March 22, 2000
10:57 AM   Subscribe

Dubya is all talk, yes indeed. Did I mention that I hate my governor?
posted by veruca (12 comments total)
 
I don't *hate* him. In fact, I don't hate anyone. But he sure is a moron.

George W. does not have the good sense even to consider the possibility that he might have his head up his as*. He is so convinced that he is *right* that it scares me. How could someone so obviously lacking in wisdom could gain a presidential nomination from any party in this country?
posted by CalvinTheBold at 12:20 PM on March 22, 2000


Money.
posted by veruca at 1:12 PM on March 22, 2000


Oh, come now. He got the nomination because he beat Gore in the polls, and because he hadn't alienated the Republican establishment like McCain.Although your point has some merit...from all accounts W isn't the most motivated of individuals. I doubt he would have risen to where he is now if it hadn't been for family connections + cash.
posted by lbergstr at 1:41 PM on March 22, 2000


the texas governor is just a figurehead anyway. most of the power is in the hands of the lieutenant governor. all i know is that i'll most certainly be exercising my right to vote come november.

posted by bluishorange at 1:49 PM on March 22, 2000


I suppose that the Complete Bushisms have been posted already.
posted by EngineBeak at 2:14 PM on March 22, 2000


I don't hate George Bush either. But I think I could learn to hate nytimes.com. I still refuse to sign up just to be able to read their stories---news is news and you can find it anywhere---or I could if only I had a clue what Veruca's link was about...

On the other hand, I enjoyed the Bushisms, so all is not lost :)
posted by Sapphireblue at 2:58 PM on March 22, 2000


nyt is worth registration. totally worth it.
posted by palegirl at 3:40 PM on March 22, 2000


Our Mister Bush

By GAIL COLLINS

Having absolutely nothing better to do today, we are going to examine a Presidential Campaign Issue, specifically George W. Bush and education. Stop whining. It'll be over before you know it.

Education is the Bushian trump card. In the last Republican debate, he got sulky when somebody asked John McCain about schools and then turned to him with a question about gun control. "Not about education, but go ahead," Mr. Bush said unhappily. He talks in every single stump speech about how he improved test scores for minority students in Texas, oblivious to the utter indifference of most of his Republican audiences to the topic. He's running ads right now in Illinois touting his education agenda. (The Illinois primary is today, and residents have an exciting opportunity to endorse the already inevitable Bush-Gore combo.)

There's no question that his interest in the subject is absolutely sincere. If it weren't, he'd have picked a priority that was easier to fit into a Republican presidential campaign. Right now, Mr. Bush's problem is that his strong suit is an issue that his party doesn't believe is a federal concern.

Let's cut back for a minute to the South Carolina primary. Beth Bayne, a high school student in Beaufort, decided to ask all the Republican candidates what could be done to push up her state's abysmal College Board scores. This turned out to be easy, since each of them showed up for events within a mile of her home. (Eat your
heart out, Illinois.)

So there she was, at the Beaufort Boys and Girls Club, hopping up and down and raising her hands until Mr. Bush called on her, and she asked her question.

"Write your governor," he responded.

Beth decided that John McCain, who had babbled something about charter schools, was the Republican most likely to do something to improve test scores in South Carolina. This is the worst possible insult. Among Mr. McCain's areas of interest, education comes in only slightly ahead of macramé.

But it's easy to see how a clever high school student could come to the conclusion that as an education reformer, Mr. Bush was all talk. When a boy in Tacoma complained about the number of uncertified teachers in the Washington schools and asked for Mr. Bush's thoughts on teacher training, the candidate told him to "get people elected at the local level who want to prioritize education.

"It's important you have a governor that believes educating children is the most important thing states do. If your governor doesn't set that priority, get yourself another governor," Mr. Bush added.

Republicans believe that schools are a local issue, and they've stuck to that position even though it's a hard sell in a national campaign. Good luck explaining that your party's top educational priority is abolishing the Department of Education.

Mr. Bush has dodged the war on the Department of Education, but he does constantly tell his conservative audiences, "I'm not running for national superintendent of schools," a remark that generally gets a whole lot more applause than the news about the minority test scores in Texas.

His big idea for what he could do as president is to take federal aid away from school districts that fail to raise poor children's performance, and offer it to the kids' parents in the form of vouchers. But his core constituency doesn't believe in national testing, either. So the governor has come up with a plan that involves a sort of national test to test the tests. We're looking forward to the debate on that one this fall. It'll make the Gore-Bradley health care arguments sound like "Sex in the City."

Al Gore is not weighted down by many internal conflicts over states' rights, and he has proposals to help local districts pay for everything except erasing the blackboards. One of Mr. Bush's frequent refrains, in fact, is a warning that if Mr. Gore becomes president he's going to come into your state and start building new schools with federal money. Even Republican audiences sometimes fail to recoil in terror.

Still, Mr. Bush has hitched his wagon to education, made it his major credential as a Compassionate Conservative (or, every other day, a Reformer with Results). All he needs is to figure out exactly what that has to do with running for president.
posted by veruca at 4:02 PM on March 22, 2000


By the way, I wouldn't exactly say the Lieutenant Governor has the power in Texas. Our checks and balances system is so good that we can never get anything accomplished. In Texas, it's the state constitution that's the problem...and the convoluted judicial system...and the fact that our legislature meets only once every two years...and so on, and so on.
posted by veruca at 4:04 PM on March 22, 2000


Those Bushim's were funny. Here's my favourite one

"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"
posted by jay at 7:18 PM on March 22, 2000


Not a bad one, Jay, but here's my personal favorite:

"Will the highways on the Internet become more few?"

Letterman is dead accurate on this guy -- he truly is a colossal boob.
posted by Dirjy at 10:22 AM on March 23, 2000


Thanks for the recycle, veruca. I heart the web ;)
posted by Sapphireblue at 1:56 PM on March 23, 2000


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