Debate Over “Is Bush An Idiot?”
You KNOW you’re in 21st century America where niceties are stripped away when you turn on cable TV talk shows. And, sure enough, Joe Scarborough (who seems to be one of the more independent talking head hosts on cable) actually began his show by asking in a segment “Is Bush An Idiot?”
The segment was quite interesting and can be viewed at HERE at Crooks & Liars which also contains this tidbit:
Scarborough probably had the most interesting observation when he brought up talked about old clips of when Bush was Governor of Texas and did not make anywhere near the number of mistakes that he does now and said it “seems like he is losing confidence by the day.”
Perhaps. But if the less-deferential vocabulary of our political debate has changed over the years, the tenor really hasn’t.
For one thing, throwing around the “i” word isn’t new and it’s not new in the way foes portray George Bush (of course, they would argue it’s the way he portrays himself).
Part of the reason why this segment came up is because of the fuss and skepticism about news reports that Bush was reading Camus. As our colleague Michael Stickings wrote yesterday:
According to Slate’s John Dickerson, President Bush read Camus’s novel The Stranger while on vacation this summer. According to Tony Snow, Bush “found it an interesting book and a quick read”: “I don’t want to go too deep into it, but we discussed the origins of existentialism.”
The subtext of stories is that (a)Yeah, right Bush reads Camu (b)Yeah, right how can Bush discuss “existentialism” when he can’t even pronounce “nuclear?” and (c)Bush (who did go to Yale which would not let a dunce in) is intellectually challenged.
Everyone has a theory so here’s ours:
Scene: Washington D.C. Library. In walks George Bush surrounded by Secret Service Agents.
BUSH: I’d like a book for my summer vacation.
LIBRARIAN: Who are you sir, surrounded by all of those people with earphones in their ears?
BUSH: Don’t you know me? I’m the most respected, trusted and powerful figure in America.
LIBRARIAN: You don’t look like Oprah.
BUSH: No. I’m the President of the United States. I’m George Bush. Listen, I’m in a rush. I have to give Hillary Clinton a back rub. What book do you recommend?
LIBRARIAN: How about Camu?
BUSH: Oh! I love that whale! I saw him in a show at Sea World. I’ll take it!
And Slate and Snow took it from there…
It’s an event that sets up a punchline. A cheap shot punchline, sure. But it’s a punchline. It cries out for formulaic comedy.
In reality, all the talk about people being unfair to Bush and Republicans is so much piffle. If you go back in history you’ll see that many Presidents and politicos have been lampooned and lambasted as being more evil than they are, dumber than they are, more political than they are (although in those instances it’s usually understatement).
Comedians, satirists and opponents look for the slightest thing that they can exaggerate, blast or mock. All Presidents have faced this, although there probably were some too boring to lampoon (Millard Fillmore). It’s not treason, it’s not inappropriate — it is the American way.
12 Responses to “Debate Over “Is Bush An Idiot?””
Still gets old. Can you remember another joke that gets told six years later without complaints? Most people get upset after the first two. Not to mention the leftover and misattributed “Quaylisms” from a Seattle humor spot are just pathetic.
As to History, let’s see… Gore. Too ‘smart’ for the common man (because, as we all know, not being able to carry a normal conversation is smart). Hell, we’re still hearing about this with that stupid movie he ran. Clinton. Argued to be a liar and a loser, as well as married to pure concentrated evil… but not stupid. Dukakis? Cold, unemotional, a “clerk”, but not stupid. Too ‘smart’ for the common man.
Mondale? Probably was an idiot (I pledge to raise taxes?! wtf?), but, no, the memorable comments on that election were the “Bear in the Woods”. Mondale was a dove, and that was pointed out.
Carter? Was a dove and an economic bungler in 1980, amd in 1976, it was Ford that was the fool (No, the Poles aren’t being opressed by the Soviet Union).
McGovern? Radical and a welfare fanatic (something that not all Democratic heads were a fan of back then)
So, when’s the last time “Stupid” was a big description for a Republican? I can remember Reagan being portrayed as a foolish cowboy from Hollywood. Ford, as I already mentioned, probably was an idiot, and was certainly discussed as one.
Now, this still leaves the possibility that Democrats never elect complete idiots, but I think in between Clinton lying about sex on national TV (jeez, man, most straight males of his age woulda been proud of it, and the looney left offered to take Monica’s place!), Mondale, and Carter… I think we can discourage that possibility.
Have to be pretty smart to:
- Get elected twice
- Convince a whole country we need to invade Afghanistan to find Bin Laden
- Convince a whole country that Iraq has WMDs and we should invade
- Convince a whole country that you invaded Iraq to spread democracy, not because we thought they had WMDs
- Make a whole country forget about being in Afghanistan
If you haven’t seen this comparison on Youtube, it’s breathaking.
Camu used to come in big olive green lipstick tubes, like a crayon with sand in it. Now he’s writing books. Who’d a thunk it?
All I know is the man sniff(s/ed) coke. Enough said.
Doesn’t anyone get the satire or absurdity of Bush reading Camus. Atheist, existentialist and worse of all French. I could buy into Ayn Rand, but not Camus. Now Quayle was an idiot, does anybody hear his name brought up as an elder statesman. Sh** I doubt if he could build a dog house for the less fortunate at tje Indianna county clubs.
Rudi said:
Doesn’t anyone get the satire or absurdity of Bush reading Camus. Atheist, existentialist and worse of all French. I could buy into Ayn Rand, but not Camus.
No. It is neither an example of satire nor is it absurd. Please note that Ayn Rand’s favorite author was Victor Hugo
Would you find it absurd for an Atheist to study religion? How about Ayn Rand reading Karl Marx? You don’t have to agree with a perspective to value understanding it. Give it a shot.
MichaelF,
Bush does not have a history of intellectyual curiousity, I will believe this story when someone questions him on the book and he talks about the use of an anti-hero, atheism and ….
I am guessing he will talk about a talking killer whale in some Disney movie. I enjoyed “The Plague” more, a more favorable hero as opposed to “The Stranger”. More to the view of Chimp World.
“In reality, all the talk about people being unfair to Bush and Republicans is so much piffle. If you go back in history you’ll see that many Presidents and politicos have been lampooned and lambasted as being more evil than they are, dumber than they are, more political than they are (although in those instances it’s usually understatement”
cite examples
Rudi:
Back in ’94, a friend of mine was telling about reading Quayle’s autobio, in which Quayle made the not-unbelievable assertion that many of his public gaffes were deliberate, playing the comic relief/distraction to Bush41, so to speak. The other thing that stood out from the conversation was my friend describing what a devious, shifty, conservative hardline [expletive] Quayle was (i.e. not a fool, he only played one on TV).
For a while I’ve wondered if W was playing his own ‘clown’ to Cheney’s straight man (a la Reagan v. Bush41) but that vid JP linked to is (as he said) breathtaking. Something is really not right there, and (again like Ronnie) for the man with his finger on the button, that’s downright frightening.
While I don’t think Joe Scarborough drew the correct conclusion… he did ask the right question.
Somehow, I highly doubt that Dubya read Camus on his vacation. This sounds like a little PR ploy to counteract his image as a bumbler-especially at the G-8 summit. Most accounts I’ve read about him say that he isn’t really a reader. He may, however, really be an idiot -but one with tremendous political skill and the genius of Karl Rove (Bush’s Brain) behind his successful campaigns. I honestly think he is a poor speaker and seems to just shoot from the hip when he doesn’t have a prepared statement in front of him. He lacks sophistication and has to rely on his wife in social situations-who seems like a lovely person.