Bush To Filipino President: "I Am Reminded Of The Great Talent Of The -- Of Our Philippine-Americans When I Eat Dinner At The White House"

President Bush met with Filipino President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo today at the White House. Arroyo was in Washington while her country tries to recover from a typhoon that devastated coastal areas and flipped a ferry carrying over 800 passengers last week. Before discussing aide for the Philippines, Bush couldn't resist beginning the sober meeting with a quip about a Filipino member of his kitchen staff. Read part of the transcript from the meeting and click here to read more about one of the "Philippine-Americans" Bush is referring to. See the excerpt below:

PRESIDENT BUSH: Madam President, it is a pleasure to welcome you back to the Oval Office. We have just had a very constructive dialogue. First, I want to tell you how proud I am to be the President of a nation that -- in which there's a lot of Philippine-Americans. They love America and they love their heritage. And I reminded the President that I am reminded of the great talent of the -- of our Philippine-Americans when I eat dinner at the White House. (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT ARROYO: Yes.

PRESIDENT BUSH: And the chef is a great person and a really good cook, by the way, Madam President.

PRESIDENT ARROYO: Thank you.

Comments

[NotWaldo]

The President of the United States could be outwitted by a jar of marshmallow fluff.

[texastornado]

Yep he's more than three fourths of a bubble off and more than two quarts low.

[RRonin]

He's probably told the President of Mexico how much he loves nachos, and the President of France how grateful he is they invented the French kiss......

[Dollfc61]

Does he HAVE to talk at all???

[NotWaldo]

Mouth is in gear, brain is in neutral.

[Cynth]

Brain is in a tailspin.

[coldcanuckinwhite]

Actually, I'd like to know who voted him in as President.

[NotWaldo]

Scalia, Rehnquist and three or four others.

[JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin]

The MSM.

[ohiodem250]

I do not believe President Bush was being racist here. Nonetheless, I am deeply troubled by this. This is a simple matter of diplomacy. How can a President not be armed with some sort of fact about Filipinos or Filipino-Americans and their successes as a people especially tying it in somehow to the theme of America being the land of opportunity. This is the last thing that should've been in his ear before he walked out in front of those cameras. It could've taken 5 minutes for some college kid intern to look up "Filipino" on Wikipedia and tell him a quick thing. This reminds me of the procrastinating college student who is asked to speak in class and reveals embarrassingly through his answer that he did not do his reading. Not only should President Bush be publicly lampooned for such a bonehead statement heads should roll on the White House staff for incompetence, publicly embarrassing the Filipino Head of State.

[SFkid]

No, not racist just stupid. It reminds me of how great Mexico is every time I see Jorge mowing my lawn or Lupe scrubbing my floors.

[Burkelbile]

"Yeah Pres Arroyo, - ah got a couple of what I think are filipino pearl-divers washin' the dishes on my ranch in Crawford too! - You people sure are good in the KITCHEN!"

Yet another reason for us to shine with pride due to our wonderful & articulate chief exec.
6 months 27 days 17 hours 26 minutes 16 seconds to before president s#t-4-brains rides off into the sunset. Thanks again, republicans. You will PAY at the ballot box in November.

[EFC]

My God, when will this imbecilic posuer stop embarassing himself and the nation? Is there some kind of commitee that could authorize an emergency measure to stifle this baffoon?

[TotobiAyokoh23]

What a proto-infantile neurotic statement!

[drsivana99]

This is the sort of thing he thinks it's appropriate to say. While Bush may not be as stupid as he appears-- it's difficult to imagine anyone COULD have so little apparent brain power and still maintain a functioning autonomic nervous system-- there are a lot of things about human beings that he just DOESN'T GET. He is a genuine, clinical sociopath, just like Ted Bundy. There aren't any rules he has to follow. He can lie about non-existent weapons of mass destruction, get thousands of perople killed, then make an asinine joke out of it at a banquet. Hell, even Adolf Hitler had more class than this jerk. (At least he didn't try to call the Holocaust "Operation Jewish Freedom.")

[mbh78213]

He is NOT stupid. He is not a redneck either -- he just plays one on TV. Watch footage of him as governor, and you see a totally different person. No drawl, no "folksy" sayings, not even a "ranch" in Crawford. It's all an act. All the more scary.

[princessofnowt]

I believe that. He cant plead insanity, but he can plead stupid. Seems to be working.

"He's just an idiot let him run out his term, you cant punish 'stupid' " is the line they've fed us and the line we are buying.

It is about as evil as you can get in real life.

[ptobe]

It's not a big deal - he's just a tool, that's all. He's like a white guy who meets a black guy and tells him that he knows another black guy. The proper reply is, "so what?"

It doesn't make him racist, it makes him a preening idiot. And a tool.

[SeriousBlack]

I can see your point of view... Until this, I actually had pretty much the same opinion about him (i.e., that he was simply a dumb, incompetent jerk. But for this particular kind of remark to come out of someone's mouth, well, I think it actually must be indicative of at least a certain degree of subconscious, deep-seated racism.

[anelder]

DITTO

[bovar]

Thanks Gloria. Great seeing you again. Mind nipping down to the kitchen and knock up somethin' tasty before we get started ...

[afrographia]

Oh Lawd! Some of you are missing the point of what makes this statement racially problematic, if not outright racist. Some have said, well, if the cook had been French, this would be a non-issue. Probably true, but do not try to flatten the difference between France and the Phillipines. We have never reduced European nations to their food or dance or clothing. However, most Americans, when they think Asian, they think of food, or cultural artifacts, but not, for example, their intellectual traditions.

So, Bush is meeting with a head of state, and he feels he has to mention his chef is Filipino, and that she is a credit to her race (basically) who reminds him with each meal how good Filipino people are.

If you cannot grasp the racist premise of this, I would suggest that you have not read enough post-colonial literature, and are unfamiliar with the critique of "eating the Other." I realize that we're all entitled to our own opinions, but we should not be entitled to ignore or dismiss the narratives of people of color who have explained time and time again in their writings and art exactly why this stuff is racist. I bet that while she was responding with 'thank you' she was thinking 'F- you'. Many of you have no idea how many times we smile on the outside when we're angry and saddened on the inside... Please read more before spouting out uninformed opinions.

[Outofnowhere]

I agree with you wholeheartedly. You put it very well. Like you, I got the crux of the insult right away.

[SeriousBlack]

So did I, not the least of why because I am Asian-American. It would be like the way an African-American would react to meeting a white person and having them say something like "Hi, nice to meet you. Ya know, some of my best friends are black", or something of that nature...

[Cynth]

I agree. Also, this was no state visit just to stage photo ops. It was intended to discuss aid to victims of recent disasters in the Phillipines (some of whom require food aid), and he awkwardly and insensitively directs conversation to the fine food he enjoys from an ethnic Filipino staffer.

At least he didn't assume or ask Arroyo if she knew the chef...

[MainSpark]

afrographia:
"Please read more before spouting out uninformed opinions."

Yeah?

Think you might want to read this a second or third time? It's my informed opinion that the last sentence lacks clarity. Yes, I believe that I understand your meaning, but because there is some doubt, please re-read it. Try to understand how it is viewed by others.

On the face of it, you're instructing others to read more "before spouting out uninformed opinions." The question is, if I read more, will I then be more qualified to spout out uninformed opinions? Or is it your intention that I should read more so that I have an informed opinion? I'm going with the latter.

You see, before you school others on what and how much they should read, you might consider a re-read of your own response. It will help maintain the opinion that you are an erudite person.

[princessofnowt]

I agree it was racist, Our intuition knows racism by intent when it sees it. This was intentional. Bush is laughing his ass off at what he is pulling in the name of being an idiot. Like a pretty girl batting eyelashes to get her car fixed, he is batting his idiocy to get out of being tried for High Crimes, and to get away with murder and stealing all of our money while he remains in office because "there's not much time left".

And he is having fun doing it, too. He knows he will get away with it.

[BernieKeating]

"Bush couldn't resist beginning the sober meeting with a quip"? Since when are "quip" and "blather" synonyms?

[Word]

I apologize that my comments had to be cut into three different sections because of the amount of words. It's kind of randomly thrown up there like the Naked Lunch.

[jaygirl]

Heh,heh! Madame President, I am well acquainted with Filipinos. Our cook, here at the White House is one. Of course I wouldn't eat Filipino food. I don't see the cook often but I always request ribs or hamburgers or tex/mex food. You know beans and stuff. Our cook does not wander around the White House. We wouldn't want some foreigner to have too many privileges or get too upitty. It might threaten national security. Keep everyone in their place, I always say.