How can you say that no one suffers more when there are many people coming home from Iraq in flag draped coffins, missing limbs, and emotionally and mentally scarred for life? All the while the President sits in the oval office accepting awards he doesn’t fucking deserve to look at let alone possess and rides around on the ranch like some kind of wannabe cowboy? And Laura does whatever the hell it is she does.
Pretty bad life you have.
Well, none of those 3,300 families have to deal with Barbara as MIL. There is suffering and then there is suffering.
Heh, did you happen to read Lies by Al Franken? He certainly seems to think she isn’t the nicest person in the world.
This is what we will continue to get every time we elect a politician that is as detached from our daily reality as these people.
Laura or Barbara?
I dunno. Seems to me to be an exaggeration that is intended to underscore the sincerity of the speaker, rather than an assertion to be judged on its accuracy. Its a lot like Clinton feeling my pain, even though I know that can’t be literally true, I understand that he is trying to convey an extra degree of sincere empathy.
Oh, sorry, Barbara.
I don’t buy that. There are a lot of disconnected millionaires who can’t tell you what their car costs, let alone what a gallon of milk costs, yet they would be far better presidents than GWB.
This is all about stupid. GWB is the stupidest pres EVER, and Laura married him, so right there you have a pretty good indicator or her intellectual capacity.
Well, it’s just as hard watching people get maimed and killed as it is actually getting maimed and killed.
Maybe harder, since you can turn off the TV. Really, the people getting bombed and shot are just sittin’ there doing nothing. Slackers.
I dunno. I’ve been very disinterested in Laura Bush because she seems… well, boring. It’s not a crime to be boring, and to be forced into a political scene. I’m pretty sure she didn’t foresee this guy being president one day.
I suppose I don’t know if her response is that different than any other First Lady might say, though I think the “more” aspect of her comment makes me go :dubious: . I think what she might be trying to say is that they feel responsible for every death?
If you want a reason to despise Laura, I suggest you check out her dancing here. Despise is pretty strong… more like “feel sorry for.”
(GWB actually looks about as normal as someone wearing a suit at an African dancing ritual would look, and reminds me of Chevy Chase in Paul Simon’s “Call Me Al” video.)
Well, after all, once you’ve been killed its over and done with, its not like sitting on the couch next to George and he gets That Look in his eye and you realize that Dick Cheney has slipped him another of those little blue pills he’s not allowed to take any more. I mean, Lord, that makes four times and its only April…
*This is satire. duh.
Eh, you see one person getting maimed and killed, you’ve seen 'em all getting maimed and killed. Know what I mean? Yeah, sure the expression on the face of someone getting the lower half of his body blown away is completely different than someone who get’s his face blown off, but they all just flop to the ground after a couple of seconds. It’s not one of them runs around screaming, “Skipper! Skipper!” after getting maimed. That would be worth watching. Heck, I could watch that all day long.
To be fair, the “question” was: “You know the American people are suffering, watching…” at which point Mrs. Bush started speaking. It sounds like she only meant refer to the “suffering” of those watching the war, not from being in it. That’s what the interviewer seemed to be talking about.
Yeah, it’s still a monumentally dumb response. A lot of those Americans watching from home have friends or family members on the front lines. A lot of those Americans watching from home have lost friends or family members on the front lines. Ignoring the people actually fighting the war entirely, the list of people who have suffered more from this war than the Bushes is pretty damned lengthy.
True, but even so, I would wager that, say, people who lost close family members in Iraq are suffering more than the Bushes are, even if they are only watching the war on TV rather than taking part in the combat themselves. [In preview: as Miller notes.]
In any case, it is the height of tactless stupidity for a politician to imply that their feelings outrank their constituents’ in any way. I’m sure that what Mrs. Bush meant to say was something on the order of “Nobody is more keenly aware than George and I about what tragic suffering this war is inflicting on the families and friends of our brave servicepeople”, yadda yadda. But what she came across as saying was “This hurts us more than it hurts you”, which sounds arrogant and condescending.
Come to think of it, that whole family really has a case of congenital tin ear concerning the sort of ill-phrased statements that make people dislike them. From George Senior’s inane “Read my hips” quip, to Barbara’s “they were underprivileged anyway” gaffe about Katrina evacuees, to Laura’s blooper in the OP, to—well, to a good chunk of everything that George Junior ever said, the Bushes are just not gifted at creating a good impression verbally. John Kerry had the same kind of verbal-ineptness thing going, as does Hillary Clinton, although they are both superficially more articulate than the George Bushes.