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« Is George Bush a Coward? | Main | CNN » August 06, 2004
Is George Bush a Nice Guy?
Posted by Bill
I'd still vote for an elitist jerk that wanted to kill terrorists, but it's kind of a bonus that George Bush is one Hell of a genuinely nice guy ... that wants to kill terrorists. Jeff Harrell has a round-up: Bush supporters have heard stories like this one over and over again. One of us will get an email from somebody who witnessed it, and that email will be passed around among the members of the community until it becomes a part of the common knowledge. Bush running with the soldier, Bush hugging the 9/11 orphan, Bush going to church at St. John's, Bush offering to pay for lunch for his staff... they're a part of the Republican culture. But stories like this don't make the front page. There are still lots of folks out there who have never heard them. So here are a few of my personal favorites, with links to the appropriate Snopes entries to back them up. And to that, I'll add another old story that was published in, of all places, Salon.com: "After dinner, after the dignitaries had left, a guy in a blue suit Read the whole thing, it's good. UPDATE: You people are lazy, so I'll excerpt a bunch of it ... He stopped to shake the hand of the waiter holding the door while the other diners waited deferentially just behind him. Then he walked right up to me and looked me straight in the face. "All right, the doormen. How you doing? It's nice to see you." An unflinching confidence and the requisite swagger, a swell in a literal sense as he walked in looking ready and robust in a blue suit. The air was immediately supercharged; the prez was in the house. ... "You can bring me more of that cider, but I'd really love it if you brought me a beer," said Bush. ... Dessert and coffee, and then they were gone. Pushed out chairs, rumpled napkins and abandoned tartlets in various states. We opened up the doors; some of us took off our jackets. Suddenly there was a commotion in the kitchen. I walked in and there was President Bush in his trim blue suit standing in the middle of the small room, dirty glasses and plates all around him, surrounded by the waiters and kitchen staff -- nine of us in all. He must have walked his guests of honor out, then doubled back by himself to come into the kitchen. Agents stood in the doorway. It was as though helium had been released into the room, something that changed the actual composition of the air and suffused it with a rarefied, electric buzz. I've met and spoken to a number of famous people, but this was different, this was being a kid again, before we learned doubt and cynicism and cold reason. Political convictions, if you had any, fell away; judgment, bias, opinion -- these were not on the guest list. It was the heart responding, not the head. How are you all? Wanted to thank you for your hard work tonight." He had a black felt tip pen in his hand and was signing menus. "Too many consonants in that," he quipped. I found myself dashing back into the dining room to get a menu for him to sign. "Can I shake your hand?" asked one of the ladies waiting. "Let me give you a hug." "Mr. President, this is Norman, the cook for the new ambassador." "Good man, Norman, you're part of the war effort." I held out my menu. "What's your name?" he asked, looking me in the eyes. "C-u-l-l-e-n." "Cullen! That's a good Texas name. Thank you for your hard work." He wrote, "To Cullen, Best Wishes, George Bush," on the front of the menu below the eagle. "Mr. President, can you sign this for my Christian brother Mike? And this one for my mother. My Christian mother prays for you every night." One of the older waiters was wide-eyed, standing right next to him. "You know, I'll tell you something, this entire country is praying right now and I can feel it; I really do; I feel lucky for that." What Bush said suddenly reminded me of something. I was nervous, but I decided to say it out loud over the noise and excitement of the room. I barely got the words out of my twitching mouth. "There's a line from Churchill where he says, 'The nation had the lion's heart, I had the luck to give the roar.'" Bush was standing right in front of me, and he'd heard me. "I like that, that's a great line. I put a bust of Churchill in the Oval Office, not because of that quote -- because I didn't know it -- but because I admire the man so much, what he did." He was signing another menu. "But remember, after the war he lost his bid for reelection." He was smiling and laughing, and so were we. "Time for politics later, though, we've got a war to win." "And you're going to win it!" somebody called out. "You better believe it," Bush said. Suddenly I felt myself peering through the veil of all he represents, the leader of the free world, to see him as just a man, just a good-natured simple man of flesh and blood doing a hard job under enormous weight. Here he was in our dirty kitchen, sharing it all with us for a brief sweet moment. After he had gone, we sat together at the ambassador's dining room table to eat the leftovers. I was a few chairs from where Bush had eaten. Intoxicated, we swapped stories. "He shook my hand right when he came in," said one waiter incredulously. "I told him, 'God bless you,' and he turned and said, 'God bless you too.'" "Did you sneeze or something?" "No." "Did he?" "No, I just know he's a Christian." "He kissed me on the lips. He's worse than Clinton, this one," said Beatrice happily. The Protocol ladies giggled excitedly. "Maybe I won't wash my face for a while." "You know what I liked about him? He's not afraid to say, 'Can you explain that; I don't understand what that is.' He said it a couple of times during dinner." "Down to earth. Like Harry Truman. What he says isn't all flowered up; he just says it, and it means a lot, you know." "I'll tell you what -- that guy is loose. No doubt about it." I remember that I felt a surge of gratitude and sympathy in the last moments that Bush was in front of me. I had reached out to shake his hand before he left. "Thank you, Sir, good luck." And I meant it completely. (Emphasis mine, of course) Posted by Bill at August 6, 2004 07:03 AM | TrackBack (5) CommentsThanks for this Bill. Posted by: Val Prieto at August 6, 2004 10:22 AM I hope - really, deperately hope - that I am not becoming some sort of Bush-worshipping zombie. I mean, I'd taken pride in a certain degree of political cynicism; you know - ALL politicians are equally not to be trusted, or liked. But then 9/11 went down and I was obliged to consider sides (after the initial rush of wanting us to nuke the middle east), and then Iraq happened and I was obliged to take a side because, let's face, only idiots thought this whole war against terror would a Falklands-style quickie. Then I started blogging, and I received an education about politics and politicians that I would never have gotten had I been content to stay with the dead tree press. So today I found myself tearing up at the Bush/Hug story (just as I did when it first came out) and now I'm wondering where my cynicism went, and I hope it's not a bad thing I lost it. In any case, thanks for all your posts this morning, Bill. Posted by: ccwbass at August 6, 2004 11:03 AM ccwbass - It's easier than one thinks to become a blind follower, and sometimes I struggle to inject skepticism about Bush into my critical thinking - but cynicism for cynicism's sake is worse than being a zombie. There's plenty to criticize Bush on, and his good nature is not more important than his policy, but it helps to grasp what motivates the guy. Understanding Bush's nature helps both supporters and detractors make stronger, more logical arguments. Posted by: Bill from INDC Journal at August 6, 2004 11:11 AM As we say over here in accounts payable: Fuckin' A. Posted by: ccwbass at August 6, 2004 11:25 AM Didn't Dean have a story about W at the Air Force Academy graduation recently? Saluted every graduate. I think the real question is can anyone find any evidence that he acted like a prick somewhere? Posted by: mailman at August 6, 2004 01:09 PM Well, he did call a journalist an asshole once, but I don't think that counts. Posted by: ccwbass at August 6, 2004 01:47 PM It's funny that people would freak over his referring to a member of the press as an asshole. It's like... Duh, it's the Press. I think the public only hates Politicians more than the Press. Great post and article, btw. Posted by: Kai at August 6, 2004 02:14 PM The photo is priceless. He looks like he could be anyone's grandfather. Posted by: jmflynny at August 6, 2004 07:53 PM Great post, Bill. One story like this counteracts a hundred "Bushisms." BTW, my favorite George Bush story is the visit to the injured colonel in the hospital after 9/11. That one choked me up the first time I read it. It's at Snopes. Posted by: Ernie G at August 6, 2004 10:24 PM A friend of mine e-mailed me the photo of Bush running with the soldier and I posted it. The whole story speaks volumes about the man that one never hears from the media - or the man himself. I hope we see some of this at the convention. Here's the photo. Posted by: MartiniPundit at August 6, 2004 11:58 PM Sure Bush is a nice guy. Invite him to the barbeque. He probably grills a fine chicken. This doesn't excuse going to the American public and the United Nations with faulty evidence of WMD, advocating a war, villifying those that disagree with this policy, starting such a war, and then pretending the war was actually about something else when the WMD were not found. Powell to United Nations: Iraq hiding weapons For historical comparison consider Adlai Stevenson's presentation to the United Nations during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Charles DeGaulle's answer when offered photographic evidence confirming the existence of missiles with nuclear weapons in Cuba by the Kennedy Adminstration? It was not necessary — the word of an American president was sufficient. Posted by: Zachriel at August 7, 2004 11:09 AM Working link to Adlai Stevenson article. "It was an epochal moment in the Cold War -- the point of comparison that will be on many people's minds as Secretary of State Colin Powell tries to convince the United Nations Security Council today [February 5, 2003] that Iraq does indeed have weapons of mass destruction." http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A26586-2003Feb4 (comments log apparently didn't like the ampersand)
Posted by: Zachriel at August 7, 2004 11:16 AM Zachriel - Would you like to explain your point and how the links relate to it instead of being obstruse? Posted by: Bill from INDC at August 7, 2004 11:53 AM Never ceases to amaze me that people are so zombified by the WMD issue. We did not go to war with Iraq because of WMD's. We went to war with Iraq in '91 because they invaded Kuwait. That war did not end until we invaded Iraq and ousted Hussein. In the interveening decade+ there was ceasefire in place that Iraq violated on numerous ocassions (almost every day for big chunks of the time). In addition Iraq was in violation of over a dozen UN resolutions (the organization that brokered the ceasefire) finding against Iraq and telling Hussein to put up PROOF that he had destroyed all WMD's he had EVER had, get rid of long range missiles (longer than 93 miles), etc. Iraq did not do these things and eventually the ceasefire was called off and all of the UN resolutions were enforced. The complaint about WMD's is a left wing red herring designed to get everyone to forget about all the months and months of diplomatic and UN maneuvering to get Iraq to comply. Rush to war, don't make me laugh. Posted by: RC at August 9, 2004 02:09 PM Good Story. Posted by: Tim Worstall at August 10, 2004 04:53 AM thanks... Posted by: not at August 10, 2004 12:05 PM |
