This is not Bush Fiction

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Bush has bad day at Sydney Opera House</p>

<p>By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer Fri Sep 7, 6:49 AM ET</p>

<p>SYDNEY, Australia - President Bush had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at the Sydney Opera House. </p>

<p>He’d only reached the third sentence of Friday’s speech to business leaders, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, when he committed his first gaffe.</p>

<p>“Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit,” Bush said to Australian Prime Minister John Howard.</p>

<p>Oops. That would be APEC, the annual meeting of leaders from 21 Pacific Rim nations, not OPEC, the cartel of 12 major oil producers.</p>

<p>Bush quickly corrected himself. “APEC summit,” he said forcefully, joking that Howard had invited him to the OPEC summit next year (for the record, an impossibility, since neither Australia nor the U.S. are OPEC members).</p>

<p>The president’s next goof went uncorrected — by him anyway. Talking about Howard’s visit to Iraq last year to thank his country’s soldiers serving there, Bush called them “Austrian troops.”</p>

<p>That one was fixed for him. Though tapes of the speech clearly show Bush saying “Austrian,” the official text released by the White House switched it to “Australian.”</p>

<p>Then, speech done, Bush confidently headed out — the wrong way.</p>

<p>He strode away from the lectern on a path that would have sent him over a steep drop. Howard and others redirected the president to center stage, where there were steps leading down to the floor of the theater.</p>

<p>The event had inauspicious beginnings. Bush started 10 minutes late, so that APEC workers could hustle people out of the theater’s balcony seating to fill the many empty portions of the main orchestra section below — which is most visible on camera.</p>

<p>Even resettled, the audience remained quiet throughout the president’s remarks, applauding only when he was finished.</p>

<p><a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070907/ap_on_re_au_an/bush_bad_day_at_theater_1[/url]”>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070907/ap_on_re_au_an/bush_bad_day_at_theater_1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

2

<p>Oh I believe, its embarrassing</p>

<p>you know they have people in the administration who correct his gaffe for the public record</p>

<p>fortuneately, there are people who record the actual goofs for the REAL public record</p>

<p>who wants to bet he was medicated</p>

3

<p>I cringe whenever I see him speak. His misuse of words drives me nuts, and is often offensive to non-americans. Surely, his writers go over the pronunciation and vocab with him before the speeches???</p>

4

<p>I am certain that the President has some sort of learning disability which causes him to make gaffs such as these. Unfortunately it does not seem that he permits himself time for additional prep to overcome them. I recall that Nelson Rockerfeller was dyslexic but nobody knew because he prepped enough to function well.</p>

5

<p>I posted about this in the McCain thread. Jeanne Moos did a story about it on CNN and as I watched him mangle, not only the English language, but the situation, I cringed. He’s an embarrassment, in so many ways. January '09 cannot come fast enough.</p>

6

<p>How frustrating it must be for his handlers that he has such difficulty in learning his part!</p>

7

<p>Bush has made me embarrassed and ashamed to be an American. He is an idiot. Not only what he says, but how he says it. His inflection, his mannerisms, his tone, everything about this person says ‘moron’. I honestly don’t know how he can live with himself and what he has singlehandedly done to this country. Okay, I blame Rove, Rumsefeld, Cheney too.</p>

<p>I would like to come back 100 years from now and see how this time in American history is portrayed.</p>

8

<p>Bush used to speak more coherently. Look at videos from his Texas governorship days, and compare them to his speaking in the past few years, when it is simply beyond buffoonery. There has to be an explanation for these multiple verbal issues.</p>

<p>Rather than dyslexia, I suspect Bush has some sort of more severe neurological disorder. I’d be worried if I were Laura!</p>

9

<p>Leno is not getting his money’s worth from his writers. They have it too easy.</p>

10

<p>I don’t think it’s a learning disability, it’s something that has gotten worse over time. He sounded perfectly normal when he was governor of Texas. He’s hemming and hahing much worse than he did even six years ago. It reminds me of how Reagan declined over 8 years.</p>

11

<p>Liberals can whine all they want, President Bush still beat their two best guys (Gore and Kerry). Sometimes I think CC should set up a separate forum so liberals can sit around and bash Bush 24/7 and remind themselves how smart and perfect they are.</p>

12

<p>Razorsharp…we ain’t the President. We can afford to sound incoherent. He is the leader of the most powerful nation in the world. He needs to do better! </p>

<p>As President, he doesn’t come across as bright. Whether he IS bright or not, I can’t tell you. But how he comes across should matter! </p>

<p>I say this regardless of which party he belongs to. Reagan was a Republican but at least he could act and speak, which goes with the territory. </p>

<p>I like the opening to that article and it is pretty clever. Obviously the writer has read Judith Viorst to his children.</p>

<p>PS, Razorsharp…I don’t quite get the point that Bush “beat” Gore and Kerry (who were the other sides’ “best guys”…alone that may be debatable) because while he won the Electoral College vote, he didn’t win the popular vote and so it is hard to make a case that he really beat out anyone else up for the job in terms of coming across better than others. It was hardly an overwhelming victory or endorsement, even if he legally won. His current ratings are not so great either. But even so, the comments in this thread were not about what he has accomplished as a leader but how he COMES ACROSS as one, or not, as the case may be.</p>

13

<p>I actually find his “isms” very entertaining, hilarious, and deeply human. A lot of very bright, accomplished people walk around making the exact same sort of chronic speech and directional errors, but they aren’t the target of political frustration so they don’t get the coverage. </p>

<p>I absolutely love the “Bushisms” calendar that seems to appear in bookstores around the holidays. I read as much of it as I can without buying it, and it makes me laugh so hard. My favorite Bushism is when he enthusiastically smiled and waved and waved and waved across the room - to Stevie Wonder.</p>

14

<p>

President Bush speaks all the time and has no problem. No one reports all the times he speaks well and connects with people. He makes a few mistakes and the mindless Bush Bashers are all over him with the same old “I told you so” B.S. </p>

<p>

There is no President Gore or President Kerry. Why you can’t admit the obvious, is beyond me. The collective wisdom of Democrats was to nominate Gore and Kerry and despite being so much smarter than everyone else in the world, these two men were beaten by someone who cannot speak well. </p>

<p>Liberals lost the last two elections because they are arrogant and that arrogance is routinely demonstrated by the incessent Bush Bashing on this forum by liberals.</p>

15

<p>Bush’s inability to speak coherently is the least of his or this country’s problems and you don’t have to be a liberal or conservative to recognize the total incompetence of this man; a set of eyes and ears will do.</p>

<p>From Iraq to Katrina and most anything in between, this country, if not the world, were the losers in the last two elections.</p>

16

<p>APEC, OPEC, Australian, Austrian, vats de difference?</p>

17

<p>I know a lot of bright and accomplished people and I’ve never met one who makes the kinds of errors that GWB does, or who continually says the kinds of inane things that he does. He’s an embarrassment and it has nothing to do with Democrat whining. He brings it on entirely on his own. As Susan said, he’s the POTUS! Learn to pronounce the word nuclear. Learn what conference you’re attending when you’re making a speech. Learn the difference between Australia and Austria. Has there ever been another president, in either party, who has even come close to Bush in this respect? When you have a few hours (you’ll need that long!) Google Bushisms, read them and weep.</p>

18

<p>Bush’s continual lack of preparedness is part of his overall arrogance. He doesn’t seem to think he needs to take a few extra minutes to get it right. Even the brightest of bright prepare carefully when they know that every word they say will be examined. You would think after all these years he would recognize his “problem” and prepare himself. His unwillingness to say “nuclear” instead of “nu-cue-lar” even tho it makes him sound poorly educated, is a perfect example.</p>

19

<p>Now ya got me curious…what does “POTUS” stand for? </p>

<p>That’s the thing…I don’t think of the way that Bush comes across when he speaks as being party related. I’d say that even if he was a Democrat. I agree with AlwaysAMom that I can’t think of another president in my lifetime who comes across like Bush does when he speaks. I expect more from a President. It doesn’t matter that I am not perfect (speaking to razorsharp’s comment) as I am not the President. I didn’t say I was smarter or speak better in public. While I don’t expect a President to be perfect, I expect way more than the image that Bush has when he speaks. There are plenty of professionals and politicians who do a better job than him in this respect by far, no matter which party they belong to. So what if he won the election? The option the party put forth was him which is not the same as “best person for the job.” I don’t recall the kind of jokes made about Bush in this regard made about another President. Other types of jokes, yes, but not about intelligence or speaking blunders, etc. You can find it on all sorts of merchandise. It is a well known fact that this is an issue for this President!</p>

<p>EDIT…OK, got it…duh…POTUS is Presidents of the United States. I gotta get with the program. :p</p>

20

<p>AlwaysAMom, I looked up Bushisms and didn’t get very far in terms of “read 'em and weep,” such as this one:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Some, ya gotta read 'em and laugh though, like this one:</p>

<p>

</p>