra.org/
dmarks:
Ah yes. It wouldn't be a normal day on the 'series of tubes' known as the internet if dmarks hadn't let slip of his factually challenged slurs against Liberals. We certainly know who DIDN'T invent the internet don't we?
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp
Those bitter working class people in Penn. apparently voted for PE Obama, since he won Pennsylvania's electoral votes. At the very least, people understood what he meant by those remarks. He wasn't slamming them at all, even if the conservative pundits and certain media tried to make it look like that.
And as Arthur pointed out, Al Gore never said he INVENTED the internet--he helped facilitate its widespread use through working with Congress.
But what Obama or Gore or Clinton say or have said doesn't come near the incongruous, syntactically bizarre constructions of Dubya.
Where in America did he ever hear the construction "...before I arrived in President, during I arrived in President."?
He doesn't correct himself after he says it wrong the first time.
Too many of his blunders are blunders of ignorance of how American English is spoken.
My father was an immigrant to this country and learned English when he was in his 30s. Never did I ever hear him use the sort of strangled tangled English that George Bush uses.
Did Bush hear this sort of cuckoo-speak at home?
Or are his neurons misfiring all the time???
And the thaw remark? HUH? If something "unthaws" it will what? Freeze up again. What is he talking about there?
I believe one can tell a lot about a person's intellect by how clearly and cogently he or she speaks. To goof up and misspeak now and then is understandable; to constantly make grammatically incomprehensible pronouncements is a sign of a seriously impaired mind.
"Neither in French nor in English nor in Mexican."—Bush declining to answer reporters' questions at the Summit of the Americas, Quebec City, Canada, April 21, 2001
(There is no "Mexican" language, Mexicans speak Spanish. And he's lived in Texas a good deal of his life! Shouldn't he of all people KNOW this instinctively???)
"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.''—Townsend, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2001
(My father the immigrant NEVER made this sort of error.)
You know, I just never really paid all that much attention to what the man said, in 8 years I just seemed to tune him out, not intentionally, it was rather than I never expected him to say anything that thought provoking or intellectually worthwhile.
Last week when he claimed to be "...a free market guy" I just literally starred at the television in disbelief.
He has not done one thing while in office that would make one thing that he was anywhere close to being "a free market guy."
His prescription drug program was not free market and neither was his plan to "privatize" social security. Both of those plans were actually developed to be "rewards" for certain special interests.
The whole contract issue in Iraq was again nothing but rewards programs for certain contractors.
The issue of Katrina had nothing to do with him on an airplane and whether he landed or not. The response and preparation was a disaster and still is.
I do not know enough about his education program, No Child Left Behind, but I can only wonder which special interest benefitted from that one...and it wasn't the kids.
I do not consider him Presidential but rather one who doles out benefits. Of course I realize that there could be no far reaching and or massive change because he is really incapable of thinking on those lines.
I doubt if he even understands the concept of "legacy" as he sees himself more as a manager and all he can think of is a performance review...its all tasks not legacies...
Arthurstone: Name one fact I got wrong. I told the truth, for example, about the Clinton and Gore statements. I notice that you did not question what I said about Bush's La Crosse statement (also factual). It's pretty clear that you are not concerned with whether or not it is true, but the party of the person being quoted or discussed.
I hope you don't go off the deep end on this one, like the one where you admitted there were a few fringe nutters on the liberal side that supported assassinating Bush, but then kept insisting they did not exist.
On to specifics:
Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet (on CNN), but he never actually invented it.
He did in actual fact say he invented it. That is a correct word to paraphrase his statement, in which he said he created it while in Congress. Despite the fact that it exissted prior to his election. Regardless of what he did or said or intended to say, he did say it. And it is a gaffe.
Poor dmark Once his mind is made up...
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp
'Create' is not 'invent'. Repeat...
Go off the deep end? I am still waiting for you to provide an example of (in your words) 'sympathy for the assassination of GWB on liberal blogs'.
You still haven't done so. And no sending out the unfortunate Griper to do your heavy lifting. A link to a demonstration of protesters in the UK Guardian (who may or may not have been 'Liberals') is not quite what we're looking for.
Cheers!
dmarks,
Gore misspoke, and he sounded like he was taking credit for "inventing" the internet. But, of course, he wasn't, because he didn't, and he knew it. And he knew how easily that claim could be disproved. So I don't believe he really was trying to take credit for something he did not do.
That's the end of that.
In the spirit of what PE Obama has put forth as a cornerstone of his presidency, I ask us all, for the next few day, at least, to try to listen to each other and respect each other's opinions.
After January 20th, we can resume ripping out each other's throats.
;-) ;-) ;-)
'Most Americans were able to return to their normal Iives (post 9/11). I was not'
Thus sayeth GWB in his final (one hopes) speech as C in C. Something cheap about his ability to make other peoples tragedy about him.
Reverse empathy.
Say goodnight George.
'Most Americans were able to return to their normal Iives (post 9/11). I was not'
Thus sayeth GWB in his final (one hopes) speech as C in C. Something cheap about his ability to make other peoples tragedy about him.
Reverse empathy.
Say goodnight George.
I agree Arthur. GWB was not gracious. His speech seemed to be all about him.
Narcissists are like that.
Arthurstone: Why repeat something that is not true? "Create" is "invent", in this context.
Shaw is right, really. Gore misspoke. So there's really no point in destroying the English langauge in order to make the mistake somehow a non-mistake. Gore's not perfect.
(And the links you mention were provided in the other comment. By Griper. I did the heavy lifting, as did he.)
And about Bush's speech? I wanted it to be over so CSI could start. As a public speaker, I find him very difficult to listen to. So I bowed this one out. I figured I'd find out what was in it on this blog first.
Post a Comment