# George W. Bush "Our Leader" Billboards **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 24, 2004, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416 "2004-11-24T03:55:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/61 "2004-11-24T17:29:00Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > In fact, it makes my skin crawl every time a \*\*living \*\*politician gets his nameplate on something. As an example, we had SJ airport renamed “Norm Mineta Airport” a few yearrs ago. I’d have a lot more respect for ol’ Norm if he politely declined that “honor”. Following your logic, there’s one other way he or similarly-“honored” pols. could make the honor non-objectionable. I wouldn’t dare to take a show of hands for how many here would gladly support the [Fill-In-The-Evil-Current-Political-Figure]-Memorial Highway. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/62 "2004-11-24T17:36:48Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > Do you have any doubts that if a grass-roots armed resistance to tyrannical government sprung up, you couldn’t keep the right-wingers out if you tried? > > The right has learned the hard-won lessons of **Red Dawn**. They’d be there, all right, with bells (and camo) on. > > Wolverines! Besides, we’re the only ones with guns. The left probably has more bottled water stored up, though. So we’ll trade guns for Pellegrino on the battlements. ---
**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:** [November 24, 2004, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/63 "2004-11-24T17:44:49Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Your qualifier holds your entire argument. It is true that Hitler did not have a crushing landslide avalanche of a mandate, like 51%. But the Nazi Party was a powerful minority party in a parliamentary system. One of the weaknesses of the parliamentary system is that a minority party can obtain power wildly out of proportion to their actual numbers. This power was obtained by the usual pedestrian means, votes in ballot boxes. I think you are confusing the process by which Hitler became Chancellor and the (very non-pedestrain) process by which the NAZI party engineered dictatorial powers for Hitler AFTER he became Chancellor. Saying “Hitler was elected” is justifiable shorthand for saying that the NAZI party won lots of seats in the _Reichstag_, but implying that Adolph Hitler became a dictator thru a “pedestrian” electoral process is disingenuous, at best. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/64 "2004-11-24T18:05:23Z")
As might be expected, I take some umbrage at your use of “disingenuous”. You haven’t rebutted my position so much as you have rephrased it. If you think this topic actually worthy of debate, I am at your service, but let us not bore these good people with a lengthy hijack. Perhaps you are upset by what you presume to be a Godwinistic comparison? It is unwarranted, I assure you. Hitler was an Austrian mediocrity, convinced beyond reason of his own infallibility who destroyed his country with foolish military adventures. GeeDubya is from Texas. ---
**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:** [November 24, 2004, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/65 "2004-11-24T18:25:07Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > As might be expected, I take some umbrage at your use of “disingenuous”. Then consider it withdrawn. It was a poor choice of words on my part, as I can’t honestly claim to be able to read your mind. And no, I don’t want to take this thread for a stroll down Godwin Lane. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/66 "2004-11-24T18:33:08Z")
Withdrawal noted. Classy behavior cordially acknowledged. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/67 "2004-11-26T02:48:28Z")
> [@manhattan](#): > > Truth is, we took up a collection and did stuff like this because we think it’s cute when you make Nazi comparisions. Also, whenever you do it further marginalizes you and we can move further toward the time when the two political parties in the U.S. are the Republicans and Former Democrats and the More Republicans Who Were Never Democrats and the angry left can hang out chanting in the park with the Commies where they belong. We fight on the margins, and your acid is just what motivates me. I will not submit as willingly as you. _Unser Führer_ leads to _Nie Wieder_. I hope you don’t have a conscience because someday it may weigh heavily my dear Bushista. ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/68 "2004-11-26T02:55:04Z")
> [@manhattan](#): > > The left probably has more bottled water stored up, though. Well, we’ll need a clean supply of water, for when they put the submission-inducing hallucinogens in our tap water. (Bonus points to whoever gets that reference.) ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/69 "2004-11-26T04:24:32Z")
I for one want to thank Clear Channel for this selfless public service. I mean I’m glad someone finally got around to explaining just what the heck this Bush fella has been doing these past four years or so. ‘Leader’, huh. You know, I considered that one early on, but then I thought, “Naw, that can’t be right. I don’t recall asking him lead me on anything.” But there it is, bigger than life. Leader. Whaddya know. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/70 "2004-11-26T17:10:00Z")
> [@continuity eror](#): > > Well, we’ll need a clean supply of water, for when they put the submission-inducing hallucinogens in our tap water. > > (Bonus points to whoever gets that reference.) Faith of our Fathers, yes? ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/71 "2004-11-26T18:22:02Z")
Just wanted to point out that, in Boston, empty Clear Channel billboards were covered with quotes by people like Thoreau and Emerson and Shakespeare and Gandhi (instead of having the ad rot away in our winter climate). So maybe we should ask not why CC is putting Dubya on unsold space, but why they think Floridians would rather have Dubya than William or Ralph Waldo. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/72 "2004-11-26T20:15:57Z")
I don’t recall Clear Channel pulling such a stunt for any other President. Why single out Dubya for the distinction? ---
**Author:** ![Jillyvn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Jillyvn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jillyvn)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/73 "2004-11-26T20:38:08Z")
I just saw the Bush billboard and it gave me the willys. However, I have and will continue to find the comparisons between Bush et al and Nazi Germany overly simplistic and misinformed. The Third Reich was abhorrent, and I think our terror of repeating the past is blinding us to the future. We look backwards and say “This is the worst it could be, we must never let it happen again”. The reason nations are blindsided by dictatorships is often the deadly result of innovation. Why aren’t we looking at Bush et al and pondering what new kind of horror they might come up with instead of stumbling around in the past, fumbling for appropriate analogies? Yes, learn from the past, but I think most of the people who make the Bush/Hitler comparisons are intelligent enough to see past this. - Rebekkah ---
**Author:** ![MaryP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bbce88/32.png) [@MaryP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryP)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/74 "2004-11-26T21:06:50Z")
It is interesting though. One of the first things we did in Iraq was to go through and show footage of soldiers scraping the poster/portraits of Saddam off the walls. Pulling down the statue was one of the oft-repeated video plays. We lost no time trashing all the texts with his pictures and replacing them. Why is it less distasteful to have those kinds of posters here? ---
**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:** [November 26, 2004, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/75 "2004-11-26T21:08:42Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > I don’t recall Clear Channel pulling such a stunt for any other President. Why single out Dubya for the distinction? Stunt? Why is it a “stunt”, and why does in matter whether it ever was done before? Maybe it’s just a form of advertising for them. I guess that could be considered a stunt, as long as you want to concede that ALL advertising is a stunt. Which still begs the question: so what? ---
**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:** [November 26, 2004, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/76 "2004-11-26T21:10:49Z")
> [@MaryP](#): > > It is interesting though. One of the first things we did in Iraq was to go through and show footage of soldiers scraping the poster/portraits of Saddam off the walls. Pulling down the statue was one of the oft-repeated video plays. We lost no time trashing all the texts with his pictures and replacing them. > > Why is it less distasteful to have those kinds of posters here? Ummm… because the first was done by the state, and the second was done by private individuals. Hey, I think this kind of stuff is tacky, too, but do you really NOT see the difference between a STATE action and a PRIVATE action? ---
**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:** [November 26, 2004, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/77 "2004-11-26T21:16:26Z")
That billboard is the reason they made paint guns. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/78 "2004-11-27T07:13:49Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > I don’t recall Clear Channel pulling such a stunt for any other President. Why single out Dubya for the distinction? Because, as I’ve pointed out, they’re in Big Freaking Governmental And P.Q. Trouble these days, which they weren’t four years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/79 "2004-11-27T07:14:51Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > Because, as I’ve pointed out, they’re in Big Freaking Governmental And P.Q. Trouble these days, which they weren’t four years ago. Or “P.R.,” as you prefer . . . ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/80 "2004-11-27T14:03:55Z")
Am I reading this right? Are you suggesting that Clear Channel is not, in fact, operating from an abundance of civic virtue and patriotic fervor, but positioning its corporate lips to play the asshole trumpet? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416.md?page=5)