DUBYATALK
By chance, casually listening to the lunchtime BBC news, I caught a few moments of a Stateside press conference given by George W. Bush. The point was made by the reporter that American press conferences are a great deal more demure & respectful than British ones. Where UK journalists will climb over seats to savage a stumbling politician, their American counterparts, it seems, will help him up & dust him down. However, at this conference one frustrated soul (maybe recently returned from a London holiday) did put the pressure on concerning the Coalitionís continuing failure to locate & identify WMD anywhere in Iraq. I donít remember exactly what Bush said in response as he ignored the matter of the question entirely. But what appalled me was the manís total inability even to speak properly. There were yawning silences, long buzz saw ëer-ringí sounds, phrases begun & then abandoned, nervous snickers & a sort of Doppler fade as he twisted & turned his head in front of the merciless microphone.
Now, you guys are used to this & we are told constantly here of Dubyaís almost comedic inarticulacy. But to actually hear the man engaging in full authentic frontier gibberish was to wince & cringe at the lunch table. Christ, I almost felt sorry for him!
As I sit here now I go hot & cold at the thought of this cartoon character suddenly deciding to make some autonomous decision concerning US action in the world. Whatever grave reservations one has about spurious liberals like Colin Powell or Cold War bruisers like Donald Rumsfeld, at least the very fact of there needing to be debate between the men & women who dance attendance on him ensures some measure of pragmatism before fateful decisions are made. But what if one high noon he strapped on his sixguns, stepped out of his office & headed for Main Street on his own..?
Just in case thereís anyone out there who believes George W. Bush to be a Cicero of our times, read this lotÖ
I'm the master of low expectations.
Dubya, aboard Air Force One, Jun. 4, 2003
I show up when they need me to call people to account, to praise, or to say, wait a minute -- you told me in Jordan that you would do this, you haven't done it, why? How come? What is it? It's to keep the thing moving, keep the processes moving. They've got the man on the ground that is going to -- he's just going to -- I used the expression, ride herd. I don't know if anybody understood the meaning. It's a little informal in diplomatic terms. I said, we're going to put a guy on the ground to ride herd on the process. See them all scratching their heads.
Talking about his meeting with Palestinian and Israeli leaders aboard Air Force One, Jun. 4, 2003.
I said you were a man of peace. I want you to know I took immense crap for that.
-- Conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, as reported on Jun. 3, 2003 in the Washington Post and elsewhere.
Israel must make sure there's a continuous territory that the Palestinians can call home.
-- (The White House later noted in their transcript that he meant to say 'contiguous') Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Jun. 3, 2003
I believe that, as I told the Crown Prince, the Almighty God has endowed each individual on the face of the earth with -- that expects each person to be treated with dignity. This is a universal call.
-- Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Jun. 3, 2003
The first part of your question is that -- is whether or not the weapons of mass destruction question.
-- St. Petersburg, Russia, Jun. 1, 2003
I invited the President to come to the United States for a visit in September to visit at Camp David.
-- St. Petersburg, Russia, Jun. 1, 2003
I've got very good relations with President Mubarak and Crown Prince Abdullah, and the King of Jordan, Gulf Coast countries.
-- Dubya gets a little bit confused geographically, confusing the Persian Gulf (Qatar, Bahrian) with the Gulf Coast (Texas, Florida), with reporters, May 29, 2003
Listen, we'll answer two questions a side, alternating. Please address -- so don't -- one of these things where you ask me and ask the Prime Minister, or vice versa. Let's just ask one question to one of us as we rotate back and forth, if you don't mind.
-- Joint press conference with Japanese PM Koizumi, Crawford, Texas, May 23, 2003
On the threat from North Korea's nukyular program, the Prime Minister and I see the problem exactly the same way. We will not tolerate nukyular weapons in North Korea. ...We will not settle for anything less than the complete, verifiable, and irreversible elimination of North Korea's nukyular weapons program...
-- Crawford, Texas, May 23, 2003
I look forward to signing the economic recovery bill soon. The principle of the bill is pretty simple, that we believe the more money people have in their pockets, the more likely it is somebody is going to be able to find work in America. In other words, the more money somebody has, it means somebody is more likely to demand a good or a service, which means somebody will produce a good or a service, which means somebody is likely to find work.
-- Washington, D.C., May 22, 2003
President [Arroyo] and I also reviewed the developments with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front -- MLIF. That group must abandon the path of violence.
-- White House, May 19, 2003
REPORTER: And about the MILF -- your offer of assistance in the MILF problem...
DUBYA: Well, my offer of assistance, it depends upon the MLIF choosing peace as a peaceful reconciliation of issues. If they continue to want to use terror and force, we will be involved to the extent that the President invites us to be involved, within the constitution of the Philippine government.
-- White House, May 19, 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.
-- White House, May 19, 2003
The [military] academies are really important for a lot of reasons. Obviously, what you learn on the football field is even more important since we're still at war.
-- Washington, D.C., May 16, 2003
2:06:30 AM 
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