George Bush Is The Comedic Gift That Keeps On Giving

Published November 4, 2006 in George W. Bush.

When will he “apologize” to the troops?

36 Responses to “George Bush Is The Comedic Gift That Keeps On Giving”

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1 Rounds77
Nov 4th, 2006 at 1:25 pm

Let’s face it, he’s not a gifted speaker. We should never again elect anyone to the highest political office in the world unless that person can speak eloquently and intelligently.
2 S
Nov 4th, 2006 at 1:36 pm

Unless he/she can speak a complete sentence — not punctuated with multiple pauses, “uh”s or an earpiece — that includes BOTH a noun and verb.

LoL!
3 JWG
Nov 4th, 2006 at 2:00 pm

Hmmm…he must be smarter than Kerry considering he realized his mistake immediately and corrected it.

Of course, by posting an SPI editorial on their website, now even JohnKerry.com admits what several commenters here at OW repeatedly claimed that Kerry does NOT believe:

Was Kerry making fun of the president, or warning students against the pitfalls awaiting the undereducated in general?

It doesn’t matter. Kerry was right either way.
4 Jay Tea
Nov 4th, 2006 at 2:04 pm

Shorter version of JWG’s comment:

“I actually was insulting the troops, before I wasn’t.”
5 S
Nov 4th, 2006 at 2:27 pm

Shorter Jay Tea:

“No, I never served my country” ~The Decider
6 frameone
Nov 4th, 2006 at 2:50 pm

JWG are you now repudiating your agreement with me earlier that the military does serve an important social function by providing career, educational and self-improvement opportunities to those who might not otherwise be able to avail themselves of such opportunities? Or are you just an idiot hack like Jay Tea?
7 nihilistic_disintegration
Nov 4th, 2006 at 3:00 pm

Longer Jay Tea:

“I’m an idiot coward who bans people from my blog for having an opposing view, so what the fuck does my opinion matter, anyway?”
8 nihilistic_disintegration
Nov 4th, 2006 at 3:03 pm

Bush shouldn’t apologize to our troops for not being a gifted speaker. He should apologize to our troops for sending them to Iraq to die for nothing.
9 Nimrod Gently
Nov 4th, 2006 at 3:04 pm

Oh God, this thead’s going to go to 200 posts about the same damn thing, with JWG at the centre. Masturbating.
10 Jay Tea
Nov 4th, 2006 at 3:10 pm

Well, by that standard, Ted Kennedy is excluded, too. Ever heard him speak extemporaneously? “Uhs” galore, and his endorsement of Senator “Osama Bin La… Osama Obama… Obama” are legendary.

But what’s to apologize for? He corrected himself immediately. It happens to everyone. (Some, like Bush, more than others.)

Kerry let his flacks spin and twist things for a couple of days before he corrected himself — and then made a weaseling “I’m sorry you misinterpreted what I said,” not “I’m sorry I misspoke.”

J.
11 Jay Tea
Nov 4th, 2006 at 3:13 pm

ND, I’ve banned sock puppets, plagiarists, slanderers, and others who have offended the general rules of courtesy. If I banned people for disagreeing with me, I’d have gotten rid of Lee, jp2, astigafa, Hugh, and several others by now. I DON’T DO THAT.

If you were banned, then it was most likely for a very solid reason. If you’d like that ban lifted, I can look into it and possibly rescind it.

But if you were spouting vulgarities and crude insults, using multiple identities, cutting and pasting entire copyrighted work without attribution, or doing other things of that ilk, then you have absolutely no grounds for complaint.

J.
12 factcheck
Nov 4th, 2006 at 3:21 pm

Hey JT, I bought the NY Times just to read the latest Seymour Hersh column, only to find out he doesn’t work for them, he works for the New Yorker. Who would have thought it, huh?
13 S
Nov 4th, 2006 at 3:26 pm

Jay Tea | Nov 4, 2006 3:10:14 PM
“Kerry let his flacks spin and twist things for a couple of days before he corrected himself …”
The Decider requires months or years to admit mistakes.

“It happens to everyone.”
The Decider isn’t “everyone”. He is the President of the United States of America and the Commander in Chief. He is expected to be able to speak in complete sentences and convey coherent thoughts.
14 doug r
Nov 4th, 2006 at 8:31 pm

How can he slag Kerry flubbing a joke with a record like his?
Those Oby-Gyns and their love!
15 JWG
Nov 4th, 2006 at 10:48 pm

JWG are you now repudiating your agreement with me earlier

Nope. I’m repudiating the way in which Kerry’s comment was worded and accepted by the SPI and JohnKerry.com:

…you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.

This is different than what you said, since joining the military to improve yourself should be considered smart by anyone who respects our soldiers.

I won’t be adding anymore to this topic since I already hit my main points:
1) Bush caught his mistake and corrected it,
2) JohnKerry.com supports my argument from the previous Kerry thread that his original statement does accurately reflect his thinking.

Also, the fact that Nimrod thinks about me masturbating kinda creeps me out.
16 nihilistic_disintegration
Nov 4th, 2006 at 11:01 pm

Jay Tea:

But if you were…

Check my posts on your blog and see if I was doing any of that.

I figured you guys just couldn’t take my razor wit and pointed rejoinders.

Kerry … made a weaseling “I’m sorry you misinterpreted what I said,” not “I’m sorry I misspoke.”

And when was the last time Bush apologized for mis-speaking? I think it was when he told the insurgents to “bring ‘em on.”

Has he apologized yet for joking about not finding WMDs?

How about when he said they still require warrants to do wiretaps. Has he apologized for that?

How about when he said “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” Has he apologized for that?
17 frameone
Nov 5th, 2006 at 12:51 am

JWG, you’re an idiot.

The editorial does not suggest that you have to be dumb to join the military. Here’s the sentence after the one you quoted: “Kerry wasn’t saying — regardless of the Republican spin — that our troops are stupid.”

Kind of dishonest of you to suggest that the editorial was supporting this reading of Kerry’s words because it wasn’t it. The editorial was, however, suggesting, just as I did that

“military service has long been an opportunity employer for those with less education and fewer skills than they need to work in the private sector. Indeed, the military sells itself as a place to garner skills and to help pay for higher education.”

Now you’re on record as agreeing with that assesment of the military. It’s my understanding of the military as a social institution. It’s also the point of view that Kerry agrees with as his website linked to the article. This point of view, as the editorial makes clear, does not mean that everyone in the military are dumb.

But let me ask you a question, JWG. Is it your contention that everyone in the military has an advanced degree or is even planning to get one? QAre you suggesting that there are no D- average high school graduates in the military?

Did you meet anyone in the military who was lucky to be there because they’d get eaten alive in a marketplace that demanded specialized skills and education?

The righ wing loves to festishize the military because it serves their
opportunistic agenda. It’s how they use the military to politically pummel guys like Kerry — even though HE SERVED.

The right’s response to Kerry’s misstatement made it sound as if EVERYONE in the military was a fucking genius who had a choice between a lucrative job on Wall Street (or a six figure NFL career) and serving their country.

My understanding is that the military draws volunteers from all walks of life with all kinds of backgrounds. Like any institution, I’m sure it has its share of people who are there because they had nowhere else to go.

But the right doesn’t really care about the military as it really is. They have to construct a fantasy of the military that they can wield as a political weapon.

Accordingly, JWG attacks an editorial for merely suggesting that some people might join the military because they needed a fucking job.
18 buma
Nov 5th, 2006 at 7:38 am

bush may have problems with his delivery. But apparently his wingnut base has some cognitive difficulty. Witness the current moron-a-thon in the echo chamber, all because one NRO dimwit was unable to follow what was written in a NYT article about the release of Iraqi weapons documents. Jim Geraghty completely misinterpreted that a 2002 report about the development of the Iraqi nuclear program in 1991 was a report of status of the program in 2002. The mistake has spread through the bowels of wingnuttia and will probably be repeated again on Limbaugh’s show.
19 JWG
Nov 5th, 2006 at 8:22 am

Kind of dishonest of you to suggest that the editorial was supporting this reading of Kerry’s words because it wasn’t it.

Hmmm…lets change the target of the punchline then, and we can all agree that the wording is not insulting:

…you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck being a liberal.

or

…you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck working for John Kerry.

Now, if a prominent Republican uttered either of these botched jokes, I’m sure no offense would be taken.
20 Nimrod Gently
Nov 5th, 2006 at 8:57 am

Still ignoring people’s points altogether, JWG? How do you think that’s working out for you there?
21 JWG
Nov 5th, 2006 at 11:49 am

Still ignoring people’s points altogether, JWG?

Still having problems getting past your second grade reading level?

Frameone quoted “Kerry wasn’t saying — regardless of the Republican spin — that our troops are stupid.”

So I said that’s great. Then we all agree that by changing the target of the quote that I wasn’t calling liberals or those who work at JohnKerry.com stupid, because it’s obvious that the wording of the quote doesn’t say that at all.

I realize that you might not comprehend how that works, but I pointed it out for the benefit of the others who can made an effort to be smart.
22 S
Nov 5th, 2006 at 12:02 pm

Still beating a dead horse issue not nearly as important as kidnapped soldiers, thousands of dead Americans & Iraqis and an invasion going badly wrong, JWG?
23 frameone
Nov 5th, 2006 at 1:10 pm

“So I said that’s great.”

A piece of advice: shut the fuck and stop embarassing yourself.

You know full well that Kerry said he didn’t mean to say what he said. That he mangled a joke and that he has since apologized if anyone took offense by assuming he meant what he said. He didn’t mean what he said. So your comparison is full of shit.

You also overlooked, as is “typical” of right wing idiots the larger more important point I made which is that the editorial, Kerry and myself agree that the military serves a function to give career, education and self-improvement opportunities to many people who otherwise wouldn’t have them.

You can spin and dodge all you want but you agreed with that assessment earlier and now, once again, you’re just playing petty, hack games. You’re an idiot. A total idiot.
24 JWG
Nov 5th, 2006 at 6:18 pm

he has since apologized if anyone took offense by assuming he meant what he said.

Is this a lie on your part or are you just unaware of what he said when he apologized? He said, “I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted…”

Misinterpreting is nothing like “assuming he meant what he said.”

He didn’t mean what he said.

Christ Almighty. The editorial JohnKerry.com was so proud to advertise said that if Kerry was really “warning students against the pitfalls awaiting the undereducated in general” then Kerry “was right”.

Who are the “undereducated” they are referring to? Kerry was talking to college students, but over 75% of Americans do not have college degrees, so the SPI editorial can’t be talking about them. If you’re going to argue that having a high school degree is “undereducated,” or that a significant number of troops did poorly in high school, then you don’t know what you’re talking about.

While we agree that the military is a place where some youth go to improve themselves and their future opportunities, I certainly don’t agree with the way Kerry said it. Evidently, JohnKerry.com thinks it wasn’t worded poorly. We are just misinterpreting what he said.

So when you say, “He didn’t mean what he said,” then the editorial and JohnKerry.com are the ones spinning the quote if what he said “was right.”

At least you and I agree that joining the military is not the opposite of smart, and we agree that the words Kerry used mean something different than what he says he intended, even if Kerry thinks differently.

Still beating a dead horse issue not nearly as important as…

Hey genius…what is this thread about? I didn’t see anything in Oliver’s comment concerning Bush’s flub that mentioned your list of things we must focus on. I guess you should be chastising Oliver for bringing up the fact that Bush mangles his speech instead of discussing your list.
25 S
Nov 5th, 2006 at 6:36 pm

JWG | Nov 5, 2006 6:18:59 PM
“I certainly don’t agree with the way Kerry said it.”

Do you bore your friends and family the same way you bore the shit out of us?
26 Nimrod Gently
Nov 5th, 2006 at 6:50 pm

I imagine they’re the same make of robot as he is.
27 frameone
Nov 5th, 2006 at 7:01 pm

Okay. I guess you do like embarassing yourself. Have at it.
28 JWG
Nov 5th, 2006 at 8:19 pm

he has since apologized if anyone took offense by assuming he meant what he said.

So you were lying, then. I am certainly embarrassed that I’m able to read while there are people like you who must suffer with reading deficiencies. Our schools should do better.
29 S
Nov 5th, 2006 at 8:52 pm

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz
30 frameone
Nov 5th, 2006 at 11:52 pm

I’m sorry JWG but I don’t see the distinction you see. Is it because he said “regret” instead of “sorry” or is it the misinterpreted thing? If people think he meant what he said, then there are misinterpreting his intentions. He didn’t mean it.

Or is it because you’re brain dead? Oh ya. Brain dead.
31 JWG
Nov 6th, 2006 at 6:17 am

or is it the misinterpreted thing? If people think he meant what he said, then there are misinterpreting his intentions.

That reading problem is really cropping up, isn’t it?

He said “my words were misinterpreted” (not his intentions).

But hey, like I said:
…you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck being a liberal.

I hope “my words” aren’t “misinterpreted” since the statement is correct. After all, the “undereducated” undeniably look to the Democrats to support and protect their economic rights, or at least that’s what JohnKerry.com always tells me.
32 frameone
Nov 6th, 2006 at 10:31 am

Oh please.

It’s clear that Kerry didn’t mean what he said, he’s apologized for any offense given and yet you keep going on and on as if he meant to say what he said.

I’ll just let it go that you have failed to respond to my larger point about the military’s function as a social/economic institution. You agreed with it before you didn’t.

You’re just being an idiot because that’s what you do best. Good luck with that.
33 JWG
Nov 6th, 2006 at 12:02 pm

you have failed to respond to my larger point…You agreed with it before you didn’t.

Reading. Try it.

I never disagreed with your point. You are the one who changed the apology into something he didn’t say. You are the one ignoring his website’s acceptance of his original statement as an appropriate way to say what we agree with.

If newspaper editorials and JohnKerry.com think that by saying “…you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck being a liberal” is a “right” way to say that the “undereducated” look to the Democrats to support and protect their economic rights, then they can sing it from the rooftops.

You’re just being an idiot because that’s what you do best.

You’re just uneducated because your schools failed you.
34 frameone
Nov 6th, 2006 at 12:25 pm

“I never disagreed with your point.”

But JWG, my point is the same point as that made by the editorial Kerry linked to. You known, the editorial that you’re now mocking. You are obvsiously omitting the key line from the editorial: “Kerry wasn’t saying — regardless of the Republican spin — that our troops are stupid.”

And you are insisting that Kerry actually meant what he said when in his first response and his subsequent apology he made it clear that he misspkoe.

You have, in short, been utterly dishonest at every step of the way in this discussion. But then again, that’s typical of you.
35 JWG
Nov 6th, 2006 at 1:26 pm

But JWG, my point is the same point as that made by the editorial Kerry linked to.

Yes, and my point that the “undereducated” look to the Democrats to support and protect their economic rights is no different than saying “…you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck being a liberal” according to that editorial.

I’m glad you’re not misinterpreting that statement as anything other than what it means.
36 frameone
Nov 6th, 2006 at 4:32 pm

You’re an idiot.