some of these are pretty common, but i hadn't seen some of em...
"I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for predecessors as well."
"I want it to be said that the Bush administration was a results-oriented administration, because I believe the results of focusing our attention and energy on teaching children to read and having an education system that's responsive to the child and to the parents, as opposed to mired in a system that refuses to change, will make America what we want it to be—a literate country and a hopefuller country."
"Natural gas is hemispheric. I like to call it hemispheric in nature because it is a product that we can find in our neighborhoods."
"The great thing about America is everybody should vote."
"The legislature's job is to write law. It's the executive branch's job to interpret law."
"You've heard Al Gore say he invented the internet. Well, if he was so smart, why do all the addresses begin with "W"?"
"Drug therapies are replacing a lot of medicines as we used to know it."
"If affirmative action means what I just described, what I'm for, then I'm for it."
"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"—
"I mean, there needs to be a wholesale effort against racial profiling, which is illiterate children."
"As governor of Texas, I have set high standards for our public schools, and I have met those standards."
"The woman who knew that I had dyslexia--I never interviewed her."
"The fundamental question is, 'Will I be a successful president when it comes to foreign policy?' I will be, but until I'm the president, it's going to be hard for me to verify that I think I'll be more effective."—
"Actually, I — this may sound a little West Texan to you, but I like it. When I'm talking about — when I'm talking about myself, and when he's talking about myself, all of us are talking about me."
"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."
"I understand small business growth. I was one"
Posts: 380 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
sigh... Many a highly intelligent person have speech disorders -- especially inre public speaking -- which may make them appear to have FAR less capability than they actually do. And many highly intelligent people of the South in particular use "slow"ness as an affectation: the better to ambush&clobber ya if'n ya get all uppity.
Playing "Dubya is an idiot" is playing his game. And you're gonna lose if you continue to think that way.
posted
I think he's an idiot because of his policies, and recognize fully that he plays the stupid texan card intentionally. i posted this because i think it's funny.
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posted
but here's a question which has probably come up quite a few times before: how did we as a nation elect someone who has an inability to effectively communicate to the highest office of our nation? it would seem that the president more than any politician needs to be an effective communicator so that he can lead, inspire, and inform the public as to what's going on... in other words, it would seem that being able to clearly communicate is a job requirement of the presidency.
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posted
Evil is the word to describe someone using their intelligence to benefit themselves through harm caused to others, not idiot.
As for how he got elected, the majority of Americans are repelled by attempts to denigrate a man because of his speech, mannerisms, or looks. Which the majority of the media attempted: take a look at the number of pre2000Election_thru_pre9/11 headline stories pointing toward his speech and mannerisms rather than concentrating on his record as a businessman and politician. Take a look at all of the pictures specificly chosen to emphasize his resemblence to an ape (such photos can be taken&selected of anybody) before the media turnaround to dignified portraits after 9/11.
If I weren't such a geek that I'm actually interested in the workings of government rather than the personalities&pecadillos of politicians, Dubya would have gotten my sympathy vote because of the media miscoverage.
posted
He wasn't elected. He was appointed the position by the Florida supreme court (heh, liberals can play the "Activist Judges" card, too ). Gore wasn't much of an alternative, though. Bush may have problems with speaking in public, but Gore comes off as a total dork.
What continues to amaze me is that John McCain actually lost the Republican primary in 2000. I'm writing him in when I vote in November. I know Kerry is going to win my state, so I might as well vote my concience.
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quote:Playing "Dubya is an idiot" is playing his game. And you're gonna lose if you continue to think that way.
What I enjoy is flip-flopping on this issue on the part of numerous Bush-detractors. One day, Bush is a bumbling, drooling halfwit controlled by the Machiavellian Cheney (or Wolfowitz, or Rove, etc.). The next day, it is Dubya who is the Machiavellian mastermind to make Emperor Palpatine quail.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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quote: What continues to amaze me is that John McCain actually lost the Republican primary in 2000
i should make a little eternal flame to the lost presidency of John McCain. is there anybody in the country that wouldn't prefer to have had him over the past 3 1/2 years?
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quote: What I enjoy is flip-flopping on this issue on the part of numerous Bush-detractors. One day, Bush is a bumbling, drooling halfwit controlled by the Machiavellian Cheney (or Wolfowitz, or Rove, etc.). The next day, it is Dubya who is the Machiavellian mastermind to make Emperor Palpatine quail.
I don't think Bush is a mastermind. Far from it. I think that Cheney is the brains behind the curtains most of the time.
I do like to think that Bush can be trained to read a speech and recite it. Apparently he can. It's when he starts talking on his own that he has problems.
Posts: 851 | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
Oh, I hate to do this. I hate for anyone to think I'm defending Bush. But...he is dyslexic. Make fun of his flip-flops on policy all you want, but don't make fun of things that just come out of his mouth slightly shuffled because his dyslexia is kicking in. The first kind of fun-making is fair; the second kind really isn't.
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posted
If he's dyslexic, then I appologize (yes, I've been known to do that before). You're the first person, in say 4 years, that's brought that to light. It's definitely not funny to make fun of learning disabilities (and other stuff that can't be helped).
Just to be sure, are you saying that when he says weird stuff when he's talking without reading that he's dyslexic, or that some of the stuff that he's been quoted on was read wrong?
Posts: 851 | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
dyslexic he may be, but he also has about a 5th grade vocabulary proficiency and equivalent grammatical mastery.
i think it's fairly clear that he has some sort of learning disability (i'm not trying to be snipey here). i'll restate my original question; should someone lacking communication skills really be in charge of our country? i guess you could argue that he's a policy maker, so his verbal skills are not as relevant as his reasoning and political skills, but while he's proven himself a fairly successful politician, his skills at critical analysis seem a little slow on the uptake. he's been virtually unwilling to change his position on anything, suggesting to me that he's making all his decisions based on prior beliefs which he is unwilling to question. that's great if you agree with his beliefs, but as the leader of a representative democracy, part of your job is to compromise. as the leader of the sole world superpower, part of you job should be to adapt to the changing world situation.
i guess i feel the same way about politician's learning disabilities as i do about politician's extramarital affairs: if you're going to be in politics you have to play by a different set of rules than the rest of us. it's not fair, but it's the price you pay.
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posted
"i think it's fairly clear that he has some sort of learning disability (i'm not trying to be snipey here)."
No, I wouldn't go that far. I've dealt with too many CEOs to expect literacy or the other outward signs of intellectual curiosity from them. In general, there's a certain rarefied society in which language skills are not as essential as one's ability to play golf and/or shake hands in a manly way, and these people judge each other's quality on an entirely different set of criteria -- like, say, the ability to assign vaguely insulting nicknames to subordinates without feeling any shame.
(And, yeah, I'm being a bit bitter, here. *grin*)
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). Gore wasn't much of an alternative, though. Bush may have problems with speaking in public, but Gore comes off as a total dork.
