I recall vividly in 2000 watching a Gore-Bush debate. At least, I think it was Gore. I know Bush was there.
I was actively trying to decide between the two (thought sure seems funny now) and so I decided to watch them as they spoke and as the other spoke. Gore comported himself like a gentleman, with the occasional very faint smirk here and there.
Bush acted like a teenager – rolling his eyes, quietly mimicking his opponent, looking bored, sprawling in his chair.
I was watching this goggle-eyed and disgusted. It didn’t help that Bush’s answers were even more non-answers than Gore’s (which admittedly took some doing).
I think it’s conceivable that, if we never talked about politics, I’d get on well enough with Bush. I’ve known people like him socially.
I have a LOT of friends I’d never like to see as President. :eek:
The reality is, the more they bring up the lack of Edward’s experience, the ore they have to bring up the reality that GW had far LESS experience than Edwards, and he ran for PRESIDENT. This is a lose lose for them.
But the desperation is really starting to show, no? Bush walked out of a press conference yesterday when someone asked him what he thought about Ken Lay, an old pal who Bush’s spokespeople now claim was just a distant acquiantance (the sort, I guess, who supplied Bush with his private jet to fly around in, who send cards and notes to each other on the holidays, who is your biggest contributor, etc.) Heck, if you’re someone’s biggest donor, and the candidate claims to barely even know you, shouldn’t you be a bit worried that you wasted your money?
Yeah what’s the deal there- was Lay really his biggest contributor, or even one of the top ones? I’ve gotta believe they’re more than aquaitances if that’s the case.
With these folks, that kind of money probably buys you your own bedroom at the Crawford Estate.
Now, you just hold up there, podnuh. The Preziks Crawford location is a ranch, not some sissy “estate” like Kerry’s. He’s out there wearing manly work gloves and clearing brush. Last three years, cleared about 11,000 sq. miles of brush, you can’t buy brush in Waco for any price, all been cleared. Those ol’ boys in the Secret Service got to sleep in the bunk house, and eat mud biscuits and rattlesnake stew for breakfast.
I’m not sure how palsie Lay and Bush Jr were-- I think it’s Bush Sr and Lay that are tight. But, in point of fact, it would be highly inaprorpriate for Bush to say anything about a pending court case. If they are close, then he should especially be careful about prejudicing the outcome.
Just think. Cheney actually could be president. It’s bad enough that he’s virtually the president now, but if, Og forbid, something should happen to Bush, he’d really be president. As it is, we’re getting Cheney policies filterd through the Bush fog. Just imagine President Cheney unfiltered. If the two of them are still in the White House come January that possibility becomes ever more real. Brrrrrrr! My goosebumps have goosebumps just thinking about it. :eek:
How many presidents have been all that “qualified” before taking office - commanding militaries, adminstering vast bureucracies, and working closely with international leaders? Eisenhower was the only president in the last 100 years that truly had that level of executive responsability before becoming a presidential candidate…I don’t see how being governor of Arkansas, Georgia or even California, or working in Congress for 6, 8, or even 12 or 20 years really prepares anyone to be a world leader. Herbert Hoover, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and George H. W. Bush certainly had heaps of political and administrative experience, but did that result in successful presidencies?
Most of the time, we can only assess whether a candidate has the potential to take on such a role through their personal conduct and character.
Anecdote time: During the 2000 Presidential Campaign, George W. Bush made a point of attending the first baseball game in Houston – because Ken Lay was throwing out the first pitch at the inaugural game of the newly-christened Enron Field.
