Bush lets out his inner asshole

[Watser?]

Bush has decided he doesn't care anymore and lets his inner asshole show at press conferences:

On Wednesday, President Bush appeared at the dedication of the renovated press briefing room at White House. As the reporters strained to get a few questions through his flow of jovial one-liners, Bush said, "Let's do this. Let me cut the ribbon ... and then why don't you all yell simultaneously. Like, really loudly. And that way, you might get noticed. I'll, like, listen, internalize, play like I'm gonna answer the question, and then smile at you and just say 'got it. Thanks. Thanks for such a solid, sound question.'"

Bush then cut the ribbon, waved, and immediately left.

link

And this:
Bush's sarcastic response sends a girl into tears

[Shelli]

What a piece of work.

[Sock Puppet]

Love the accompanying pic. I don't think we've had a more photogenic President since Jerry Ford was mercilessly abusing airplane doorways with his head.

Since the idea of a presidential library for this knuckle-dragger is ludicrous, maybe we should come up with something more appropriate to commemorate his stay in the Oval Office.

A public toilet in the DC subway, for example.

[godfry n. glad]

Originally Posted by Sock Puppet

Love the accompanying pic. I don't think we've had a more photogenic President since Jerry Ford was mercilessly abusing airplane doorways with his head.

There you go again...At least Jerry was smarter.

[Sock Puppet]

So's my pea-brained cockatiel.

[godfry n. glad]

I have no doubt. But can it make monkeyshine like Dumya?

[godfry n. glad]

Originally Posted by Uthgar the Brazen

Since the idea of a presidential library for this knuckle-dragger is ludicrous, maybe we should come up with something more appropriate to commemorate his stay in the Oval Office.

A public toilet in the DC subway, for example.

I think that might be a bit too ostentatious. I know a public toilet in Kyrgyzstan that I think qualifies, though:



There you go...The George W. Bush Memorial Shithole.

Winner!

[ChuckF]

I'm glad our brave war president put that liberal, drugged-up bitch in her place. Sheesh, trying to question the decider. See what happens when you let liberals run the Department of Education for 40 years? I wonder how many abortions she's had.

[Zadalya]

Wow, what a complete prick ...
But I'm also somewhat unsurprised, because George's always acted like a spoiled brat.

[The Lone Ranger]

It's perhaps also an indication of just how thoroughly the D.C. Press Corps has been neutered that he knows he can get away with such behavior.

Cheers,

Michael

[mickthinks]

I realise I'm butting in on the big US family domestic squabble here, and I should stay right out of it. Bush doesn't deserve a fair hearing, and even if he ever did, he wouldn't get it here, right? But what if it had been, not GW, but some other guy...

A frail woman bursts into tears and that's automatically a bad thing the man has done.

Really? I thought feminism had educated us out of that kind of crap.

Mick

[Sock Puppet]

Umm ... it was a 13-year-old kid.

[mickthinks]

Thanks Sock Puppet!

... it was a 13-year-old kid.
Yes, you're emphasising the frailty there.

Mick

[livius drusus]

13 year old girls aren't "frail women"; they're children. What does "feminism" have to do with being appalled at a grown man making a kid cry? If it had been a 13 year old boy, it would still have been inappropriate for the President of the United States to respond hurtfully, whether the kid cried or swallowed hard or blushed from head to toe or what have you.

[Sock Puppet]

Originally Posted by mickthinks

Thanks Sock Puppet!

... it was a 13-year-old kid.
Yes, you're emphasising the frailty there.

No, I'm stating an obvious fact that seems to have eluded you. Not a woman, a child.

[mickthinks]

If the story is about a vulnerable girl crying and making a man look bad, then I think there's a feminist angle. If on the other hand, the story is about a small child being frightened by a grown-up then there isn't a feminist angle. It depends how the story is spun.

... being appalled at a grown man making a kid cry?
I've seen that happen when a grown man refuses to buy a kid an ice cream. I wasn't appalled then and I am still waiting to be appalled now.

Please understand; I am not defending Bush against any of the justified charges against him. I am making a plea for a little more discrimination in response to manipulative journalism.

Mick

[livius drusus]

Originally Posted by mickthinks

If the story is about a vulnerable girl crying and making a man look bad, then I think there's a feminist angle. If on the other hand, the story is about a small child being frightened by grown ups then there isn't a feminist angle. It depends how the story is spun.

Does it? Seriously mick, people talk a lot of shit about what feminism says or doesn't say. "Feminism teaches us little girls should buck up and take it like a man when the President puts them down" doesn't sound like any feminist activist I've ever heard.

Please understand; I am not defending Bush against any of the justified charges against him. I am making a plea for a little more discrimination in response to manipulative journalism.

Fair enough, but that's not what you said. You attributed a rather vague (and weird, imo) position to "feminism" at large without sourcing or even a solid argument to make a rhetorical point. Isn't that manipulative spin?

In any case, this is hardly the most egregious rudeness Bush has ever perpetrated. It's just a classic scenario of cowardice and meanness -- the most powerful man in the world picking on a little girl -- and indicative of the kind of PR blunder than this putatively jovial "man of the people" president didn't use to make. He may have thought it, but he used to cover up his fratboy churlishness better than this.

[Watser?]

this is hardly the most egregious rudeness Bush has ever perpetrated

Hell no

I remember a video of Bush in a talk show cleaning his glasses with an unsuspecting woman's (producer or assistant) clothes. Now that is so unspeakably rude, this is rather insignificant in comparison.

[mickthinks]

I'm stating an obvious fact that seems to have eluded you. Not a woman, a child.
The difference between a thirteen year old girl and a woman isn't always obvious. The age at which a girl discovers that tears can turn the crown crowd to her side and are a skill worth cultivating is difficult to pin down too, I think.

Mick

[davidm]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

...and indicative of the kind of PR blunder than this putatively jovial "man of the people" president didn't use to make.

Well, in polls asking the critical policy question, “Who would you most like to have a beer with: Bush or (Gore/Kerry?), Bush always won, which at least partly explains why he is president. Sure, we could have had Gore as president, and escaped the debacle of the Iraq War and probably even forestalled 9/11, but who wants as president some stuck-up guy who you can’t feel good about having a beer with?

Still, the have-a-beer-with-Bush thesis was actually put to the test. A special report below:

Lone-awaited Beer with Bush Really Awkward, Voter Reports.

[Sock Puppet]

Originally Posted by mickthinks

The difference between a thirteen year old girl and a woman isn't always obvious.

Not if you can't remember what it was like to be 13, I guess.

The age at which a girl discovers that tears can turn the crown to her side and are a skill worth cultivating is difficult to pin down too, I think.

Ah, now I see the motivation behind the barely-coherent reference to feminism. Sorry, I'm a little sleepy this morning or I might have spotted it right off.

[mickthinks]

In any case, this is hardly the most egregious rudeness Bush has ever perpetrated.
Yes, this is important. If it is implying that because Bush has said and done worse, we no longer need to care about whether an accusation like this is justified, I would disagree.

If you aren't implying that, and you agree that we are still morally obliged to care about truth when we tell stories which attack Bush, then I think you'll be happy to discuss this story on its own merits and in its own terms. My point here is that we do democracy a disservice when we sanction dishonest journalism by swallowing it, even when the victim of the dishonesty is our enemy. Poison is poison even when it's sugar-coated.

... the most powerful man in the world picking a little girl ...
Yes, I can see it is difficult to defend anyone against the feelings of outrage that that version of the events is calculated to arouse. It isn't the only way to tell the story though. There are other just as truthful versions which wouldn't manipulate the audience's emotions in the same way. The moral question is whether all versions are equally acceptable, and if not, how should a fair minded person chose between them?

-- the kind of PR blunder than this putatively jovial "man of the people" president didn't use to make.
It's certainly a PR blunder to give journalists a story that they can so easily spin into a damaging image. I don't accept that this amounts to an excuse for bad journalism, though.

Mick
he used to cover up his fratboy churlishness better than this. That's a Have-you-stopped-beating-your-wife-type insinuation that begs the question under discussion, I'd say.

[Plant Woman]

Methinks mickthinks (?) needs to show where the spin is? Any man that is rude to a child enough to make them cry, is a bully. Where's the spin?