Bush SUCKS! (Warning: stream of consciousness fear-based rant within)

[livius drusus]

Originally Posted by The Lone Ranger

Yeah, I almost wish I had a television, so I could watch it. (Okay, technically I do have a television, but I refuse to get cable, so I use it only for watching the occasional dvd.)

That's cool, Michael. Thanks to Scotty, you can keep your principles and watch the debates.

Judging from how Gore simply destroyed Bush in the 2000 debates, yet all the media outlets were practically falling over themselves to say how well Bush performed, I'm not looking forward to the reviews tomorrow. *Sigh*

So far, so good, I'm relieved to say. It looks like the overwhelming response is that Kerry won the day and Bush is a vapid shell of a human being. Okay, well, maybe not the latter in so many words, but that's just 'cause they're being polite.

Did anyone see cartoonist Aaron McGruder on CNN last night? I missed it, but from Salon's War Room:

While pundits on the left, right, and center agreed that John Kerry beat George Bush in the opening debate, none was more emphatic than “Boondocks” cartoonist Aaron McGruder. “Bush got his ass whupped,” McGruder told CNN’s Aaron Brown.

But the outspoken McGruder, who was relegated to “The Contrarian” segment of Brown’s news show, was not finished. “The elephant in the room” that no TV pontificators will dare acknowledge, he observed, is that Bush “is incredibly dumb...he can’t articulate, he can’t complete a full sentence, and he’s our president.”

Brown, being a member in good standing of the pontificator class, rushed to challenge McGruder, asserting that Bush was a man of strong beliefs, blah, blah, blah. But McGruder was unimpressed. Convictions don’t mean a thing if you’re just plain stupid, he pointed out.

And with that, Brown bade The Contrarian farewell.

[Godless Dave]

That guy is dumber than dogshit.

[livius drusus]

Here's the White House press office trancript of the debates. It doesn't do justice to Bush's complete and utter stupidity.

[Godless Dave]

It's hard to convey on paper the moment when he asked for 30 more seconds, and then hemmed and hawed with a blank expression on his face for 15 of them.

Did anyone else notice that Lehrer gave Bush the extension whenever he asked for it, and sometimes when he didn't, but blew off one of Kerry's requests? There was also the time Lehrer gave Bush 30 seconds but skipped Kerry and went on to the next question.

In a country of media whores, Lehrer is a high-priced call girl.

The only reason I was able to sit through this monstrosity was I was at a debate party at a bar with at least a hundred other raucous Democrats who laughed at Bush and made all kinds of comments. Representative Betty McCollum tried to get us to sit quietly and listen but we ignored her. I don't like her much anyway, but we gotta take what we can get.

[livius drusus]

Originally Posted by Godless Dave

It's hard to convey on paper the moment when he asked for 30 more seconds, and then hemmed and hawed with a blank expression on his face for 15 of them.

Did anyone else notice that Lehrer gave Bush the extension whenever he asked for it, and sometimes when he didn't, but blew off one of Kerry's requests? There was also the time Lehrer gave Bush 30 seconds but skipped Kerry and went on to the next question.

I didn't notice the brush-off, actually. To be completely honest, I spent more than a little time with my hands over my eyes, trying to fight the urge to claw my eyes out. I saw Bush fuck the extension, though. Retarded pauses were one of the salient features of his performance.

Speaking of retarded pauses, you might like to check out this nice through the looking glass article on the post-debate spin efforts.

One of the first questions asked of Rove was whether the president's frequent pausing was a problem. Rove disputed that Bush paused because he wasn't sure what to say. "Paused for effect, is what I think," he said. Over and over again, Bush surrogates were asked about the president's demeanor. (Question for Paul Krugman: Are you still angry about the media's focus on style over substance?) Wasn't the president defensive? a reporter asked Matthew Dowd. Didn't he look confused? a reporter asked Ken Mehlman. "I think he spoke with passion," Mehlman said. Another reporter asked Bartlett, didn't the president look irritated? Tired? "I think he showed a range of emotions," Bartlett said.

Shills from hell.

[beyelzu]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

I didn't notice the brush-off, actually. To be completely honest, I spent more than a little time with my hands over my eyes, trying to fight the urge to claw my eyes out. I saw Bush fuck the extension, though. Retarded pauses were one of the salient features of his performance.

the retarded pauses are incredibly evident and I have only been watching it for a couple of minutes right now. and Bush seems confused quite often. I dont want a confused president I dont.

Speaking of retarded pauses, you might like to check out this nice through the looking glass article on the post-debate spin efforts.

Shills from hell.

damn, paused for effect, yeah right.

[Goliath]

Originally Posted by Godless Dave

That guy is dumber than dogshit.

Agreed. What personally worries me though (and is quite embarrassing, IMO) is that when I hear the president speak, I usually don't catch all of the "Bush-isms" on the first listen...maybe 40-50% of them. However, after seeing a clip 2 or 3 times, I end up catching them all.

Sometimes I wonder if that makes me only one and a half times more intelligent than he is.

[beyelzu]

I am watching the debate right now. I had to work last night.

[livius drusus]

Uh oh. Does that mean I should have put Bush is a fucking cretin in spoiler tags?

[beyelzu]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

Uh oh. Does that mean I should have put Bush is a fucking cretin in spoiler tags?

well, I might have had some preexisting knowledge about that.

sadly, if you have gone four years without realizing that Bush is a dipshit, then you probably arent going to pick up on it during the debates.

But we can hope.

[viscousmemories]

Sadly I think it's probable that Bush's intellectual simplicity and stubborn complacency are part of his appeal to the apparently quite large "unsophisticated" demographic. And I don't mean that to sound condescending, either. I just think a very large number of Americans are no more interested in or knowledgeable about political complexities than I was a few months ago, which wasn't much.

As I said on Nirvana's blog the other day Bush is definitive, meaning he has no problem at all making bold, unwavering statements on issues he seems to have no real understanding of, much less interest in. And I think it's probable that a lot of people who don't know the details of the issues themselves confuse this false bravado with genuine assurance of the rightness of his actions.

I won't be at all surprised if he's re-elected, but then again I saw the Terminator sweep California* and the very knowledgeable, intelligent Peter Camejo get 3% of the vote. So it'd be pretty hard to surprise me.


*Yeah okay so I reuse the example a lot. I told you I'm new at this.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by beyelzu

sadly, if you have gone four years without realizing that Bush is a dipshit, then you probably arent going to pick up on it during the debates.