RSSMay 02, 2008
Quick Quiz: Bush Abominated
With polls confirming squatter-in-chief George W. Bush as the most abhorred White House occupant ever, Paul Slansky celebrates with a look at a mere fraction of the ways he's earned this distinction.
1) Who is Bill Hangley?
The writer who shook George W. Bush's hand at a 2001 Fourth of July event and told him, "Mr. President, I hope you only serve four years. I'm very disappointed in your work so far," and was told by him, "Who cares what you think?"
One of the Iraq vets in an amputee care center who had to endure George W. Bush establishing his fellowship with people who'd lost limbs by telling them about some scratch he got from a cedar while clearing brush.
The deliverer of the August 6, 2001 CIA briefing with the none-too-cryptic title "Bin Laden Determined To Strike In U.S." who was told by an eager-to-get-back-to-his-vacation George W. Bush, "Okay, you've covered your ass now."
2) What did George W. Bush NOT say?
"I'm the decider."
"I'm the commander guy."
"I'm the anti-Christ."
3) What did George W. Bush tell Bob Woodward?
"You know what's funny. Usually the president appoints the Supreme Court judges, but this time the Supreme Court judges appointed the president."
"See, I don't need to explain - I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."
"Everyone likes to make fun of me about My Pet Goat, you know, me staying in the classroom that day reading My Pet Goat. Big joke, right? Ever read it? It just so happens it's a damn good book."
4) Who is Keating Holland?
The reporter who George W. Bush told that he would "probably call a couple world leaders today."
The columnist who called George W. Bush "a playground bully cleaned up for church."
The CNN Polling Director who said of George W. Bush's 71 percent disapproval rating, "No president has ever had a higher disapproval rating in any CNN or Gallup poll; in fact, this is the first time that any president's disapproval rating has cracked the 70 percent mark."
5) What is the most interesting aspect of George W. Bush's disapproval rating?
How poetically just it is that a twice-unelected "president" should come to such an ignominious end.
How psychotically little he cares about it.
Both of the above, plus how infuriating it is that, despite the record-breaking enormity of it, the Democrats and the media are still too timid to take him on.
6) False or true? George W. Bush mocked a reporter for daring to ask him a question without taking his shades off, but it turned out the man wasn't dissing him - he was just legally blind.
False. Bush invariably treats every individual he encounters with the utmost respect.
True. He also told a Florida nursing home resident who, because he was wheelchair-bound, failed to show Bush the proper respect by rising in his presence, "You look mighty comfortable." This inspired what may be the greatest Bush cartoon ever, by Mr. Fish in the LA Weekly: An Iraq war vet with his right arm missing is facing Bush, who's saying, "Some reason why you're not saluting me, soldier?"
7) Who is Jonathan Chait?
The magazine editor who wrote a piece about all the things he hates about George W. Bush, among them, "I hate the way he walks - shoulders flexed, elbows splayed out from his sides like a teenage boy feigning machismo. I hate the way he talks - blustery self-assurance masked by a pseudo-populist twang. I even hate the things that everybody seems to like about him. I hate his lame nickname-bestowing - a way to establish one's social superiority beneath a veneer of chumminess ... And, while most people who meet Bush claim to like him, I suspect that, if I got to know him personally, I would hate him even more."
The reporter to whom George W. Bush said, three months after the 9/11 attacks, "All in all, it's been a fabulous year for Laura and me."
The writer who said of George W. Bush, "That this smug lout is so widely despised - that he exposed himself on the world stage as an ignorant sadist and people actually noticed - is one of the few things that gives me hope."
Filed under: Paul Slansky, Quick Quiz, worst president ever, Bush historians, Bush popularity, Bush worst president, Bush least popular, Bush least popular in history, Bush worst president ever, George W. Bush, war Bush history, Bush Iraq approval ratings
