This is a factual question not a great debate, i have come about a shocking if true qoute from president George W. Bush. Here it is:
“It’s amazing I won. I was running against peace, prosperity, and incubency.” - President George W. Bush, June 14, 2001. speaking to Swedish Prime Minister Gorna Perrson, unaware that a live television camera was still rolling.
Any truth to this?
I found only one website that mentioned this quote, and I couldn’t open it. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t AP, CNN or any other source that I might consider reputable. With that backing, I consider the existence of this quote to be unsubstantiated rumour.
Yeah, a search reveals nothing of substance.
Also, given that this quote was allegedly uttered by Bush almost four years ago, if it were true i think we would have heard a lot more about it by now.
Close;
“We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease.”—GW Bush, Gothenburg, Sweden, June 14, 2001
Peace,
mangeorge
However, if one re-inserts the M in incumbency, one gets several dozens of hits.
On the other hand, nearly all the “quotes” are identical, not merely in what was said but in the presentation of the context. I have no idea whether the statement was actually made (although a dearth of major news sources makes me suspicious), but it has clearly gotten a lot of circulation from people who want to mock President Bush.
I also note that every page (that I have yet found) that quotes it dates to 2004, making it just a bit suspicious. People have hated Bush throughout his presidency; where are the citations from 2002 and 2003?
I have seen the quote attributed to Michael Moore’s Stupid White Men, but I do not have the book, so I cannot confirm that. (I also do not particularly trust the site that attributed the quote to Moore’s book.)
Now, if for the moment that we allow that the quote was made popular by Michael Moore
and if for the sake of argument, we accept that Moore got the quotation correct,
then
we still need to put the quote into context, which would appear to be that he was expressing amazement that he had overcome an incumbent administration that had already established a record of presiding over a period of peace and prosperity. Given that it appears to have been a casual comment, while it is amusing to see him claiming to have “run against peace and prosperity,” it is probably not anything he actually intended (even if he uttered those words).
Gentles, there is a GQ question in the OP. If this deteriorates into a “let’s mock George” thread, it will be closed–or the extraneous posts will be removed. There are plenty of threads open for that sort of thing.
[ /Moderator Mode ]
The archive is here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20010623031454/http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/abc/20010614/pl/bush_amazing010614_1.html
Thursday June 14 06:52 PM EDT
Candid Bush Calls Presidential Win ‘Amazing’
By Josh Gerstein ABCNEWS.com
President Bush (news - web sites) told one of his European counterparts that his victory in last year’s election was “amazing.” It’s unclear whether he knew a local television station was taping the candid conversation.
President Bush candidly described his razor-thin election victory as “amazing” in a conversation today with a European counterpart.
“I wasn’t exactly a landslide winner this time around,” Bush told Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson during a photo opportunity at Gunnebo castle.
“It was amazing I won,” Bush continued. “I was running against peace and prosperity and incumbency.”
Did He Know He Was on Tape?
The comments were recorded by the Swedish TV network, TVS. Bush spoke softly and it was not immediately clear whether he was aware that he was being overheard.
The president also boasted to Persson about passage of tax-cut legislation in the United States.
“It was a big victory,” Bush said. “I made the case in the course of the campaign and fulfilled my promise. It’s necessary for the economy.”
Bush is in Sweden for a summit with leaders of the European Union (news - web sites). The EU presidency rotates among the 15 member states and is currently held by the Swedish government.
After reading tomndebb’s gentle admonition I re-read my reply (#4) and saw some room for misinterpretation.
I was mocking the rumor, not Bush. The date and country are right, and it seems that if the OP’s quote were real, it would be mentioned on that anti-Bush page.
George Bush’s misspeaks are plenty, and don’t need amplification.
I too looked, hopefully I’ll admit, for substantiation and found none.
Incumbency?
ZaneyQ has provided a cite for the quote’s authenticity and its context, but I first encountered it thanks to Michael Moore.
You are correct that the quote was popularized in Stupid White Men. In the book, these words appear in large type and bold face, after the dedication and before the table of contents. These are the only words on the page.
Exactly. He never ran against an incumbent. That line doesn’t make sense.
Not technically, but he was running against the natural continuation of the previous administration. Actually, though I hate the man with a passion that burns with the heat of a thousand suns, the problem is more that the quote is out of context.
Expand it this way: “The current administration as headed by Bill Clinton and seconded by Al Gore has presided over an almost-unprecedented era of peace and prosperity for most Americans. One would think that the American people would be driven to continue this trend by voting for the man most likely to continue the policies currently in place, but instead they elected me.”
Exactly. Or rather (as Al Gore did win the popular vote) that he would have expected Gore to succeed Clinton relatively comfortably, in the manner the first President George Bush did Reagan: the general perception was that things were going fine (or at least OK) at home and abroad, the outgoing Prez was popular, a promise of continuity should count for more. As mentioned in the expanded quote, Bush II was explaining that he had pulled an upset. I think I can forgive the man an obvious figure of speech.
Isn’t it popular wisdom that being the outgoing vice president is a disadvantage, giving the edge to Bush?
George HW Bush didn’t seem to have any problem winning the presidency as the outgoing VP.
<Homer> D’oh! :smack: </Homer>