# Bush's curious diatribe reported last night on Countdown **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 1, 2007, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339 "2007-06-01T14:26:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339/1 "2007-06-01T14:26:16Z")
Olbermann’s stand-in (a very appealing gal who doesn’t hit every news bit with a verbal sledge hammer as does Keith) said last night, that Dubya went wild-eyed, thumped his chest while proclaiming three times “I am the president!” He further announced that the war in Iraq would continue past his presidency for future Commanders In Chief to handle as part of this country’s destiny. Did anyone see this last evening? There’s nothing in the Times, or the local paper or online that I can find about the story. (And, :smack: I erased the tape!) Anyway, if the account is true, would you consider such behavior of the POTUS as worrisome? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339/2 "2007-06-01T14:38:05Z")
Hadn’t heard about that. It’s certainly consistent with his peevish “I am the decider!” pronouncement, just weeks before he gave Rumsfeld the boot after saying Rummy was doing a great job and should stay. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339/3 "2007-06-01T14:40:51Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] Hadn’t heard about that. It’s certainly consistent with his peevish “I am the decider!” pronouncement, [/QUOTE] ‘Deciderer’, or ‘Decidering-type dude’. Learn some Presidential English for Allah’s sake. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339/4 "2007-06-01T14:53:30Z")
[QUOTE=BarnOwl] Olbermann’s stand-in (a very appealing gal who doesn’t hit every news bit with a verbal sledge hammer as does Keith) [/QUOTE] The lovely and sassy [Alison Stewart](http://www.reportercaps.com/Home_30days/Day25/p20.jpg), who last night introduced a piece on Michele Obama this way: “People in public life consider it rare to encounter a strong, intelligent Black woman - in my family we call that normal.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339/5 "2007-06-01T14:55:10Z")
I read about it [here.](http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-geyer_31edi.ART.State.Edition1.4370227.html) (Found the link [here.](http://www.thismodernworld.com/)) ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339/6 "2007-06-01T15:02:48Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] I read about it [here.](http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-geyer_31edi.ART.State.Edition1.4370227.html) (Found the link [here.](http://www.thismodernworld.com/)) [/QUOTE] **BG** , I’m not blaming you, at least you found something, but that piece says > [@](#): > > Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated “I am the president!” He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of “our country’s destiny.” Setting, context, and source are missing. A bit unsatisfying, but interesting, if true. ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339/7 "2007-06-01T15:14:10Z")
Did they _show_ The Decider do the chest-thumping routine, or just talk about it? If the latter, it may well have been editorial comment. (I just checked and the transcript of Thursday’s _Countdown_ has not been posted yet. I also nosed around White House press releases a bit and found nothing of an “I am the President” nature.) It’s absolutely no surprise that he expects to bequeath Iraq to whomever follows. I decided awhile back that for Bush, pulling out of Iraq would be an admission that he had screwed the pooch somewhere, and Old Fartbrain is psychologically incapable of admitting significant errors of judgment. ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339/8 "2007-06-01T15:17:34Z")
Anyone know anything about Georgie Anne Geyer? Is she reliable? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339/9 "2007-06-01T15:24:14Z")
This cartoon I think was oddly prescient: [Tom Tomorrow](http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2007/02/19/tomo/story.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339/10 "2007-06-01T15:32:18Z")
[QUOTE=Crotalus] **BG** , I’m not blaming you, at least you found something, but that piece saysSetting, context, and source are missing. A bit unsatisfying, but interesting, if true. [/QUOTE] Its also an editorial, not a news story. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339/11 "2007-06-01T15:44:37Z")
[QUOTE=BJMoose] Anyone know anything about Georgie Anne Geyer? Is she reliable? [/QUOTE] Reliable in what way? Her columns can be expected always to take a liberal viewpoint. She’s quite reliable that way. Still, she is a legendary and fearless journalist, one with a good bit of time in her profession and an awful lot of hard earned respect over the years. ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339/12 "2007-06-01T16:04:00Z")
I guess I’m asking whether we can or cannot presume she had a reliable source. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339/13 "2007-06-01T16:11:15Z")
Alarm bells go off whenever a national leader uses the world “destiny”. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339/14 "2007-06-01T16:32:40Z")
The chest-thumping incident was not taped. Here is the Countdown page; it’s in the first video clip (the one with Lieberman): [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/) About a minute in. It looks like Georgie Anne Geyer’s column is the only source of that report of Bush’s chest-thumping. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339/15 "2007-06-01T16:39:38Z")
[QUOTE=Crotalus] Setting, context, and source are missing. A bit unsatisfying, but interesting, if true. [/QUOTE] It’s a bit Rashomon-like. Here’s what [Salon](http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/05/31/bush/index.html) had to say: > [@](#): > > As we noted the other day, we’ve heard two reports from what appears to have been the same visit some Texas-based bigwigs paid to George W. Bush recently. > > In the president’s version of the story, “a bunch of our buddies from Texas” visited the White House and asked him, “Man, how come you’re still standing?” And he told them: “I’m inspired by doing this job. I believe strongly in the decisions I have made. I firmly believe that we are responding to this initial challenge of the 21st century in proper fashion.” > > In the version of the story posted by the Nelson Report, some “big money players up from Texas” managed to “get out exactly one question” before Bush went off on “an extended whine, a rant, actually, about [how] no one understands him, the critics are all messed up, if only people would see what he’s doing things would be OK, etc.” > > Now, as Think Progress reports, there’s a third version of the story. In the version set forth today by columnist Georgie Anne Geyer in the Dallas Morning News, friends of the president from Texas were “shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated, ‘I am the president!’ He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of ‘our country’s destiny.’” ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339/16 "2007-06-01T17:05:50Z")
[Capitol Hill Blue](http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/2618) quotes Arnaud de Borchgrave, editor of the right-wing Washington Times: > [@](#): > > The self-described “Decider” is the antithesis of self-doubt. Like an old seadog, he relishes the idea of plowing into rough seas. > > When a recent visitor asked him what assurance he could give about his successor in 2009, President Bush replied, “we’ll fix it so he’ll be locked in.” The visitor left perplexed and wondered whether that might mean the U.S. would be in a wider war in the region by then. In any event, it didn’t sound like twilight time for Mr. Bush. > > A Texan friend of longstanding called on him recently and confided to his Washington hosts that Mr. Bush had said three times, bringing a clenched fist to his chest, “I’m the president.” Reminding visiting political opponents of this would be normal, but the close friend said he was a taken aback a bit as he had never before seen Mr. Bush in this mode. If the right-wing media is now reporting it, the story has legs. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339/17 "2007-06-01T18:55:13Z")
[QUOTE=Duckster] [Capitol Hill Blue](http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/2618) quotes Arnaud de Borchgrave, editor of the right-wing Washington Times: If the right-wing media is now reporting it, the story has legs. [/QUOTE] Why? If it “has legs” and they’re the “right-wing media”, wouldn’t they try to suppress it? If they don’t suppress it, then they aren’t doing their jobs!!! Oh, I guess that argument about the “right-wing media” gets to be used whenever it supports the argument a person is trying to make. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339/18 "2007-06-01T18:58:59Z")
I think the point is that if even the right wing media can’t ignore it, then it must have legs. This is a creepy story, it’s beginning to sound as if either Bush is going nuts or is off the wagon. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339/19 "2007-06-01T19:04:30Z")
It would probably be a better indicator if the left-wing media actually picks this one up and begins touting it. Maybe they _haven’t_ learned anything from 60 Minutes. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2007, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339/20 "2007-06-01T19:19:33Z")
[QUOTE=BobLibDem] I think the point is that if even the right wing media can’t ignore it, then it must have legs. This is a creepy story, it’s beginning to sound as if either Bush is going nuts or is off the wagon. [/QUOTE] I know what he was getting at. But also note that it wasn’t an actually link to the original source (which, again, were both editorials) but gives some link to CaptiolHillBlue’s editorial about those editorials. At the very least, we’ve lost a wee bit 'o context, as they say in the old country. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushs-curious-diatribe-reported-last-night-on-countdown/406339.md?page=2)