US Features
YEARENDER: Bush's greatest gaffes: rich legacy of misunderestimation
Dec 18, 2008, 17:39 GMT
Washington - George W Bush leaves office with job approval ratings at historic lows of below 30 per cent, still high compared to his popularity in most other countries.
With unfinished wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, terrorist leader Osama bin Laden still on the loose more than seven years after 9/11, and the US economy in its worst tailspin in decades, critics at home and abroad have often wondered how he could have been elected twice.
On the eve of the November 7, 2000, elections, which he would win after an extended court challenge, Bush explained his first victory at a campaign stop in Arkansas, coining a term: 'They misunderestimated me.'
It would not be the last time that Bush's opponents misunderestimated him, nor would it be his last use of the nonsensical word.
His tendency for verbal trips and other gaffes spawned a cottage industry that must now be contracting with the rest of the economy. US journalist Jacob Weisberg's Bushism book series became an international best-seller.
Often painted as an ignoramus, Bush holds degrees from the two most prestigious universities in the United States: a bachelor's from Yale and a master's in business administration from Harvard.
Education, though, has been a mother lode of irony for Bush. Long before terrorism and Iraq were on his radar screen, raising school standards was a pillar of his first presidential run. Campaigning in early 2000 for the South Carolina Republican primary, he emphasized that society must ask: 'Is (sic) our children learning?'
Congress passed his No Child Left Behind Act during Bush's first six months in office, forcing public schools to measure student performance and show continual improvement. Critics have complained about the burden on schools and the classroom distraction of excessive standardized tests.
Defending his domestic policy legacy, Bush confronted the issue in 2007, after a report of rising national test scores. 'As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens (sic) do learn when standards are high and results are measured,' he said.
Bush has a way of turning old sayings inside out.
In 2002, he attended an event in Tennessee to promote patriotic education, only to get off on a tangent about Saddam Hussein's refusal to cooperate with UN weapons inspections: 'Fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again.'
In 2004, in the midst of his successful re-election bid, Bush was expounding on the merits of some defence legislation.
'Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we,' he said. 'They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.'
He mangled the language with real creativity. In 2006, he declared himself 'the decider,' and later that year told CNBC that he liked using 'the Google' to look at satellite images of his Texas ranch. During his re-election campaign, Bush tried to dispel 'rumours on the internets' about a military draft.
Bush's foreign misadventures were personal as well as policy- based.
At the 2007 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Sydney, Bush called it an 'OPEC summit,' instead of APEC, and later described how Australian Prime Minister John Howard had visited 'Austrian troops.'
At the end of the summit, posing in front of the iconic Sydney Opera House for a group photo, all in matching Outback oilskin jackets, 20 leaders all waved their right hands as asked. Standing on one end, Bush waved his left.
Whatever history's judgement of his legacy, Bush has often displayed a healthy sense of humour. At the 2004 Republican convention, he admitted 'a few flaws.'
'People sometimes have to correct my English,' he said. 'I knew I had a problem when Arnold Schwarzenegger started doing it.'
But naturalized citizens, like the Austrian-born California governor, are ineligible to become president. With Bush leaving office on January 20, who will carry on his verbal legacy?
President-elect Barack Obama is a smooth talker who has carefully avoided putting his foot in his mouth. That job might be filled by Joe Biden, whose only constitutional duty as incoming vice president is to break tie votes in the US Senate.
September's financial meltdown on Wall Street evoked frequent references to the 1929 stock market crash. In an interview in the midst of the burgeoning crisis, Biden gave broadcaster CNBC his own, flamboyantly errant version of history: 'When the stock market crashed, Franklin D Roosevelt got on the television.'
FDR, whose fire-side radio chats soothed the nation during the Great Depression, was only elected president in 1932, and Roosevelt would become the first president on television only in 1939.
For Biden, who has a long history of controversial statements and even plagiarism incidents, it was a good start.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
The door to the loony bin opened up again!
You sound as stupid as SP4. Get a life.
'You sound as stupid as SP4. Get a life.'
It is very unfortunate that Bush ran on a platform of fundamentalist christian values and that he stated that god (jesus) was directing him in the Iraq war, that he represents christian values and faith based initiatives and programs.
But, that being the case, the last eight years has been about proof of what faith in jesus actually does. From mass debt to mass murder of muslims to mass invasion and destruction of a muslim country.
The facts speak volumes about what jesus means to people and about what jesus does to people.
With faith anything is possible.
Fundamentalist christians elected Bush and now they have to take responsibility for their actions and the consequences:
(a) Mass murder of muslims.
(b) Mass destruction of an entire muslim country.
(c) Mass financial irresponsibility.
(d) Mass ruination of millions of people's lives through poverty and unemployment.
To name a few. All because they have faith that something will happen instead of paying attention to what is actually happening and making sure their goals are achieved by reason instead of faith.
and could hear the voice of God telling him what to do.
Well 'God' ,you really screwed up, BIGTIME!
but not a problem ,at least when I die I won't have a million deaths on my conscience.
Satan will skewer Bush over a barbeque and SP4 will turn the handle.
...enjoy.
...it says 'suck my d--k!'
Bush, supposedly an evangelist, initiated an all-up AIDS program, with 15 billion, a disease fundimentalists say is god's punishment for evildoers. Odd, for a man who is, supposedly, one of them. At least HIS preacher does not say 'goddamn America'!
Bush, supposedly a supply-sider and free market guy, has propped up domestic steel, agricultural products and now, General Motors, in what can only be described as a purely Keynesian move. Heck, he's a real Jimmy Carter!
Bush, supposedly a conservative, went on a FDR jihad to tackle totalitarianism the likes of which make JFK and LBJ look like Ronald Reagan. Like FDR, he sequestored who he thought were potential terrorists at the point of the law, for eight years, and refused to capitulate.
For all the blow-ass libnazi press about Bush the neo-con, or the bible thumper, the record stands in stark contrast. The old spectrum is changing fast. Bush is what McKinley was 100 years ago, fundimentally changing the political landscape. No matter what is said, the dems cannot run from the security issue, or supply-side economics, because they need them as bad as the republicans. Robert gates is just one example of the living proof.
THAT is Bush's real legacy.
A Very merry Christmas to the best President the United States has ever had ; George W. Bush, the Texas gnome.
He has seen us through difficult times with expert guidance and judgement. Attacked Iraq and Afghanistan with great success and previously decimated the Sovereign State of Iraq twice under the pretence of them being a nuclear or biological threat to world peace.
All that sacrifice of US lives and 100,000`s of Iraqi and Afghan lives for the sake of OIL. His family maintains an intimate relationship with the Bin Laden`s for financial gain and has ensured his safe refuge in the hills of Pakistan.
He is an absolute genius and America should be proud of him. He will go into the history books as one of America1s finest leaders.
He has left the country with a solid economic base and healthy future, unsurpassed in modern history.
It is with great sadness we have to see him go. He will always be remembered and can never be replaced. A virtual Jesus Christ to America and democracy.
A Happy New year to this fine man and best wishes for a long and healthy life in his retirement to the land of Queers and Steers.
From - both of his dedicated and obedient supporters.
what the Jeezus H. Kee-riste have you beeen smoking?
Howdy pardna,
Din ya gess ? Me an ESS PEE ar tha tu guys dat mayk up lil ole Geeowgis
entiya serpowters klub.
Ah`s smowkin tha same shit as ESS PEE. We git a pikcher uv lil ole Geeowgi stuk rite on tha dawer, an we is so gudda shots dat we kan piss rite in is eye frum ower lil ole rokin chayas.
Ah tel ya man, dis weed ESS PEE smowks mayks dat black bum Obanani luk layk a Gran Wizard uv tha KKK.
The first; was being born!
The article states:
'... Bush holds degrees from the two most prestigious universities in the United States: a bachelor's from Yale and a master's in business administration from Harvard.'
Is that supposed to mean anything? He was the son of the highest ranking spook in the CIA who then became president. These rich bitch, less-than-zero rectums NEVER FAIL! They HAND OUT diplomas to those scumbags. Was little Bush learning? I don't think so, and this article, hell, his whole presidency, is the proof.
They handed him diplomas and then he proved simply rotten in his chosen field, they handed him a quasi deferment by having him 'serve' by flying WWII trainers safely at home during the war (and he couldn't even do THAT right), they handed him the presidency (and he couldn't even do THAT right either. Hell he was even worse!).
I sure hope the National Pinhead doesn't think that the US is a meritocracy, on top of all that. That would be just like him.
He wouldn't be able to pronounce it, anyway...
Spitfire
page: 1
lanceDec 18th, 2008 - 18:17:49
'critics at home and abroad have often wondered how he could have been elected twice.'
That is easy, all these issues can be answered simply:
Jesus provides for all. Everything you ever need to know is in the Bible. That is how education is defined.
Everything else is hypocrisy. Follow thy lord and you shall plunder and rape the world.
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