Simon, please…
"As it is he was the Leader of the Free World
Think about this child… I’m once again close to vomitting…
I know this is a mere anecdote, but I discussed this with a friend this morning. His comment was “Bush certainly doesn’t have the intellectual equipment to be President but he has surrounded himself with his father’s people and they are plenty smart.” Some people just don’t care that our President can’t remember what he said on the record. The old say is that a liar better have a good memory and a man who tells the truth ought to have one foot in the stirrup. The Bush-Kerry joint appearances (I will not dignify them by calling them debates) seem to confirm both sayings.
The President surely didn’t thing he could get away with his denial. The only honorable explanation is that he was flustered in the moment and flat didn’t remember it. I’m not sure that is a plus but it is better than thinking that the Chief Magistrate of the Nation is just a bad liar. There are a lot of things that have gone down the President’s memory hole.
Well, you know, an honorific is an honorific.
He does. We call it “Dick Cheney”.
**“the only thing we know for certain is that these are bad people and we look forward to working with the Blair government to deal with the issue”. “Let me just say, these were illegal combatants. They were picked up off the battlefield aiding and abetting the Taliban”. President Bush, July 18 2003 **
http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page4227.asp
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/programmes/panorama/transcripts/insideguantanamo.txt
…either President Bush lied, or he is extremely uninformed…
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=243819&highlight=Banquet+Bear
Well, to jokingly nitpick your joking nitpick - Bush said this on 17 / 9 / 01:
Yep, the context’s different etc. Just trying to out-Rove UrbanChic
Is it funny or is it sad when the bright side is that maybe the Prez’s just severely mal-informed, thoughtless or stupid?
Funny for a few seconds, and then immediately sad. I was appalled at his reaction to the question about flu shots too:
MODERATOR: Suddenly we find ourselves with a severe shortage of flu vaccine. How did that happen?
BUSH: Bob, we relied upon a company out of England to provide about half of the flu vaccines for the United States citizen, and it turned out that the vaccine they were producing was contaminated.
:smack: I immediately thought, “Well, congrats on slamming one of the few countries supporting your war, George.” And, you go on to say that you’re working with Canada on getting flu shots? That’s extremely interesting. :dubious:
I actually don’t believe GWB has the ability to pre-screen his rhetoric prior to speaking - he’s missing that invisible screen between the brain and the mouth. And, he could have come off a lot better about the Bin Laden lie (um, I mean statement) if he hadn’t thrown in his trademark preface - the smirk/evil laugh. Get a handler already.
I find it difficult to believe that Bush did not remember saying this.
I mean, he has been preparing for this debate, right? It strains credulity to think that Karl didn’t sit him down at some point and say, “Look, George, here are ten really stupid things you’ve said in the past four years. Kerry might throw some of them at you. Here’s how you respond.” It also strains credulity that this particular quote wouldn’t be on the list.
That being the case, I find Bush’s response to be inexplicable. I can’t believe that he would have responded the way he did if he knew he had made those statements, but I can’t believe he didn’t know it.
Anyway, it isn’t even in the same class as the real lies Bush has used in the debate–in particular, that Kerry is going to let other countries have a veto over our defending ourselves (when Kerry has said exactly the opposite, repeatedly) and that Kerry’s plan for health care would involve the government taking over the health care system (which it wouldn’t).
This just means that he still doesn’t have a brain, and his actions are controlled by his “Dick”.
It isn’t important whether or not he is “informed”, he’s got people for that, its *their *job to be informed. His job is leadership, and a real leader doesn’t quail in the face of adversity, he has the dedication and committment needed to execute a bad decision through boondoggle and onward to catastrophe. Without flinching! Now that’s leadership!
In line with what Spavine Gelding was saying, if Bush really put any thinking into what he was saying – if he reasoned things out instead of responding on instincts and impulses – he would be able to rely on what he had said before and what he hadn’t. He just “says” things whether they make sense or not.
Alan Alda wrote a line in the film Four Seasons that describes this well. A man says to his wife that her thoughts just drop out of her brain and down onto her tongue like a gumball machine.
After four years of watching the guy in office, I would no longer be surprised if it was revealed that Bush has “left” and “right” written inside his shoes so he’d know which foot they go on.
Bush has gotten accustomed to drifting through life, having everything taken care of by his family or friends. Why should he think debating Kerry was any different? The man’s probably clueless enough to believe his own sound bites…
“He surrounds himself with ability the way a donut hole surrounds itself with donut.” – attributed to Dennis Miller, before he turned to the dark side.
Bush has “TGIF” written inside of his shoes. At first, people thought it meant “Thank God It’s Friday”, and that the President really enjoyed looking forward to his weekends. However, it was discovered that for the President the inscriptions means “Toes Go In First”.
We now have another legendary PotUSA. Not only did our first Gee Dubya not tell a lie, our latest Gee Dubya has never told a lie (nor make a mistake).
How lucky are we?
[quote=Aldebaran]
Don’t you need a brain to be able to lie?
[\quote]
It is so depressing to have the Scarecrow as POTUS and the Cowardly Lion as Vice POTUS.
I think the only word in the previous sentences that belongs in there is vice.
Actually, were he to say he couldn’t successfully tell a lie, that might be the first completely truthful thing he has said since stealing office.
His mother made the mistake. They had enough money to go to Europe for an abortion.