comment #1

Edward says ...

I was going to vent my feelings about GW, but why bother. Let's hope that the electorate won't be bamboozled once more and our next president will be someone all Americans can stand behind.

comment #2

MASON says ...

I'm no fan of Dubya -- how could you be? -- but I just don't see what the big deal is about that video. He's just joking around, doesn't come off bad at all.

comment #3

NYCBusybody says ...

Shallow frat-boy asshole? Really? From that clip? Yeah, he's drunkenly semi-making fun of people, but he seems rather fluent and funny to me. I hate the guy and most of his politics, but I've always thought I'd get along with him in a bar, far more than someone like John Kerry or Jeffrey Wells.

People like Wells think anyone who doesn't go to art galleries or drink mocha-cappucino-latte-spritzers are "shallow frat-boy assholes". A pox on the lot of you.

comment #4

Monument says ...

I don't like what Bush has done as president, but I've always felt that his personality is one of his saving graces. He comes off like a regular guy, like someone you could shoot the shit with at a barbeque.

It is so much more appealing than the standard Democrat pseudo gravitas that John Kerry emoted through his whole campaign.

comment #5

nemo says ...

That video has been floating around the internets for years. There was a version out back in 2001 that didn't pixilate out the other faces.

About 50% of the electorate, more or less (definitely less 2000, probably less in 2004, given the vote suppression and tampering), thought they knew what they were letting themselves in for, and now a lot of them are feeling buyer's remorse. And it's not just GWB's politics that's scaring them -- it's the realization that he really is the incompetent fool he appears to be.

You think you'd along great with GWB in a bar? Says more about you than about latte-drinkers like Wells. I bet you'd be tickled pink by whatever put-down nickname he comes up with for you. I hear George Allen is a great guy to go to a bar with too, and he's also great with the creative nicknames.

And that sweeping caricature about art galleries and lattes? Is that supposed to be an argument? There are plenty of people out there who aren't metrosexual wusses, but still recognize an asshole when they see one.

comment #6

nemo says ...

"I've always felt that his personality is one of his saving graces. He comes off like a regular guy, like someone you could shoot the shit with at a barbeque."

Man, I can't believe that after all these years people are still falling for that shit. His regular guy act is as transparently phoney as a three dollar bill. It's designed to take in people who are easily taken in.

comment #7

The Bandsaw Vigilante says ...

"Bush Regales Dinner Guests With Impromptu Oratory On Virgil's Lesser Works":

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4127&n=1

comment #8

Clark Perry says ...

Yeah, I love hanging out with smirking smart-asses who believe they're hand-picked by Lawd Gawd Jeezus to send everybody hurtling into a nucular apockylips.

Y'know, if you were in a bar with John Kerry or Al Gore or even Jimmy Carter, you could at least talk to them about why you didn't like them or support their issues, and they'd fucking listen seriously. Maybe even engage you in a conversation that, if it didn't change your mind, might at least make you think.

Dubya doesn't give two shits what you or anybody else thinks. Fuck that weak shit.

comment #9

D.Z. says ...

NYC: "I hate the guy and most of his politics, but I've always thought I'd get along with him in a bar, far more than someone like John Kerry or Jeffrey Wells."

Would you also do coke with him?

"People like Wells think anyone who doesn't go to art galleries or drink
mocha-cappucino-latte-spritzers are "shallow frat-boy assholes"."

No, people who don't play fair in sports like rugby by punching their opponents are shallow fratboy assholes.

Monument: "but I've always felt that his personality is one of his saving graces. He comes off like a regular guy, like someone you could shoot the shit with at a barbeque."

He comes off like a fake regular guy.

"It is so much more appealing than the standard Democrat pseudo gravitas that John Kerry emoted through his whole campaign."

Well we can't all be born with silver spoons in our mouths like Dubya. Some of us have to work for a living like Kerry.

nemo: "About 50% of the electorate, more or less (definitely less 2000, probably less in 2004, given the vote suppression and tampering),thought they knew what they were letting themselves in for, "

More like 26% of the electorate.

comment #10

Pelham123 says ...

This skewers perfectly that stupid fantasy about Bush being a "regular guy" --

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/42590

comment #11

Monument says ...

"Well we can't all be born with silver spoons in our mouths like Dubya. Some of us have to work for a living like Kerry."

So by working you mean "marry" a silver spoon.

comment #12

mitch says ...

Good god, most of the comments here are such overripe, opinionated bullshit that I need something sour to cleanse my palette.

Fact is it's damn easy for all of us posters to spout off anonymously about how righteous or disaffected or idiotic public figures can be and have been. I have skeletons. So, too, do all of you. I would be damn embarrassed at many moments in my life. Thus, the lack of bravery to enter the forum politic.

Jeff, aren’t you a Hollywood journalist first? Stick to that ideal, man. This place is a vacuum of insight on the subject of politics, which leads me to inquire: To what purpose, then, do you bait us so?

comment #13

le corbeau says ...

Let's see:

A) Shoot the shit with a dumbass fratboy in a bar
B) Be told to get the fuck out of my way by John Kerry (or his wife)
C) Have to listen to Al Gore for an hour about Manbear-, er, global warming

Christ, not much of a choice, is it? Fortunately most of us DON'T have to spend an evening with the president (or wannabes), ever. (Though everybody says Bob Dole is a hoot in private.)

I did ride an elevator with our next president, once. But since he was there to give a talk and sign his book "Leadership," I didn't pester him. It was fun walking out behind him and sharing in his applause, though....

comment #14

nemo says ...

"... such overripe, opinionated bullshit ..."

Hey, haven't you noticed? This a weblog. Overripe, opinionated bullshit is what it's all about. Politics and the rest of life are not hermetically isolated spheres.

Most of the comments appearing here on the subject of films and Hollywood are also overripe and opinionated. That's what a weblog is for!

"I have skeletons. So, too, do all of you."

Yeah, but the rest of us aren't President of the United States. The film clip Jeff posted doesn't prove a thing, and Jeff himself says so. But GWB doesn't have just one or two skeletons in his closet. His entire life history is nothing but skeletons. You can't open any door on any aspect of that guy's life without skeletons falling out. Skeletons in a Closet!

He is sitting in the White House right now because he got a free ride from the press, the Supreme Court, and from suckers who buy his phoney regular guy act. If GWB had gotten fair treatment from the press over the past decade, he never would have ended up in the White House.

comment #15

nemo says ...

I am also mystified by this idiocy about I'd rather have a beer with W (even though he supposedly doesn't drink anymore, yeah right) than with Gore, Kerry, Hillary, you name it.

I mean, we're hiring the guy for a job, a difficult, demanding job. We're not hiring him to be our best buddy. Would you hire a carpenter, a plumber, an accountant based on what you think he'd be like to shoot the shit with at a barbeque? Would you hire a lawyer or choose an auto mechanic because he strikes you as the kind of guy who would make a good drinking buddy?

That's the kind of thinking that gets people conned, that gets their pockets picked.

That seems to be the basis upon which a lot of people choose GWB to be POTUS, and we can all see now how brilliantly that has worked out.

comment #16

nemo says ...

Yeah, that doctor who accidentally killed my uncle last year sure was incompetent. Turns out he has a long history of incompentence. Lost his license a long time ago.

But you know, he was such a nice regular guy. You know, the kind of guy you'd like to meet in a bar, or shoot the shit with at a backyard barbeque. Not like those snooty know-it-all doctors who are such nerds that they're always studying to keep up with advances in medicine.

So we hired him again to treat my mother this spring. Killed her too. Oh well. But he sure is a nice regular guy.

comment #17

le corbeau says ...

Thanks, Nemo, I think we got your point already.

comment #18

Edward says ...

Mgmax, Giuliani huh? We could do alot worse. Did I just write that? I'm a "leftist!"

comment #19

Nicol D says ...

Seems to me that the presidential behaviour that most exemplfies the 'shallow, frat-boy asshole' variety is getting a blow job from a chubby intern in the back room of the oval office.

Getting drunk at a picnic and ribbing someone is pretty normal by everyone else's standards.

comment #20

Nicol D says ...

"Well we can't all be born with silver spoons in our mouths like Dubya. Some of us have to work for a living like Kerry."

Dear God Daniel, please tell me you meant this in an ironic way. Kerry married into the billionaire Heinz fortune and has more money than GWB can even dream of.

Kerry has lived the Tom Cruise in Cocktail 'kept' man lifestyle for the bulk of his adult life.

Relative to the Kerry/Kennedy fortunes, GWB is a piker.

comment #21

Hopscotch says ...

Kerry is from a rich patrician family like Bush. They went to Yale, they went to Ivy League Grad Schools. But Kerry went to Vietnam, served as a Prosecuter, served in the Senate for 20 years. Bush has by own admission said he didn't do anything with his life until he was 40. The money he invested in the Texas Rangers was a gift from his parents. But, if Presidents were chosen based on biography, well Bob Dole would have just finished his second term and McCain would have been W. in 2000.

That being said...the video doesn't show me anything I don't know. Some people find Bush charming, and many of us make off comments at parties. He's a lousy president, in my opinion. Everyone is buzzing about who's running in 2008 because we can't wait for Bush to leave and talk about someone else. I actually didn't mind the guy and liked him somewhat as leader...but by 2002 I was sick of him. Hell, people I know who VOTED for him will admit he sucks. In private, not on a blog of course.

comment #22

D.Z. says ...

Monument: "So by working you mean "marry" a silver spoon."

Kerry still had to struggle most of his life to get to the point where he could marry into wealth.

nemo: "I mean, we're hiring the guy for a job, a difficult, demanding job. We're not hiring him to be our best buddy. Would you hire a carpenter, a plumber, an accountant based on what you think he'd be like to shoot the shit with at a barbeque? Would you hire a lawyer or choose an auto mechanic because he strikes you as the kind of guy who would make a good drinking buddy?"

That's what you call the white man's affirmative action. See Mike Brown as a good example.

Nicol: "Seems to me that the presidential behaviour that most exemplfies the 'shallow, frat-boy asshole' variety is getting a blow job from a chubby intern in the back room of the oval office."

At least it's better than being blown by lobbyists like Abramoff. Also, don't play the "he had an affair" card, since Bush forced HIS mistress to have an abortion.

"Kerry married into the billionaire Heinz fortune and has more money than GWB can even dream of."

Kerry married into wealth. He wasn't born into it.

Hopscotch: "Hell, people I know who VOTED for him will admit he sucks."

Yes, but they only started to care when he ripped them off and not the poor and working class.

comment #23

le corbeau says ...

"Kerry still had to struggle most of his life to get to the point where he could marry into wealth."

Oh, and also he had to wait for John Heinz to die.

Kerry may not have been filthy rich all of his life but his European private school and Ivy League education, summers in France, service as an officer in the Navy, dating an Auchincloss and marrying the daughter of a career diplomat, career as a prosecutor and then in government, reputation as a highly eligible bachelor with a bitchin' motorcycle, and marriage to a woman who had inherited billions would NOT strike most Americans as deserving the term "struggle."

comment #24

Hopscotch says ...

Whenever someone defends Bush, they inevitably bring up Monica. Whenever someone talks about Kerry, the naysayers bring up he married a rich woman. I'd like someone to say that "I like Bush because I have proof that he's done something that actually works."

And let's be honest, if Clinton were allowed to run again in '04. He would have cleaned Bush's clock. And if McCain was a third party candidate in '04, he would have taken out both of those guys.

comment #25

nemo says ...

"Seems to me that the presidential behaviour that most exemplfies the 'shallow, frat-boy asshole' variety is getting a blow job from a chubby intern in the back room of the oval office."

Well, no discussion of GWB is ever complete without bringing The Blow Job.

Bush invades Iraq, and totally forgets about Al Qaeda? So what, what about The Blow Job?

Bush sends the deficit through the ceiling? Not as important as The Blow Job.

Bush is on his way to getting as many American killed as Osama Been Forgotten ever accomplished? Yeah well, what about The Blow Job?

Bush helps devastate the Gulf Coast with his incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina? That's boring, let's talk about The Blow Job.

The list goes on and on. The corruption. The NSA spying. The torture. It all pales in comparison with . . . The Blow Job.

Even a right-winger like Joe Scarborough is beginning to feel like enough is enough:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14375558/

Scarborough's opening line: "Is George Bush playing dumb or is he just plain dumb?"

comment #26

gh says ...

That video is old news. Way to be a day late and a dollar short Huffington.

comment #27

KAM2112 says ...

"I don't like what Bush has done as president, but I've always felt that his personality is one of his saving graces."

"but I've always thought I'd get along with him in a bar, far more than someone like John Kerry"

So this man who has started an illegal war by lying to the American public can be excused because you'd like to hang with the dude in a bar??

This man who has destabilized the world with his half baked colonial aspirations is ok by you cause his got a winning smile and a sense of humor?? Only in America can an asshole like him be legitimized for reasons like that.

The truth is that this man has done too many things to undermine American democracy and democracy in the world to be saved at all. This is a man that every red-blooded American should be calling for his impeachment. The charges are too numerous to list but lets start with.

(1A) The death and injury of every American soldier who was sent into battle on lies and idiotic stragedies. Word to the wise for the next president: When your generals who've seen battle say this job is going to take 500,000 troops to don't approve 130,000 and call it a day.
(1B) His in failure to capture Osama Bin Laden (why is this impeachable? Because when you have men like Gary Bernsten, Gary Schroen dedicated to killing bin laden and have him in their sights only to be hamstrung by Rummy and bush. I call that treason of the highest order. Read these interviews and more at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/interviews/berntsen.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/interviews/

(2) His use of misinformation to get the congress and the American people's approval for an unprovoked attack of a sovereign nation. (Don’t say well "Saddam hurt his own people" I know that but I also know that the chemical weapons and were giving to him by this country when 41 was head of CIA. Not to mention that 41 and Rummy also help bring the Taliban to power when they were fighting the Russians in Afghanistan)
(3) His ties to companies like Halliburton and Carlyle Group: Which resulted in unprecedented No BID war contract rewards that led to the unconscionable robbery of the American tax payer. Those ass holes are getting 2 and half dollars for every dollar they spend on work that they bid out to subcontracts therefore paying someone else to do the work they are getting paid to do. Why does this matter? Because this is how they are able to send 130,000 soldiers into battle when it should be 500,000 this cost soldiers their lives and limbs.
(4) Four if Iran is talking about a nuke program and N. Korea is firing missiles in the direction of it's neighbors don't think it's because 84 is doing a bang-up job enforcing their own foreign policies. This country will be dealing with 84's blunders for the next 50 years. Bush is a lame excuse for a president 41+43= dumbass not 84.

Next who ever posted this:
"This place is a vacuum of insight on the subject of politics, which leads me to inquire: To what purpose, then, do you bait us so"

Has no idea what a democracy is. If you are implying that because the general topic of discussion on this blog is movies not politics then there for no ones opinion on political matters are valid or insightful. Democracy is about everyone having a voice even movie critics and yes even the poor dumbass who doesn't know his ass from his elbow who reads this blog.

I've said my peace.

comment #28

le corbeau says ...

Dude, you need a beer.

1a-- you're against soldiers getting killed, so you want more of them in harm's way. Hmm. (Interesting too how the left has suddenly become the leading advocate of giving the Pentagon whatever it asks for, no questions asked.)

1b-- So we should have impeached Clinton when Sandy Berger wouldn't let him shoot a cruise missile at Bin Laden, is what you're saying.

2-- There's almost nothing in this one that matches with the actual historical facts, you know.

3-- Wait, I thought you wanted the Pentagon and its pals to have everything they wanted! Who do you think gets the contracts when that happens?

4-- This one is too incoherent to even follow.

Your understanding of current events is much weaker than you realize. As I often say to my 8-year-old, "Speak less, listen more."

comment #29

KAM2112 says ...

You're a jackass. You would certainly be out of your depth in a parking lot puddle.

Not against soldiers dying not when the cause is right and just, sacrifice for your country is essential in maintaining a democracy but the scarifices should not be taken lightly. So to spell it out I don't want the troops to be in harms way only to make bush and his friend richer. Before the war Cheney’s net worth was 7million after it 70; do you see a conflict of interest being on the board of some of those no did contract companies?

Like I said don't want the troops there but they are there and it is in fact a problem that they are understaffed to deal with the problems there. The problem with putting 130.000 soldiers in Iraq is that it's like policing, reconstructing, and securing California with a staff of thirty men-130, 000 doesn't come close to what is needed to handle those task. If you had more troops it would be a task they could handle. Next if Rummy had done like Colin Powel had suggested and not fired the Iraqi Republican guard but had instead used them as reconstruction labor you wouldn't have had you know "terrorist" (men who are getting paid to do what they've been trained to do-Kill. why would they need the income being offered them by Zarqawi? because Rumsfeld just gave them pink slips) Rummy could have put there skill set into rebuilding the county but didn't. I have the sneaking suspicion that you would post "if their skill set is killing how would that help rebuild?" because the military also teaches you to build bridges repair roads etc it's vital in combat. I have no faith in your intelligence.

Didn't say the pentagon should have whatever they wanted. If you are going to play a game of basketball and you need some advice it's probably better to listen to Phil Jackson, not the voices in your own head confirming what only you've known all along.

What connection does that have to what I said???????????????????
Oh I get it know it's like the blowjob.

Gary Shroden and Bernsten had information on where the SOB was the reason why rummy was unable to give them the troops they needed was because the assets where already being deployed elsewhere. That elsewhere was Iraq before the case was made to go to war. And I don't get people who love to be lied to and don't give a fuck when innocent people die because of those lies. Do you still believe we went to war because of Saddam’s connection to 911-that he had nuclear weapons???

No the pentagon shouldn’t have everything they want. It’s just when your inexperienced at something maybe you should weigh the advice of an expert a little more heavily rather than dismiss them as idiots outright. It's very good advice Socrates gave his students now you can apply it to your life. (Now I've answered the same question two ways hope you get it now). And Jesus Christ man it takes a lot of time to explain everything to you. NO NO NO Halliburton is not part of the pentagon- they- Halliburton are part of the executive branch of the government (which branch is that?)

Wouldn't clues have more room to fit in your head if you got rid of some of the gobbledygook in there? A long period of non-posting would be most welcome on your part. To quote Thomas Brackett Reed: "They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge."

comment #30

le corbeau says ...

Most of your argument is based on the presumption that the war exists only to make Cheney richer. Needless to say, if that were his motivation there are many simpler ways to make money than 1) run for Vice President and 2) gin up a war. But you're operating on a level beyond facts, for instance:

" It's just when your inexperienced at something maybe you should weigh the advice of an expert a little more heavily rather than dismiss them as idiots outright."

I assume you're referring to Donald Rumsfeld.

Whose "inexperience" includes a previous stint as Secretary of Defense under Gerald Ford, director of the OEO, ambassador to NATO and White House Chief of Staff. There are many charges to be made against him, but someone who was well informed on what he was arguing about would hardly include "inexperience" among them.

comment #31

KAM2112 says ...

Yes Rumsfeld is not just some guy off the streets. I was not implying that either. While his argument for transforming the military from a heavy slow moving machine to a nimble fast pace killing machine makes sense on paper it was untested and has proven erroneous on the battlefield. One can argue that his theory of transformation work in the battle for Baghdad but it was completely inappropriate for the aftermath of the war. His inexperience is in making a war strategy and it shows because his plans did not include any appropriate measures for dealing with the peace especially when there were voices sounding the alarm, including Eric Shinseki, and Colin Powel who had far more experience in dealing with war and the aftermath of war. The result of his planning is that Iraq in spinning closer and closer to civil war and the Taliban are making a comeback in Afghanistan.

comment #32

KAM2112 says ...

And I must say given Eric Shinseki resume in serving his country he deserved more respect than being fired for his dissenting view of how the US should conduct it's forces in Iraq.