Editore"s Note
Tilting at Windmills

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October 27, 2006
By: Kevin Drum

THE GRANDEUR OF THE PRESIDENCY....What's the most addle-brained thing George Bush said during his sit-down with conservative columnists on Wednesday? It's a tough choice, so I'm going to let you make it. Here are the nominees:

  1. Bush: "Iran empowered Hezbollah, Hezbollah takes the attack, and which creates an interesting dynamic, and it gives us an opportunity to fashion kind of an alliance of reasonable people headed toward a clash all kinds of different ways, by the way with extremists and radicals."

    Matt Yglesias: It's easy to get distracted by the fact that Bush doesn't seem familiar with the English language and miss the fact that beneath the garbled syntax Bush is making a clear and utterly incorrect factual claim here that the upshot of the war was to cement an alliance between the United States, Israel, and moderate forces in the Arab world.

  2. Bush: "One of the stories interesting stories I tell is about the fellow that came here. He got kidnapped and he was rescued pretty early by our Delta team. I said, 'What's it like to be kidnapped, man? It must have been weird Baghdad, to be kidnapped.'"

    Steve Benen: For some reason, reading this reminded me an episode of The West Wing called, "Posse Comitatus."....

  3. Bush: "A lot of people are just saying, 'You're not doing enough to win. We're not winning, you're not doing enough to win, and I'm frustrated, I want it over with, with victory.' And I'm trying to figure out a matrix that says things are getting better. I think that one way to measure is less violence than before, I guess...."

    Byron York: But that, of course, leads back to the president's statement that the enemy gets to define victory by killing people. If the sectarian forces are able to keep up the killing, then they will determine who wins in Iraq. [Kinda weak, Byron. Needs more snark. You can do better. ed]

  4. Bush: "If we do not defeat the terrorists or extremists in Iraq, they will gain access to vast oil reserves, and use Iraq as a base to overthrow moderate governments across the broader Middle East."

    Marc Lynch: This is just idiotic. The Sunni areas in which al-Qaeda would hope to reconstitute a base don't have any significant oil reserves this is one of the primary problems with most partition or federalism schemes.

Leave your vote in comments!

Kevin Drum 1:03 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (124)

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Comments

Chimpy is drinking again.

Its the only explanation

Posted by: SnarkyShark on October 27, 2006 at 1:07 PM | PERMALINK

Several months ago I stopped listening to or reading anything anyone in the Bush administration utters or writes. What's the point of paying the least bit of attention to them when they are meeting the press, making speeches and the like? If they aren't lying outright, you know that what they say will be wrong, regardless of the subject, because that's been the case since January of 2001.

Posted by: JeffII on October 27, 2006 at 1:10 PM | PERMALINK

The last comment brings up a point. Perhaps we should let Al Qeda have a little province of their own in Iraq?

Look at the advantages:

1) They would make a big target.
2) They would have a place of their own and bother others less.

I think that looking at the sum total of Bush policies, it is clear to me that he intended for Al Qeda to practice their government openly in Iraq. Seriously, this might not be a bad idea.

Posted by: Matt on October 27, 2006 at 1:11 PM | PERMALINK

Bush: "Iran empowered Hezbollah, Hezbollah takes the attack, and which creates an interesting dynamic, and it gives us an opportunity to fashion kind of an alliance of reasonable people headed toward a clash all kinds of different ways, by the way with extremists and radicals."

Completely correct. Look at the alliance of America, Israel, and the moderate Arab nation of Saudi Arabia in condemning Lebanon's attack on Israel.

Bush: "If we do not defeat the terrorists or extremists in Iraq, they will gain access to vast oil reserves, and use Iraq as a base to overthrow moderate governments across the broader Middle East."
Marc Lynch: This is just idiotic. The Sunni areas in which al-Qaeda would hope to reconstitute a base don't have any significant oil reserves this is one of the primary problems with most partition or federalism schemes.

Bush wasn't talking about the Sunni areas in Iraq. He was talking about the Shiite areas of Iraq being controlled by Iran. If we don't defeat the terrorist state of Iran, Iran and Hezbollah will control the oil in Iraq and use it to overthrow moderate Arab governments like Saudi Arabia.

Posted by: Al on October 27, 2006 at 1:14 PM | PERMALINK

George W. Bush defeated the great intellectual, political scientist, climatologist and doomsayer Al Gore in 2000. Bush took on the great war hero and golden-voiced orator John Kerry in 2004. The American people knew then that Bush was not in the tradition of William Jennings Bryan, four time Democrat candidate for president and four time loser. But your desperation about the election must be growing if you are back to that old chestnut again. No one cares.

Posted by: m on October 27, 2006 at 1:16 PM | PERMALINK

The ever-present conundrum -- is Bush just really stupid? Is he being fed false information? Is he deliberately encouraging and/or asking for false information (i.e., by violently reacting when real information is given him)?

Personally, I think it's a toss-up, but if you pin me down, I'd vote for number 3.

Posted by: PaulB on October 27, 2006 at 1:18 PM | PERMALINK

Um, Al? Iran already has all the oil it could want.

Posted by: tomeck on October 27, 2006 at 1:18 PM | PERMALINK

#1 -just for the incoherency of the statement. I have to disagree with Matt though:

beneath the garbled syntax Bush is making a clear....factual claim

i cannot find anything clear about Bush's statement at all. Guess that i'm just not as able to go beneath garbled syntax as Matt is.

Posted by: tarylcabot on October 27, 2006 at 1:18 PM | PERMALINK

I have read that western Iraq probably has oil reserves that have yet to be explored.

Posted by: Aaron Adams on October 27, 2006 at 1:19 PM | PERMALINK

an alliance of reasonable people headed toward a clash

That is just so much better than the Coalition of the Willing.

What a dolt.

Posted by: tomeck on October 27, 2006 at 1:19 PM | PERMALINK

I care that our president is incoherent. So should you, m.

Posted by: Ace Franze on October 27, 2006 at 1:20 PM | PERMALINK

提供口爆性息,北京性息,上海性息

Posted by: 口爆网 on October 27, 2006 at 1:20 PM | PERMALINK

Number three for me!

Posted by: Tanna on October 27, 2006 at 1:21 PM | PERMALINK

The situation is similar to Babe Ruth or JFK's womanizing, or perhaps more seriously Wilson's infirmity. Everyone in the DC press and the DC insider cocktail circuit knows what is going on, which is that Bush's cognitive functions have been deteriorating on an accelerating basis since early 2004. But not only do they not write about it, they clean up his utterances and fill in what they think he meant to say before reporting it.

I mean, I listen to Bush's press conferences and read the transcripts on Monday and then CBS Radio's reports of same Tuesday morning. The news reports bear absolutely no resemblence to what Bush actually said and make zero mention of his incoherence.

Good guy to have a beer with though.

Not Really

Posted by: Not Really on October 27, 2006 at 1:21 PM | PERMALINK


#3....

would pay to hear a tape of bush actually saying it.

"I'm frustrated, I want it over with, with victory."

oy vey....

Posted by: mr. irony on October 27, 2006 at 1:26 PM | PERMALINK

What's a Shiia?

All you baby killers talk too much!

Posted by: Al's Mommy on October 27, 2006 at 1:27 PM | PERMALINK

I just tried to diagram the sentence from that first bit of gibberish and gave up three pages later.

Posted by: Global Citizen on October 27, 2006 at 1:29 PM | PERMALINK

Of course, they're all stupid, but, if the transcript is accurate, I vote for #3. Here's why: when Smirk says, "And I'm trying to figure out a matrix that says things are getting better. I think that one way to measure is less violence than before, I guess...." what he should be saying is "I'm trying to figure out a METRIC ... ." With most educated people, you'd say, "Oh, simple slip of the tongue," but with Smirk you suspect he doesn't understand the concept of either a metric or a matrix. Once again, he shows he's a Ted Baxter president, reading the news that's been written for him.

Posted by: rb on October 27, 2006 at 1:30 PM | PERMALINK

Good guy to have a beer with though.

Yeah, if you can get past the fact that he's an alcoholic....

Posted by: Stefan on October 27, 2006 at 1:32 PM | PERMALINK

The years of coke-sniffing and Jack Daniels-sipping have fried this motherfucker's brain. He wouldn't be able to hold down a job pumping gas if his last name wasn't Bush.

Posted by: Joe Bob Briggs on October 27, 2006 at 1:32 PM | PERMALINK

My vote is for #5: All of the above.

Of course, I'd really enjoy seeing a parsing of Rumsfeld becoming unhinged yesterday during a DoD News briefing...Donald gave a typical 'Rumsfelding' of the questions asked; when he's not attacking a reporter for not phrasing a question to his liking, he's weaseling his response.

Posted by: grape_crush on October 27, 2006 at 1:33 PM | PERMALINK

I say #3 as well.

Not just for the -$5 use of a $10 word, which is one of those "i'm so dumb I think I am smart" things, but for the content. He flatly states that he is looking for a way to SAY things are getting better, then suggests that a decrease in violence is it... except violence is quite clearly increasing rapidly now, and has increased steadily year after year across the entire occupation.

Posted by: jefff on October 27, 2006 at 1:34 PM | PERMALINK

Chimpy is drinking again.

Its the only explanation

...for the past six years.

Posted by: Gregory on October 27, 2006 at 1:34 PM | PERMALINK

"Completely correct. Look at the alliance of America, Israel, and the moderate Arab nation of Saudi Arabia in condemning Lebanon's attack on Israel."

Uh, Al, would that be the same "moderate" Saudi Arabia that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers (as well as Bin Laden himself) were from?

Would that be the same "moderate" Saudi Arabia that funds madrassahs all over the Islamic world?

Posted by: CDWard on October 27, 2006 at 1:34 PM | PERMALINK

# 2 needs to be a campaign spot with John Stewart doing W's voice and a tagline: "A vote for ______ is a vote for this.

Posted by: keith G on October 27, 2006 at 1:36 PM | PERMALINK

LOOK! Over there! Homos!

Posted by: A Homohater on October 27, 2006 at 1:37 PM | PERMALINK

I said, 'What's it like to be kidnapped, man? It must have been weird Baghdad, to be kidnapped.'


Who was he talking to, Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now?

But I'd vote for number 1, where he imagines the Hezbollah war was a great opportunity to organize and motivate reasonable people toward the inevitable Armageddon.

All their planning has been in the interest of WWIII and the Apocalypse.

Posted by: cld on October 27, 2006 at 1:40 PM | PERMALINK

Why isn't "all of the above and even his breakfast conversation" one of the answers? Golly whillikers (as Donald Rumsfailed might say), there's so much to choose from.

My choice, though, leans toward number two, since it's so utterly Valley-Girl (or, in his case, Frat-Boy-cheerleader) inane, y'know? Like, it's all "being kidnapped must be weird," something like saying, "I wonder what it's like being a girl?" and no deeper than that.

Next thing you know, he'll be doing historic reenactments, asking, "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

The walking definition of "lightweight."


Ed

Posted by: Ed Drone on October 27, 2006 at 1:40 PM | PERMALINK

The brain-control Chip that Cheney implanted in his skull never did work all that well to begin with. But now it's really starting to malfunction spectacularly.

Posted by: Osama_Been_Forgotten on October 27, 2006 at 1:41 PM | PERMALINK

Our president is a busy man. He can't always stop and ponder the meaning of everything he says. He says what has to be said, then moves on.

The only people that give the appearance of total clarity are liberals who have all the time in the world, because they don't have real jobs.

Posted by: Al on October 27, 2006 at 1:41 PM | PERMALINK

I'm with Grape: All of the above.

Complete mastery of incoherence.

You'd think someone would at least attempt to 'splain some of this stuff to the Current Occupant in words of no more than two syllables.

Prince Banda doesn't count, although I've noticed that his command of English is far better.

(I've just installed Firefox 2.0 which now spell-checks everything as I type. Nifty. Look for far fewer typos in my posts.)

Posted by: CFShep on October 27, 2006 at 1:43 PM | PERMALINK

#4

Posted by: Ack Ack Ack Ack on October 27, 2006 at 1:43 PM | PERMALINK

How can anyone take what this man says seriously? "You know he's lying because his lips are moving." I don't think even he can take what he says seriously. He can't speak, can't think, only knows how to tear things up and ruin what worked. How can you analyze the words of someone so incoherant and incompetant? Doing so just lends him undeserved credence. A man of his word/words he absolutely is NOT.

Posted by: Jame on October 27, 2006 at 1:44 PM | PERMALINK

Has to be #2, by a mile. I mean, come on:

"One of the stories interesting stories I tell is about the fellow that came here. He got kidnapped and he was rescued pretty early by our Delta team. I said, 'What's it like to be kidnapped, man? It must have been weird Baghdad, to be kidnapped."

Not only is this just a stooopidly obtuse thing to say, it reveals Bush's genuine lack of empathic ability and tendency to look on the rest of the world as if it were filled with toys instead of living beings. Gee, fella, what's it like? 'Cause I don't have time to think much about stuff like that. As fatuous as talking heads who ask newly grieving parents what it's like to watch their children die. But since he actually holds the lives of millions in his hands, it's far more dangerous.

Posted by: Riggsveda on October 27, 2006 at 1:44 PM | PERMALINK

Aaron Adams: I have read that western Iraq probably has oil reserves that have yet to be explored.

I worked with oil companies for three years in the middle east, and I find it hard to believe that any square inch within 1000 miles of Kuwait hasn't been explored for oil.

Posted by: anandine on October 27, 2006 at 1:44 PM | PERMALINK

I love the idea that Bush is finally realizing that his public reasons for beginning the war in Iraq are at odds with his reasons for continuing the war in Iraq. A democratic Iraq means that Iranian allies are going to be in power? Well, we can't have that, can we?

Maybe Bush could debate himself sometime.

Posted by: Jeffrey Davis on October 27, 2006 at 1:44 PM | PERMALINK

Ramesh calls Kevin a liar and a supporter of liars!

My take? Look: if anyone is trying to play games with being technical, it's Ramesh. Adult stem cell treatments have never been at issue, never been controversial. Most of the public doesn't even think of them as "stem cell" treatments, and the fact that they are technically so is simply an irrelevant issue the right has tried to drag into the controversy in order to confuse the issue. Yes, adult stem cells and cord blood technologies are important... but then no one has been against them in the first place, and no one would be arguing for or against it in a political ad. The amount of people that don't know that the stem cell issue is over embryonic stem cells? 0

But if you want to talk dishonesty, try instead Ramesh's unvarnished shouting about how the measure in question would enshrine "cloning," because technically the embryonic treatments clone stem cells. Of course, to most of the public "cloning" means producing actual human clones. Where is Ramesh's demands for correct language there? He's a hypocrite of the highest order. Someone needs to call him on it.

Posted by: plunge on October 27, 2006 at 1:45 PM | PERMALINK

Golly whillikers (as Donald Rumsfailed might say)...

Or Ned Flanders.

Yes that's it! Donald Rumsfeld and Ned Flanders were twins, separated at birth!

Posted by: 2.7182818 on October 27, 2006 at 1:45 PM | PERMALINK

Having met with my different personalities, the vote was 3-2 for Number 1.

However, I find Number 4 the most interesting. Shrub says that we must stop the terrorists from having control of the vast oil reserves. And, yet, the administration has stated from the beginning that this was never about oil.

This goes back to their guru Kissinger, who lusted for our military to have access to the middle east in order to assure that we would never suffer from another oil embargo.

Those millions of yards of concrete in the desert are not there for any NASCAR or Gran Prix races.

Posted by: thethirdPaul on October 27, 2006 at 1:45 PM | PERMALINK

Oh, and unless I get to pick "all of the above" too, put me down for #3.

Posted by: Gregory on October 27, 2006 at 1:45 PM | PERMALINK

#4. OIL, the invasion of irag was cheney's secret energy plan.
but any of these would be cause for alarm. the man ain't quite right in the heed.

Posted by: mestizo on October 27, 2006 at 1:53 PM | PERMALINK

every time Bush speaks, I am reminded of a line from That 70's Show 'Steven, I can't be held responsible for the things taht come out of my mouth." Jackie Burkhart

Posted by: Global Citizen on October 27, 2006 at 1:54 PM | PERMALINK

#4 No, that sentence is too much like English
#2 No, too weird - What's your bag, Dad?

Tough choice between #1 and #3

But,
must go with #1,
Profoundly stupid and incoherent.

Posted by: Determined to Strike on October 27, 2006 at 1:55 PM | PERMALINK

grape_crush is correct for calling attention to Rumsfeld's incoherency as well. I read the interview he linked to and it's a gem. Not just for Rumsfeld's superfragilistic syntax and arrogance. No, what's most striking his is deny, deny, deny stance. For example, Casey's suggestion that he might consider new troops. Casey cleary suggested it as a possibility. Shorter Rumsfeld: No, he didn't.

You know, said Col. Kilgore. One day this war is going to be over.

Posted by: Jeffrey Davis on October 27, 2006 at 1:55 PM | PERMALINK

"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here

No doubt the conservatives at this meeting were too overwhelmed with the joy of sitting next to Brother Bush to really pay attention to what he's saying. Not that it would have mattered. The President is completely incoherent, but he fits their image of how a leader should look and
talk, so what comes out of his mouth is irrelevant.

I vote for #1

Posted by: enozinho on October 27, 2006 at 1:57 PM | PERMALINK

Cut the man some slack for not knowing the difference between a matrix and a metric. I am 100% sure that even at Yale, history majors are not required to take a course in Linear Algebra, much less in Banach Spaces.

Posted by: gregor on October 27, 2006 at 2:02 PM | PERMALINK

Al writes:

Completely correct. Look at the alliance of America, Israel, and the moderate Arab nation of Saudi Arabia in condemning Lebanon's attack on Israel.

So it was good for Hezbollah to attack Israel? You approve of Hezbollah's actions?

Posted by: Andy on October 27, 2006 at 2:07 PM | PERMALINK

He had me at "Hello."

Posted by: Cal Gal on October 27, 2006 at 2:09 PM | PERMALINK

The only people that give the appearance of total clarity are liberals who have all the time in the world, because they don't have real jobs.
Posted by: Al

NO AL, ITS BECAUSE WE DO HAVE REAL JOBS AND NOT KARLS HAND UP OUR ASS MOVING OUR LIPS!

Posted by: Dog_named_Boo on October 27, 2006 at 2:10 PM | PERMALINK

And I'm trying to figure out a matrix that says things are getting better.

There is a glitch in the matrix.

The Republican Matrix is a system. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Apologists, enablers and morons. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.

November 7th 2006. Time to unplug them.

Posted by: E. Henry Thripshaw on October 27, 2006 at 2:11 PM | PERMALINK
Cut the man some slack for not knowing the difference between a matrix and a metric.

I'm not even sure that is a mistake; a "matrix" is frequently a tool for evaluating a set of facts by a weighted combination of different metrics, and Bush says he was "trying to figure out a matrix that says things are getting better". Which, you know, is an all-too-common practice, decide the result you want, and try to build a matrix which lets you tell (the board, your customers, whoever) that its true.

It does seem to be a bit of accidental honesty, in any case, to admit that he was trying to find a definition of "better" for which the statement "we're doing better" would actually be true.

Posted by: cmdicely on October 27, 2006 at 2:11 PM | PERMALINK

Speaking of Gen Casey, did anyone else notice the subtle body language of him yesterday? For the press conference, Ambassador Khalilizad entered the room ahead of Casey and started to take the center of the podium. Casey looked him up and down from behind, moved past him and, with a soft push, pushed the Ambassador to his left. "Hey, buddy, I've got four stars, how many do you have? And by the way, who really runs this country, huh?"

Posted by: thethirdPaul on October 27, 2006 at 2:12 PM | PERMALINK

"Cut the man some slack for not knowing the difference between a matrix and a metric. I am 100% sure that even at Yale, history majors are not required to take a course in Linear Algebra, much less in Banach Spaces."

It's not that he doesn't know. It's that he doesn't know he doesn't know.

In highshool there was this football player who all of the sudden started wearing glasses and using big vocabulary words. Unfortunately he very often used them slightly incorrectly. He was trying to look smart, and probably did look smart to the ignorant, but to people who really did have large vocabularies he proved himself both pretentious and ignorant.

Arrogance + ignorance. It is a flaw common on the right and Bush is a glaring example.

Posted by: jefff on October 27, 2006 at 2:16 PM | PERMALINK

"It's not that he doesn't know. It's that he doesn't know he doesn't know."

But, yea in this particular case it could simply be a buzzword. Which mildly irritates me. It is the content of his statement which is truely grating.

Posted by: jefff on October 27, 2006 at 2:18 PM | PERMALINK

Thus spake The Great Al:
Completely correct. Look at the alliance of America, Israel, and the moderate Arab nation of Saudi Arabia in condemning Lebanon's attack on Israel.

Al is Bush's drinking partner, methinks.

Posted by: Ramki on October 27, 2006 at 2:22 PM | PERMALINK

#2 strikes me as being the most addled. Why would Bush be so interested to know about and relate someone's being kidnapped story?

It is because Bush is interested to know about what all of his Iraqi child victims feel and think. Every week the president is presented with a kidnapped Iraqi child held in the basement of the White House for him to rape, murder and eat, and the president is curious to know how much fear they actually feel. He can measure the fear hormones of his victims with his reptilian tongue, but he would like to confirm it on higher plain of consciousness.

Posted by: Hostile on October 27, 2006 at 2:22 PM | PERMALINK

According to this site http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182 , at this moment the war in Iraq has cost $337,546,648,419 dollars. Where is that money going? Halliburton, The Lincoln Group and certain shadowy figures. What has the U.S. gotten out of this whole thing. Positive: Not one damn thing. Negative: Incredible debt, the world hates U.S., less stability etc.

I think that history will show that this was the biggest ripoff of the American public ever conceived. Was the whole thing put together for just this purpose - to ripoff the American public?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7866929448192753501&q=loose+change+recut

I propose a movement, the Pay U.S. Back! campaign. It's time to:

1. Account for every dollar flushed down this rat hole.
2. Make these ripoff artists return their ill-gotten gains to the American public in the way of tax refunds.

Pay U.S. Back!
What do you say?

Posted by: Pay U.S. Back! on October 27, 2006 at 2:25 PM | PERMALINK

#2

Chris Farley to Paul MCartney:

"Do you remember when you were in the Beatles ? That was awesome !"

Posted by: Tim on October 27, 2006 at 2:26 PM | PERMALINK

I think that the focus on his verbal abilities is misplaced.

If I had a forum like Kevin's, I would continually excoriate him for his moral failings and lack of concern (never mind his self-professed 'compassion') for the deaths of so many people.

Over him I would any day take a bumbling moron who does not speak even a single word right but does not engage in lies and half truths to send so many young kids to kill and die.

Posted by: gregor on October 27, 2006 at 2:28 PM | PERMALINK

"I'm trying to figure out a matrix that says things are getting better"

Maybe the idiot dauphin president should start by figuring out that the word is "metric" not "matrix". But that would probably just confuse the simpleton even more.

Posted by: TheFool on October 27, 2006 at 2:35 PM | PERMALINK

Your president is not a uni-dimensional man. He is stupid on many levels simultaneously. I vot for all of the above #5

ttul
Balzar

Posted by: balzar on October 27, 2006 at 2:38 PM | PERMALINK

Pay U.S. Back!:

It's certainly the crime of the century.
And it's only 2006.

Posted by: Osama_Been_Forgotten on October 27, 2006 at 2:43 PM | PERMALINK

Thank the good Whatever, that we have a claim jumper rule on sidewinders who try to homestead at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Maybe DeLay can get the fumigation contract for January 09. Hey, redemption for a born again.

Posted by: thethirdPaul on October 27, 2006 at 2:43 PM | PERMALINK

FYI:
Another win for "The Good Guys". ..

Pinochet arrested in Chile.

God I hope this fucker swings before he dies of old age.

Posted by: Osama_Been_Forgotten on October 27, 2006 at 2:48 PM | PERMALINK

I didn't see anyone include the audio of the Bush aforementioned seminar so I'll link it to a comment I sent to a conservative blog the other day.
I think the most unbelieveable Bush comment of several, was his underscoring of the priority the US gives to its support of the Lebanese Sinora government... having just encouraged the Israelis to bomb the hell out of them.

Posted by: Steve Crickmore on October 27, 2006 at 2:48 PM | PERMALINK

Cut the man some slack for not knowing the difference between a matrix and a metric. I am 100% sure that even at Yale, history majors are not required to take a course in Linear Algebra, much less in Banach Spaces.
Posted by: gregor on October 27, 2006 at 2:02 PM | PERMALINK

WTF?

I knew what a matrix was in Middle-School algebra.
Fucker's the president of the United States for fuck's sake. He should know some basic things. Like the difference between Sunni and Shiite, and the Capital of fucking Pakistan.

Dumb and proud?

Don't wanna be an American Idiot.

Posted by: Osama_Been_Forgotten on October 27, 2006 at 2:55 PM | PERMALINK

Maybe Bush could debate himself sometime.

I would pay to watch that, no question.

Plus, the loser has to resign.

Posted by: craigie on October 27, 2006 at 2:57 PM | PERMALINK

"it reveals Bush's genuine lack of empathic ability and tendency to look on the rest of the world as if it were filled with toys instead of living beings."

Dead on, Riggsveda. He's obviously a sociopath - no empathy, no compassion, no remorse, in the immortal words of Emil Skoda. People have no existence outside of his needs. It also explains why he always sounds like a four-year-old parroting what he learned in kindergarten, then getting petulant and cross when people don't applaud his performance.

Posted by: Yellow Dog on October 27, 2006 at 3:01 PM | PERMALINK


Cut the man some slack for not knowing the difference between a matrix and a metric.

This is from a transcription of a non-scripted conversation. It's not like he was working from written remarks. My guess is he was saying something like: "tyring to figure out, uh, metrics" and the transcriber wrote down "trying to figure out a matrix."

Posted by: Jeff R. on October 27, 2006 at 3:01 PM | PERMALINK

By the way, if Clinton had said any one of these statements, let alone all of them, we would have 24/7 "newscasts" asking "what's wrong with the president's brain?"

Bush does it, everyone looks away and shouts "over there! A homo!"

Posted by: craigie on October 27, 2006 at 3:02 PM | PERMALINK

jefff,

He was trying to look smart,

Heh heh. One of my highschool football teammates talked about 'cubic hairs' when he meant 'pubic hairs.' It wasn't a slip of the tongue that he failed to notice. No, he had misheard 'pubic' and didn't know he was using the wrong word.

"Suck my cubic hairs."

Posted by: Tripp on October 27, 2006 at 3:04 PM | PERMALINK

A vote for number 1.

This might just be a vote for Matt. It appears the other commenters are playing the straight role in a monty python skit without knowing it.

Posted by: B on October 27, 2006 at 3:09 PM | PERMALINK

This is from a transcription of a non-scripted conversation. It's not like he was working from written remarks. My guess is he was saying something like: "tyring to figure out, uh, metrics" and the transcriber wrote down "trying to figure out a matrix." Posted by: Jeff R.

Yeah. Right.

Posted by: JeffII on October 27, 2006 at 3:10 PM | PERMALINK

Craigie has a good point..Bush says "You know why I thought our troops would be coming home at this time?.."Because that is what John Casey (US's top general in Iraq) thought..Bush only listens to those in his bubble and echo chamber, and they only give him the information he wants to hear ( hey they don't want to be dismissed) It's endless theory of origanizational incompetence led by leader who does not brook dissent from those who don't understand his muddled thinking...

Posted by: Steve Crickmore on October 27, 2006 at 3:14 PM | PERMALINK

LOOK! Over there! Homos!

Posted by: A Homohater on October 27, 2006 at 3:14 PM | PERMALINK
I knew what a matrix was in Middle-School algebra.

And I knew matrix had other meanings in other contexts, including one which works perfectly with Bush's usage here, by high school.

I don't get why people think the problem with that quote is the use of the word "matrix" rather than the admission that instead of trying to find a way to make things better by widely accepted standards, Bush was floundering around to find a standard to justify the claim that things were going better.

Its like if someone had broken into a house and started beating one of the residents, and other residents came out and chided the intruder on the fashion sense of his selection of footwear.

Posted by: cmdicely on October 27, 2006 at 3:15 PM | PERMALINK

Whoa, I knew Bush was stupid, but I guess we are in more trouble than I thought.....It is so scary and what does it say about the American Voter?

Yikes!

Posted by: David Triche on October 27, 2006 at 3:15 PM | PERMALINK

Jeff R.

My guess is he was saying something like: "tyring to figure out, uh, metrics" and the transcriber wrote down "trying to figure out a matrix."

I would be sooo nice to have a President you didn't have to make excuses and cover for, wouldn't it?

Posted by: Tripp on October 27, 2006 at 3:18 PM | PERMALINK

1, 2, 3 tied for first place or last place however you want to look at it. either way each was as divorced from reality as the rantings of a homeless paranoid schizophrenic.

Posted by: klyde on October 27, 2006 at 3:26 PM | PERMALINK

Moses was inarticulate. Paul the Apostle was inarticulate. Oliver Cromwell was inarticulate. Dwight D. Eisenhower was inarticulate, and so on. President George W. Bush will be seen to be a far greater man than all of you can possibly realize.

Posted by: Bruce Kowal on October 27, 2006 at 3:28 PM | PERMALINK

Its like if someone had broken into a house and started beating one of the residents, and other residents came out and chided the intruder on the fashion sense of his selection of footwear.
Posted by: cmdicely on October 27, 2006 at 3:15 PM | PERMALINK

Well, when someone breaks into your house and starts beating your room mate, and he has a Secret Service detail, you tend not to use the "home protection".

Posted by: Osama_Been_Forgotten on October 27, 2006 at 3:29 PM | PERMALINK

Bruce Kowal owes me a keyboard. That had to be sarcasm. Nobody actually believes that tripe, do they?

Posted by: Global Citizen on October 27, 2006 at 3:31 PM | PERMALINK

Its like if someone had broken into a house and started beating one of the residents, and other residents came out and chided the intruder on the fashion sense of his selection of footwear.

Wrong analogy. The correct one is that of a medical doctor who tells his patient that he is trying to figure out whether he has eggsema or not.

Posted by: gregor on October 27, 2006 at 3:32 PM | PERMALINK

Moses wasn't inarticulate
he was Egyptian
and therefore
he spoke crappy Hebrew

There is no evidence that Saul of Tarsus
was particularly inarticule.

Cromwell, I can't comment on.

Ike mightn't been glib, but
he certainly isn't in the same league
as the West-Texas-girl-like-me president.

Posted by: Determined to Strike on October 27, 2006 at 3:45 PM | PERMALINK

Kevin quotes Bush: "If we do not defeat the terrorists or extremists in Iraq, they will gain access to vast oil reserves ..."

Bush acknowledges that the US invaded and continues to occupy Iraq to secure control of its "vast oil reserves".

This should be the headline in every newspaper in America.

Posted by: SecularAnimist on October 27, 2006 at 3:55 PM | PERMALINK

JeffII, Tripp:

It's not like the transcriber can figure what he's trying to say, either. They make mistakes like that all the time. I'm not making excuses for Bush, I just think "metric" or "metrics" make more sense than "matrix." I, too, would prefer to have a president that can express a coherent thought.

Posted by: Jeff R. on October 27, 2006 at 3:58 PM | PERMALINK

Nolan Cromwell was inarticulate? Great DB from Kansas and all pro with the Rams.

Er, you meant Oliver Cromwell - Well how is this for being inarticulate when turning down the offer to become King in 1657.

Cromwell said, "I would not seek to set up that which Providence hath destroyed and laid in the dust and I would not build Jericho again."

Shrub would merely say, "Wow, and make it official? Gee, I'll get crowned again".

Posted by: thethirdPaul on October 27, 2006 at 4:13 PM | PERMALINK

Excellent analysis, SecularAnimist. Do not hold your breath waiting for the monopolist opinion making newspapers to print the headline, though.

Posted by: Hostile on October 27, 2006 at 4:14 PM | PERMALINK

Oh gosh,

Bush: "If we do not defeat the terrorists or extremists in Iraq, they will gain access to vast oil reserves, and use Iraq as a base to overthrow moderate governments across the broader Middle East."

Oh, I see, why didn't Bush just tell Americans that this war was about OIL?

If Iraqis manages to get control of their oilfields again than France, Russia, German and China might get back their old oil contracts. The real "extremists" is anyone that doesn't pay campaign contributions to the Bushies or hire members of the GOP into cushy, high paying positions. You know, the way Halliburton did for Dick Cheney.

AND I suspect Bush doesn't want all those cheesy surrender monkeys getting all the cheese, particular not after Bush and his all neo-con band tried so hard to smear the France, as well as claim the UN was irrelevant.

Posted by: Cheryl on October 27, 2006 at 4:34 PM | PERMALINK

They're all pretty idiotic, but I've gotta vote for #3. It's the use of the word "matrix" that breaks the tie for me. If he'd just used a slightly less buzzphrasey content-free speech utterance behavior event sequence, I think I might have voted for #1, because no matter how many times I read it, I still can't get past the fact that it sounds more like the output of a word-dissociator Perl script than something said by the President of the United States of America.

Posted by: s9 on October 27, 2006 at 4:40 PM | PERMALINK

Bruce, Bush isn't just inarticulate like Ike. The man is living in a fantasy world. He believes only 24% of the American people oppose the war in Iraq, for chrissakes.

Hitler waiting for Steiner to drive the Russians out of Berlin was more rational and lucid than this imbecile.

Posted by: Speed on October 27, 2006 at 4:44 PM | PERMALINK

Al writes: "...to overthrow moderate Arab governments like Saudi Arabia."

Moderate my ass. That country is a god damned feudal monarchy. It should be overthrown.

Posted by: s9 on October 27, 2006 at 4:44 PM | PERMALINK

Been snortin' whiskey and drinkin' cocaine! AHAHAHHAA!!

Posted by: George W. Bush on October 27, 2006 at 4:45 PM | PERMALINK

A lot of Lyndon Johnson's private conversations in the White House were like this. "Why can't we just git out thar and whup them commies? Ah buleeve like John Wayne that ya got ta go out thar and kick some ass!" What is it about Texans, anyway?

Texan Joke:
Why are cemeteries in Texas so small?
Because they only bury people after they take all the shit out of them!

Posted by: Red on October 27, 2006 at 4:57 PM | PERMALINK

Speed,

Shrub still believes the Ninth Army will break through - They'll be pulling out of Halbe anytime now.

Posted by: thethirdPaul on October 27, 2006 at 4:58 PM | PERMALINK

Geez, and "Buying" a MBA from Harvard really used to mean something. I, mean for that amount of money, he could have been an Ordained Minister from the Universal Church, many times over.

Sort of like a certificate from their School of Government for O'Reilly.

Posted by: stupid git on October 27, 2006 at 5:08 PM | PERMALINK

I won't rest until people in Afghanistan learn to surf and enjoy their beaches like us Amuricans do.

Posted by: George W. Bush on October 27, 2006 at 5:11 PM | PERMALINK

"President George W. Bush will be seen to be a far greater man than all of you can possibly realize."

roflmao,
Thank you, thank you very much. I needed that laugh.
Of course, I'm working on the assumption that this was totally tongue in cheek. I hope so at least.


Posted by: sheerahkahn on October 27, 2006 at 5:14 PM | PERMALINK

I have just been told by someone who obviously hates Amurica that Afghanistan is a land-locked country. This person has no faith in Amurican know-how. Halliburton will build them beaches anyway, and they WILL learn to surf!

Gawd, I love the smell of phosphorus in the morning.

Posted by: George W. Bush on October 27, 2006 at 5:15 PM | PERMALINK

after reading alot of ur comments maybe we should impeach bush. oh shit thats right chenney!! hehe

Posted by: mr maki mmmkaayyy on October 27, 2006 at 5:16 PM | PERMALINK

Kevin,

I read over all of them, and all I can say is "Jesus wept."
How I got fooled into voting for him in 2000 is beyond me, but at least my fellow Californians covered for me and cancelled my vote out with theirs.

Posted by: sheerahkahn on October 27, 2006 at 5:16 PM | PERMALINK

we should impeach bush. oh shit thats right chenney!! hehe

That's not tough - make it a two-fer. Try 'em in concert.

Posted by: Global Citizen on October 27, 2006 at 5:24 PM | PERMALINK

President George W. Bush will be seen to be a far greater man than all of you can possibly realize.

Posted by: Bruce Kowal on October 27, 2006 at 3:28 PM

He's number one in my book!

Posted by: Satan on October 27, 2006 at 5:29 PM | PERMALINK

re: g.w. bush will be seen to be a far greater man than all of you can possibly realize

greater than what?
well as in mass he would be far greater than a lump of terd.

Posted by: mr maki mmmkaayyy on October 27, 2006 at 5:50 PM | PERMALINK

But at least that lump would have a functional use as fertilizer.

Posted by: Global Citizen on October 27, 2006 at 6:01 PM | PERMALINK

Hey, Kevin, you forgot one. Greg Mitchell in Editor & Publisher quotes this jewel from Bush's little soiree:

We will press and press and press to protect ourselves. And this stuff about how Iraq is causing the enemy -- whatever excuse they need, they have made up their mind to attack, and they grab on to things to kind of justify. But if it's not Iraq, it's Israel. If it's not Israel, it's the Crusades. If it's not the Crusades, it is the cartoon. I'm not kidding you. I'm not kidding you.

You heard the man. It's the cartoon.

Posted by: SED on October 27, 2006 at 6:06 PM | PERMALINK

SED: If it's not the Crusades, it is the cartoon. I'm not kidding you. I'm not kidding you.

Are you sure that's not a quote from the Medium Lobster on Fafblog?

Posted by: enozinho (wetorture.com) on October 27, 2006 at 6:12 PM | PERMALINK

Not clear if this transcript was released (as a routine matter) or if someone leaked it. Anyone know if this is a leak or official release?

Posted by: bt on October 27, 2006 at 7:31 PM | PERMALINK

No Bush said it was all on the record.(He must be getting desperate) except for the bits that were off..if you click on my comment at 2;48 and then the hyperlink, and scroll up, you can hear Bush in full throttle for the full hour.

Posted by: Steve Crickmore on October 27, 2006 at 7:53 PM | PERMALINK

The most idiotic thing George Bush said? A more challenging survey may be to try and find something cogent this Yale illiterate ever said. He is unbelievably incoherent.

Posted by: Pechorin on October 27, 2006 at 8:04 PM | PERMALINK

Gotta be #1. Speaking coherently, it can be, sometimes, you know what they say, difficult for people, people who, they don't know how to put, err, combine, ummm, their words, to speak coherently, and with, ummm.

thats one funny guy

Posted by: Tyler on October 27, 2006 at 8:55 PM | PERMALINK

Shit wrapped in skin = George W. Bush

Trust me on this....

Posted by: Laura Bush on October 27, 2006 at 9:35 PM | PERMALINK

I am 100% sure that even at Yale, history majors are not required to take a course in Linear Algebra

W was a history major? Weird - New Haven, to be a history major.

Posted by: rusty bidet on October 27, 2006 at 10:07 PM | PERMALINK

Well, I did hear that before passing out, he once reached "................to the place where Morey dwells, bah, bah,.....KerPlunk!

Posted by: thethirdPaul on October 27, 2006 at 11:11 PM | PERMALINK

By "matrix", I think GWBush means one of those four quadrant boxes where maximum goodness is in the upper right corner. He hasn't figured out how to draw one of those that demonstrates success in Iraq.

Posted by: Bill Arnold on October 27, 2006 at 11:34 PM | PERMALINK

Assuming the reference from the "Posse Comitatus" episode of West Wing is the Brolin character responding to the murder of a secret service agent by muttering "Crime. . .boy, I don't know."

Posted by: colin on October 28, 2006 at 12:16 AM | PERMALINK

That's what you would expect from the Retardlican-in-Chief. Only a retard would be willing to assume the role of a paper tiger, while the real power is in the office of the vice president.

Posted by: anonymous on October 28, 2006 at 3:10 AM | PERMALINK

President George W. Bush will be seen to be a far greater man than all of you can possibly realize.

Interesting claim. For what exactly? (If not exactly, then closely.)

Posted by: Jeffrey Davis on October 28, 2006 at 9:56 AM | PERMALINK

Oh God, I could feel my neurons dissolving and synapses snapping just trying to parse those statements. #'s 3 and 4 are more out of touch with reality, while #'s 1 and 2 just hardly seem to make a lick of sense. I guess I'd say #1 just because even with Matt Yglesias's help I still can't figure it out.

Posted by: Rob T. on October 28, 2006 at 10:14 AM | PERMALINK

I think he was like referring to the movie, "The Matrix"

Posted by: coldhotel on October 28, 2006 at 5:14 PM | PERMALINK

Are you sure about the meanings of what he said? I got nothing out of any of them. It's just gibberish. How did this moron get to be a governor, much less a president. Anyone who ever voted for him should kill themselves in shame. What you've done to America and the world is unforgivable. Seriously. I mean it.

Posted by: jussumbody on October 28, 2006 at 11:44 PM | PERMALINK

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Posted by: mmf铃声 on October 29, 2006 at 10:06 AM | PERMALINK

I have several further nominations for you here, Kevin.

Posted by: Gary Farber on October 29, 2006 at 1:52 PM | PERMALINK

What you forgot to mention is that when he was doing all this garbling he was wearing one of those blue shirts with the sleeves rolled up, picking up the blue in his eyes, looking every bit the image of "the common tough guy" that the Republicans know Joe Six-pack loves to see in their poiticians.

Or have all you bloggers forgotten the age-old credo "a picture is owrth a 1,000 words?"

Posted by: ny patriot on October 30, 2006 at 2:14 PM | PERMALINK




 

 

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