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View Full Version : GW an Idiot? Redux


gossman
08-27-2006, 16:19
Many have stated that they believe President Bush is an idiot. Though I dislike him, didn't vote for him, and do not vote any party lines, I really don't think of him as an idiot. Historically, IMHO, most presidents were more like him than we realize. In the past 50 years, the constant barrage of media and now easy access to video has created " idiots" all around. Presidents Reagan and Clinton were masters of the sound bite, and knew how to play to the visual. Neither Bush1 or Bush2 are known for their ability to be witty and verbal. So perhaps he is a liar or savior (depends on how you view things) but an idiot, not really. Just a politician who isn't a "golden tongued speaker". He most likely is better educated and has a higher IQ than the general american white male. That doesn't mean that I view him as presidential material, but I don't underestimate his intelligence either. Peace.

freesw
08-27-2006, 16:30
You're right. I haven't said that W is "an idiot," but I do believe some of his behavior while speaking has been not only unpresidential, but outright bizarre, and not only should be, but is cause for concern among even some of Bush's supporters. I do not believe it is wrong to point this out, either, as he represents us globally and makes daily and even hourly decisions which impact upon us all. In fact, I believe that whether or not he has actually committed crimes worthy of impeachment, if he is as intelligent and capable as you say he is, he would have had the presence of mind in 2004 to realize he was in way over his head, and not run for a second term. Someone like McCain could have stepped in, and things would be going far better now.

Boogyman
08-27-2006, 17:05
No problem, Gossman. You have a good point, and I respect your opinion.

Personally, my opinion is he's an idiot. :lol:

Bush waves at Stevie Wonder it takes him a while to figure out why Stevie does not wave back.

Here's some Bush Quotes...

"See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction."—George W. Bush, Oct. 3, 2003

"First, let me make it very clear, poor people aren't necessarily killers. Just because you happen to be not rich doesn't mean you're willing to kill."—George W. Bush, May 19, 2003

"Is Our Children Learning"

"They misunderestimated me."

"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."

"We need an energy bill that encourages consumption."

"I have learned from mistakes I may or may not have made."

"Nothing can be further than the truth'

"I think the American people—I hope the American—I don't think, let me—I hope the American people trust me."

"In other words, I don't think people ought to be compelled to make the decision which they think is best for their family."

"I suspect that had my dad not been president, he'd be asking the same questions: How'd your meeting go with so-and-so? … How did you feel when you stood up in front of the people for the State of the Union Address—state of the budget address, whatever you call it."

"Education is not my top priority"

"But the true threats to stability and peace are these nations that are not very transparent, that hide behind the—that don't let people in to take a look and see what they're up to. They're very kind of authoritarian regimes. The true threat is whether or not one of these people decide, peak of anger, try to hold us hostage, ourselves; the Israelis, for example, to whom we'll defend, offer our defenses; the South Koreans."

Bush said he wanted his administration to be remembered for making America ``a more literate country and a hopefuller country.'

"I think there is some methodology in my travels."

"They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program."

"I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for predecessors as well."

"It's your money. You paid for it."

"Drug therapies are replacing a lot of medicines as we used to know it."

"I'm also honored to be here with the speaker of the House—just happens to be from the state of Illinois. I'd like to describe the speaker as a trustworthy man. He's the kind of fellow who says when he gives you his word he means it. Sometimes that doesn't happen all the time in the political process."

"I understand small business growth. I was one."

"Natural gas is hemispheric. I like to call it hemispheric in nature because it is a product that we can find in our neighborhoods."

"I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family."

"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country."

"The senator has got to understand if he's going to have-he can't have it both ways. He can't take the high horse and then claim the low road."

"I think we agree, the past is over."

"There's no such thing as legacies. At least, there is a legacy, but I'll never see it."

"The most important job is not to be governor, or first lady in my case."

"This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses."

"If I'm the president, we're going to have emergency-room care, we're going to have gag orders."

"The legislature's job is to write law. It's the executive branch's job to interpret law."

"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream."

"I think we ought to raise the age at which juveniles can have a gun."

"I am mindful of the difference between the executive branch and the legislative branch. I assured all four of these leaders that I know the difference, and that difference is they pass the laws and I execute them."

"We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or hold our allies hostile.''

"I want you to know that farmers are not going to be secondary thoughts to a Bush administration. They will be in the forethought of our thinking."

"People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history."

"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future."

"Redefining the role of the United States from enablers to keep the peace to enablers to keep the peace from peacekeepers is going to be an assignment."

"I mean, there needs to be a wholesale effort against racial profiling, which is illiterate children."

"I don't think we need to be subliminable about the differences between our views on prescription drugs."

"I'm hopeful. I know there is a lot of ambition in Washington, obviously. But I hope the ambitious realize that they are more likely to succeed with success as opposed to failure."

'"You teach a child to read and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test."

http://dumbpresident.com/

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushdumbquotes.htm

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm

freesw
08-27-2006, 21:40
It's not as if Bush voters didn't know who they were voting for:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTwV99YIKBI&NR

Note: that was before the primaries, back when someone like John McCain was still an option. What were those that voted for Bush in the 2000 primaries thinking? Do you think you can do better next time?

gossman
08-27-2006, 22:49
I agree, he is a lousy speaker when left on his own. Not everyone has the ability to be a public speaker ( like I said, we were spoiled with Reagan and Clinton) but he doesn't care or his handlers don't tell him, kinda like Michael Jackson's groupies telling him his skin color is natural. But the guy has done some things e.g. Masters Degree and Jet Pilot that even if you have a silver spoon buried in your arse you can't buy. He is no Rhodes scholar (Clinton was and look at his stupid choices) but again, I feel that he isn't as stupid as we think. Perhaps he allows it to be so that some of the crap he gets slids off?

freesw
08-27-2006, 23:25
Gossman, I'm having difficulty understanding your main point in that second post. Having a Master's Degree and having flown jets isn't enough to qualify someone to be governor of a state, much less president of the US. Have you ever asked yourself why, of all the politicians in the Republican Party, they went and nominated W? If you think about that, it should make you start to wonder about what was really behind it. Sometimes the most obvious explanation for something is the most likely, and in this case I believe it is that certain interests, among them the neocons (political) and energy/oil (business) needed someone they could present to the public that would come across as harmless ("I'm a uniter not a divider"), a social conservative without overtly fundamentalist baggage, a pedigree, and last but by no means least, that would be pliable. I think this is where Cheney came in, the real lever of power behind the throne. I think most of what they need to do Bush lets them do, if not, they do it behind his back, and if need be, they've got so much dirt on him that he'll never stick his neck out if a principle of his contradicts something they want done. He's free to veto embryonic stem cell research, but I wonder whether he's truly free to sack Rumsfeld.

You know why I wonder about this? It's because so much was known, and publicized, about W in the months leading up to the primaries, and yet he still got the nomination. It defies reason, yet there must be a good reason for it, as these things never happen by accident.

What we already knew by 2000:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsj3d3g6yBg&NR
And what we continue to get:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m211YBCe1iM&mode=related&search=

Was this the best the GOP could do, and if not, why was he selected anyway? That question ought to trouble all Americans today, and lead us to demand better of our political parties in the future. Both parties have a lot to learn from the lessons of Clinton and Bush II, especially Bush II. Do not nominate someone for president that isn't qualified to be president! If your party presents someone like that to you in a primary, get out and vote - for someone that is qualified!

Hoodoo
08-28-2006, 05:56
I don't view GW as exctly an idiot even though many of his decisions might indicate that. He is no worse than the loser he suceeded or many of his other predecessors. Certainly he is no worse than either of his opponents would likely have been, but, there is room for Worlds of improvement. His public speaking ability is atrocious though I am of the opinion that the message is far more important than the manner in which it is delivered.

GW has been the object of the worst criticism ever levied against a public figure in the U.S. Some of it was and is totally justified. Some of it was and is so childish, idiotic and asinine that it reflects more on the low intellectual capacity of it's proponents than it does of Bush.

FAct is that neither Party is nominating candidates who are exactly Rocket Scientists of late and the lineup for the upcoming election doesn't bode well for any improvement. We have to do better if the Nation is to survive. Unless viable third Parties can develop and provide competition, significant improvement is unlikely. The existing Parties have successfully gamed the election process.

deguello
08-28-2006, 18:55
No problem, Gossman. You have a good point, and I respect your opinion.

Personally, my opinion is he's an idiot. :lol:

Bush waves at Stevie Wonder it takes him a while to figure out why Stevie does not wave back.

Here's some Bush Quotes...

"See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction."—George W. Bush, Oct. 3, 2003

"First, let me make it very clear, poor people aren't necessarily killers. Just because you happen to be not rich doesn't mean you're willing to kill."—George W. Bush, May 19, 2003

"Is Our Children Learning"

"They misunderestimated me."

"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."

"We need an energy bill that encourages consumption."

"I have learned from mistakes I may or may not have made."

"Nothing can be further than the truth'

"I think the American people—I hope the American—I don't think, let me—I hope the American people trust me."

"In other words, I don't think people ought to be compelled to make the decision which they think is best for their family."

"I suspect that had my dad not been president, he'd be asking the same questions: How'd your meeting go with so-and-so? … How did you feel when you stood up in front of the people for the State of the Union Address—state of the budget address, whatever you call it."

"Education is not my top priority"

"But the true threats to stability and peace are these nations that are not very transparent, that hide behind the—that don't let people in to take a look and see what they're up to. They're very kind of authoritarian regimes. The true threat is whether or not one of these people decide, peak of anger, try to hold us hostage, ourselves; the Israelis, for example, to whom we'll defend, offer our defenses; the South Koreans."

Bush said he wanted his administration to be remembered for making America ``a more literate country and a hopefuller country.'

"I think there is some methodology in my travels."

"They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program."

"I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for predecessors as well."

"It's your money. You paid for it."

"Drug therapies are replacing a lot of medicines as we used to know it."

"I'm also honored to be here with the speaker of the House—just happens to be from the state of Illinois. I'd like to describe the speaker as a trustworthy man. He's the kind of fellow who says when he gives you his word he means it. Sometimes that doesn't happen all the time in the political process."

"I understand small business growth. I was one."

"Natural gas is hemispheric. I like to call it hemispheric in nature because it is a product that we can find in our neighborhoods."

"I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family."

"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country."

"The senator has got to understand if he's going to have-he can't have it both ways. He can't take the high horse and then claim the low road."

"I think we agree, the past is over."

"There's no such thing as legacies. At least, there is a legacy, but I'll never see it."

"The most important job is not to be governor, or first lady in my case."

"This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses."

"If I'm the president, we're going to have emergency-room care, we're going to have gag orders."

"The legislature's job is to write law. It's the executive branch's job to interpret law."

"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream."

"I think we ought to raise the age at which juveniles can have a gun."

"I am mindful of the difference between the executive branch and the legislative branch. I assured all four of these leaders that I know the difference, and that difference is they pass the laws and I execute them."

"We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or hold our allies hostile.''

"I want you to know that farmers are not going to be secondary thoughts to a Bush administration. They will be in the forethought of our thinking."

"People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history."

"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future."

"Redefining the role of the United States from enablers to keep the peace to enablers to keep the peace from peacekeepers is going to be an assignment."

"I mean, there needs to be a wholesale effort against racial profiling, which is illiterate children."

"I don't think we need to be subliminable about the differences between our views on prescription drugs."

"I'm hopeful. I know there is a lot of ambition in Washington, obviously. But I hope the ambitious realize that they are more likely to succeed with success as opposed to failure."

'"You teach a child to read and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test."

http://dumbpresident.com/

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushdumbquotes.htm

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm
sOME IDIOT! HE'SRUN RINGS AROUND THE LIB. ESTABISHMENT, DEFEATING BOTH KERRY AND GORE. aS A MEMBERSAID ELOQUENCE IS NOT NECESSARILY A MARK OF INTELLIGENCE.bUSH IS, LIKE THE BIPARTISAN ESTABLISHMENT HE REPRESENTS, A HIGHLY CORRUPT, AND A WORTHY SUCCESSOR TO CLINTON.MORE ON THAT IN A FUTURE POST. DEGUELLO

Boogyman
08-28-2006, 19:30
sOME IDIOT! HE'SRUN RINGS AROUND THE LIB. ESTABISHMENT, DEFEATING BOTH KERRY AND GORE. aS A MEMBERSAID ELOQUENCE IS NOT NECESSARILY A MARK OF INTELLIGENCE.bUSH IS, LIKE THE BIPARTISAN ESTABLISHMENT HE REPRESENTS, A HIGHLY CORRUPT, AND A WORTHY SUCCESSOR TO CLINTON.MORE ON THAT IN A FUTURE POST. DEGUELLO

Ai! El pequeno cachorro es loco! :wacko: :wacko: :wacko:

jwp
08-28-2006, 22:59
at least he hasn't been asked to define what is is like bubba before him

Boogyman
08-28-2006, 23:09
at least he hasn't been asked to define what is is like bubba before him
At least it only cost the taxpayers $26 million for the Republicans to ask him what the meaning of "is" is. And nobody died.

How much has Iraq cost? (money, lives, wounded, etc.)

See "Today News from Iraq" thread...

Bill
08-29-2006, 08:26
sOME IDIOT! HE'SRUN RINGS AROUND THE LIB. ESTABISHMENT, DEFEATING BOTH KERRY AND GORE. aS A MEMBERSAID ELOQUENCE IS NOT NECESSARILY A MARK OF INTELLIGENCE.bUSH IS, LIKE THE BIPARTISAN ESTABLISHMENT HE REPRESENTS, A HIGHLY CORRUPT, AND A WORTHY SUCCESSOR TO CLINTON.MORE ON THAT IN A FUTURE POST. DEGUELLO

Dequello-

Start using your shift key properly. It looks like you are screaming at us. This is one of your more thoughtful remarks, it would go down a little better if it was formatted not to look like YOU ARE YELLING AND FROTHING AT THE MOUTH.

freesw
08-29-2006, 11:06
sOME IDIOT! HE'SRUN RINGS AROUND THE LIB. ESTABISHMENT, DEFEATING BOTH KERRY AND GORE. aS A MEMBERSAID ELOQUENCE IS NOT NECESSARILY A MARK OF INTELLIGENCE.bUSH IS, LIKE THE BIPARTISAN ESTABLISHMENT HE REPRESENTS, A HIGHLY CORRUPT, AND A WORTHY SUCCESSOR TO CLINTON.

Can it really be said, however, that Bush is the architect of all this? Of course not; as despicable as his methods are, credit for what the Bush machine has achieved politically must be given, not to Bush, but to Karl Rove. Rove could get a monkey elected, and that wouldn't mean the monky is smart, just reasonably well-trained.

freesw
08-29-2006, 16:03
at least he hasn't been asked to define what is is like bubba before him

Just little stuff, like this:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1115/p01s04-uspo.html
Yellowcake to 'Plamegate'
How mishandled intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war led to an indictment in the White House.

WASHINGTON – The first time the State Department intelligence analyst saw the documents he thought there was something weird about them.

The ones dealing with a purported uranium deal between Niger and Saddam Hussein's Iraq bore a validation stamp that seemed a bit funky, for one thing. And that companion paper! It outlined some kind of bizarre military campaign against world powers. Iraq and Iran were supposedly in it together - preposterous, given their enmity - and the whole thing was being run out of the Nigerien Embassy in Rome.

"Completely implausible," the analyst later recounted for investigators.

Because the documents had come from the same source, and were similar in appearance, they were probably all suspect. Maybe now the CIA and the rest of the US intelligence community would believe what the State Department had said for months: These allegations from a foreign intelligence service that Hussein was hunting for "yellowcake" - a uranium concentrate - in Africa were unlikely to be true.

But the CIA didn't look at the documents. A little over three months later President Bush, in his 2003 State of the Union speech, said 16 fateful words: "... the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

This is the story of how those words came to be, and how their effect rippled through the years, ultimately resulting in the criminal indictment of a high administration official, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
...

---------
By the way, Bob Novak said on Meet the Press Sunday that it is way past time for his source to reveal himself. Plamegate is returning to the headlines, as well it should.

deguello
08-30-2006, 13:22
Can it really be said, however, that Bush is the architect of all this? Of course not; as despicable as his methods are, credit for what the Bush machine has achieved politically must be given, not to Bush, but to Karl Rove. Rove could get a monkey elected, and that wouldn't mean the monky is smart, just reasonably well-trained.
Unlike the Dems, who were not able to train the heavy jawed ,slow witted baboon named John Kerry,to avoid patroning voters to the point of nausea by saying things like"I wanna get me a huntinh license". Deguello

freesw
08-30-2006, 13:32
at least he hasn't been asked to define what is is like bubba before him

"Bubba" never had to fall back on the phrase "has learned" as an excuse for making misleading statements in a State of the Union address, statements whose sole purpose was to frighten the public into backing a rush to war.

Were it not for Bush's inclusion of "Britain has learned," that statement would have been flat out false. Technically, it was false, because Britain had "learned" no such thing.

Christopher Hitchens' desperate opinion piece notwithstanding.

freesw
08-30-2006, 13:33
Unlike the Dems, who were not able to train the heavy jawed ,slow witted baboon named John Kerry,to avoid patroning voters to the point of nausea by saying things like"I wanna get me a huntinh license". Deguello

Can't argue with the point behind that, though the gratiutious insults have become trollish by now.

josh
08-30-2006, 15:22
It's not as if Bush voters didn't know who they were voting for:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTwV99YIKBI&NR

Note: that was before the primaries, back when someone like John McCain was still an option. What were those that voted for Bush in the 2000 primaries thinking? Do you think you can do better next time?

Unfortunately McCAin was as big if not bigger threat to freedom than Kerry.
Do not condemn everyone who voted for W. he claimed he was conservative. Many of us voted for him because we were scared as hell to of the other options.

Now we know we would have been better off using the ballot as toilet paper.

gossman
09-02-2006, 08:46
I have been away for a few days and I want to clear up some of what I meant in this thread. GW is not an idiot in my book. I am not a fan, nor do I think he is an aduquate president. His biggest problem is that he most likely is slightly above intellegence compared to the average person. Reagan was very smart and very verbal. Bill Clinton was certainly no dummy, he was in fact a Rhodes Scholar. With the advent of 24 hour media, unless a politicain is media savvy, generaly good looking, and has great bearing, they could look like an idiot, especially with the technology that is available for editing. As far as the choices we are being given by the major parties, they do not want anything but a puppet to be in the White House. Two sides of a single coin is all we are offered. Our political system has been hijacked, the two parties are IMHO at the top the same, most likely the same people run them both. How else can you explain the manipulation and the pathetic offerings that are given to us every election cycle? And I feel that the major news organizations are in on the treason. If you see anyone who is allowed to be on the major party ticket, is is reasonable to feel that they sold their soul to be there. And the concept of a wasted vote for a third party candidate is also a lie perpitrated by the "controllers". The major parties have a fear that perhaps someday the sheeple of the US will come out of their comatose and decide to vote for who they want, not who is presented. I vote my conscience, I vote for who I want regardless of what ticket or if they have a chance. I am no longer willing to accept the idea of voting for the "lesser evil". Now I am stepping down from my soap box, I go some salmon to try and catch.:D