# I like Laura Bush, but... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 14, 2006, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737 "2006-05-14T15:31:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737/1 "2006-05-14T15:31:50Z")
She seems to be living in a bubble: > [@](#): > > “I don’t really believe those polls. I travel around the country. I see people, I see their responses to my husband. I see their response to me,” she said. Also, does anyone else think that [she](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/POLITICS/01/13/laura.bush/story.laurabush.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/13/laura.bush/&h=168&w=220&sz=12&hl=en&start=62&tbnid=4n4CmhxDTOGzRM:&tbnh=77&tbnw=102&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlaura%2Bbush%26start%3D60%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN) is the secret mother of [Clay Aiken](http://www.myclassiclyrics.com/artist_biographies/clay_aiken_biography.htm)? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737/2 "2006-05-14T15:37:37Z")
Moving thread from IMHO to MPSIMS. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737/3 "2006-05-14T16:39:56Z")
I don’t like her. I don’t know the woman, of course, but she strikes me as a very vapid, willfully ignorant woman, and it’s hard to like someone with those qualities. To me, she’s a modern day Marie Antoinette, convinced that everyone loves the queen because she sees a handful of selected adorerers, and never lifts her eyes to notice the hordes of angry people outside the gate. Sure she lives in a bubble-- I’m willing to lay money that she always has. All she knows of the world around her is what is presented to her, carefully edited, by those around her. It wouldn’t be difficult to find dissenting opinions if she wanted to-- hell, all she’d have to do is open the curtains and look out at the protestors, or pay attention to media besides brief segments of Fox News. I’m not saying she’s a bad person, but she’s not a good person, either. She’s just indifferent and willfully blind to anything she doesn’t like. If she’d been born to any other family, she’d be one of those annoying soccer moms who shoves her way through the ten-items-or-less line with a overflowing cart and scorns the poor as people who are just to lazy to get a job. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737/4 "2006-05-14T16:51:37Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > If she’d been born to any other family… Of course she wasn’t born into the Bush family. She has, though, taken Bush lessons from the head bitch of the family, Barbara. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737/5 "2006-05-14T17:13:47Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Of course she wasn’t born into the Bush family. No, of course, I know that. What I meant was if she hadn’t been born into the elite-- if she’d been born into a middle-class family in Wisconsin. > [@](#): > > She has, though, taken Bush lessons from the head bitch of the family, Barbara. Agree with her or not, Barbara is a pretty smart woman, and is relatively down-to-earth. I can’t imagine that she likes Laura all that much. (I imagine her being very impatient with her.) ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737/6 "2006-05-14T17:34:59Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > Agree with her or not, Barbara is a pretty smart woman, and is relatively down-to-earth. I can’t imagine that she likes Laura all that much. (I imagine her being very impatient with her.) Is that the same Barbara who said that the Katrina evacuees were probably living in better surroundings after evacuation than they had been before? ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737/7 "2006-05-14T17:56:11Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > Agree with her or not, Barbara is a pretty smart woman, and is relatively down-to-earth. She’s so smarft and down-to-earth, she donated money for Katrina aid specifically earmarked for use on her son Neil’s company Ignite, in which she herself is an investor. Laura must fit right in at the trough. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737/8 "2006-05-14T17:57:27Z")
‘Smarft’, by the way, being a cross between smart and smurft. Only the super-intelligent use it… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737/9 "2006-05-14T17:58:57Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > Is that the same Barbara who said that the Katrina evacuees were probably living in better surroundings after evacuation than they had been before? I didn’t hear that. In what context did she make the remark? That their new apartments/homes in Texas and other states were better than their old neighborhoods? If that’s true, it might not necessarily be wrong. As I’ve heard, some of the poorer neighborhoods in NOLA were in bad condition. If they’re living in nicer neighborhoods in other states now, how is the comment incorrect? Or was she making the nasty comment that their flooded, ravaged neighborhoods in NOLA were improved over their previous condition? ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737/10 "2006-05-14T18:07:28Z")
She was talking about the evacuees living in the [Astrodome.](http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/currentevents/a/katrinaquotes.htm) > [@](#): > > “What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) – this is working very well for them.” –Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the hurricane evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston, Sept. 5, 2005 ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737/11 "2006-05-14T18:34:48Z")
Barbara is smart enough; she is simply a nasty piece of work. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737/12 "2006-05-14T19:11:04Z")
And of course there is the memorable: > [@](#): > > But why should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many, what day it’s gonna happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it’s, it’s not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that? And watch him suffer. . [Cite](http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/barbara.asp) ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737/13 "2006-05-14T20:35:26Z")
Hey, would you all please stop turning copies of [her new biography](http://a1204.g.akamai.net/7/1204/1401/06021011011/images.barnesandnoble.com/images/10780000/10781675.jpg) around on the shelves at your local bookstore? Or putting [other literary works](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1402728239.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg) in front of it? Or squirrelling stacks of it away in [some other section](http://www.peacocktags.com/images/restroom.jpg)? It’s all fun and games and then _somebody_ gets stuck fixing it. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737/14 "2006-05-14T20:51:06Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > No, of course, I know that. What I meant was if she hadn’t been born into the elite-- if she’d been born into a middle-class family in Wisconsin. Her father ran a construction company out of their house and her mother was the bookkeeper. I’ll admit I don’t know a lot about the home building business in Midland Texas but it doesn’t sound to me like she grew up in a particularly rarefied atmosphere. > [@Lissa](#): > > Agree with her or not, Barbara is a pretty smart woman, and is relatively down-to-earth. Barbara’s a bitch and she’s been a bitch for a long time. Her “America’s Grandma” routine from her White House days made me sick then and she makes me sick now. ---
**Author:** ![hlanelee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3bc359/32.png) [@hlanelee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hlanelee)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737/15 "2006-05-14T21:02:29Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > She has, though, taken Bush lessons from the head bitch of the family, Barbara. I once heard that Barb went to Ashley Hall in Charleston, which is the premire bitch training school in South Carolina. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737/16 "2006-05-14T21:47:40Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Her father ran a construction company out of their house and her mother was the bookkeeper. I’ll admit I don’t know a lot about the home building business in Midland Texas but it doesn’t sound to me like she grew up in a particularly rarefied atmosphere. Not following traffic laws and [killing a boy](http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/laura.asp) will change a woman from humble young lady to bubblator Stepford wife. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737/17 "2006-05-14T23:44:29Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > She was talking about the evacuees living in the [Astrodome.](http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/currentevents/a/katrinaquotes.htm) Man, that is nasty. > [@Barbara Bush](#): > > But why should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many, what day it’s gonna happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it’s, it’s not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that? And watch him suffer. I stand corrected. Not only is she a bitch, she’s a stupid one at that. ---
**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:** [May 15, 2006, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737/18 "2006-05-15T02:44:14Z")
> [@Nawth Chucka](#): > > ‘Smarft’, by the way, being a cross between smart and smurft. Great, now I’m having visions of Laura covered in blue body paint, with a pointy white cap on her head. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737/19 "2006-05-15T05:08:37Z")
Secret mother of Christopher Walken, perhaps. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737/20 "2006-05-15T08:27:06Z")
I think what pisses me off the most about Laura Bush is that she is not stupid, unlike her husband, but she still backs him up. Yes, there is spousal love and loyalty, but you would think at some point she would slap Dubya upside the head and say, “Stop it asshole!” But let’s be honest here…without Googling, think of one thing this First Lady has done, other than read a few books to kindergartners. What a great use of her powers. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-laura-bush-but/356737.md?page=2)