Man, I had forgotten about that one. A friend of mine was in a bad bike accident in front of their place in Maine. She was just about to pull onto their property. The Secret Service were really good about giving him first aid and calling an ambulance. Barbara, however, seeing that the accident blocked the driveway, got out of her car and stepped OVER my friend in the street.
I should have clicked on this before responding. This explains a lot…my guess is that Dubya knows the real story…hence the doting wife.
I’ve never liked her, but reading that she and George had arranged to adopt a boy and, when finding out she was pregnant from fertility treatment, they put the adoption on hold until they knew if the pregnancy would be successful.
Look, you either want the child or you don’t. But to put an adoption in limbo until you find out whether you can have “real” children is just plain cruel. Image how that little boy felt.
Of course, now he might feel he got lucky.
If the accident didn’t scar him for life , an upskirt of Barbara Bush would certainly would!
Shudder
Don’t you mean “Barbara’s”?
I’m sorry I can’t take this back. It’s been flagged. It’s been in the bathroom. /Seinfeld
It’s the same Barbara Bush who played a day of golf after her daughter (Robin, aged 5) died of leukemia. :eek:
From your own cite… “Her comment was not meant as a dismissal of actual deaths or suffering (troops had not yet been engaged at the time of her remark), but of news coverage that amounted to one expert after another making predictions about what they saw as likely to occur.”
Regarding rjung’s assertion, I’d not heard it before but the one assessment I read after googling was from the Washington Post and the picture they paint is about as far from the absurdity rjung’s trying to portray as conceivably possible.
Folks, if you’ve decent people in your respective families, don’t go into politics because those that disagree with you will misconstrue, take out of contect and viciously twist whatever they say to fit their own perverse idea of what their reputation should be.
Crap like this insures I’d not wish a political life on even my worst enemy’s family.
I agree that there are people who will misconstrue anything they can to demonize not only their opponents but the families of their opponents.* However, in the case of Barbara Bush, I suspect that it has much more to do with the many nasty things she actually has done that have set a precedent by which some of her other actions have been misjudged. The “going golfing” story is over the top. (I would actually have no trouble with her having gone golfing as many people deal with immediate grief in different ways. A round of golf, concentrating on a distracting activity is certainly more appropriate than hosting a cocktail party or taking in an amusement park–neither of which activities, thankfully, have been attributed to her.) The “beautiful mind” story is somewhat different than it has been portrayed, but it hardly does her credit to be more concerned that her husband or son are worried about (or ignoring) public opinion when the topic is the death of thousands of people.
On the other hand, several of the other anecdotes posted here are real, as well as others such as her several personal (and utterly gratuitous, and in one case dishonest) attacks on Geraldine Ferraro (who treated then VP GHWB professionally and was treated professionally by him in return). Barbara is simply a nasty person whose frequent attacks on other people have earned her whatever scorn she receives. If occasionally she gets hit with erroneous anecdotes, I believe we should correct them rather than spreading them, but I cannot work up any sympathy for her in that she has invited such stories with her actual behavior.
- Ironically, in this context, that is a good description of Barbara Bush who, among other things, made catty remarks about Mrs. Dukakis during the campaign and even after the election.
This comment seems to me to be a very low blow. You can’t possibly know what sort of grief she suffered when her daughter died. Many, many people react to grief by trying to get on with their daily lives as though nothing had happened. This could have been Mrs Bush’s reaction.
I agree. I think it’s unfair to automatically assign it to heartlessness when it can be some people’s means of coping. (Golf can be kinda Zen.)
When I was fourteen, a friend of mine died of cancer. It was devestating on our small circle of friends. We went to the funeral and then afterwards to a movie theater to watch (of all things) Death Becomes Her. I know that sounds horrible, but after the endless months of watching our friend waste away in screaming agony as her bones were eaten by tumors, we needed to laugh and forget about our grief for just an hour or so.
Three years ago, my aunt comitted suicide, a huge emotional blow to me and my family. I actually felt guilty whenever I’d sit down to watch TV or read-- that I was somehow being disrespectful to her memory by enjoying myself so soon after her death. But then I thought about my aunt’s personality. If she could have, she probably would have smakced me upside the head for not honoring her by enjoying every moment of life.
And if your mother is Barbara Bush? 
I agree that the ‘beautiful mind’ remark, even if it was perhaps phrased stupidly, was misinterpreted. And the golf accusation is goofy. Her Astrodome comment was and is horrible. I’ve got no real opinion on Laura Bush, although I’m repulsed when I hear the ways some people have tried to use the accident against her.
I might be willing to give Barbara Bush a pass on playing golf the day after her daughter died, but that doesn’t explain why
(a) she didn’t tell little George W. that his baby sister was sick when she was being treated for the illness (she simply told him to stop playing with her), or
(b) she didn’t bother to tell George W. or Jeb that their sister had died until after they returned to Texas.
All that puts together a portrait of Barbara Bush as (IMO) one seriously messed-up woman.
As for a cite, I’ll refer you to Bush on the Couch, by Justin A. Frank – just flip through the online excerpt and read page 3 for yourself.
I would tell them that all of their family members are going ot have to decide if they’re going to play politics or not. Either way is fine, but if you can’t take it don’t dish it out.