Not a gaffe
September 22nd, 2007 at 8:31 am by David FarrarI saw the headline which said Bush had made another gaffe and had accidentially stated Nelson Mandela was dead. Now Bush does make lots of gaffes, and I am not saying he doesn’t. But in this case, I don’t see how it is a gaffe – it was an analogy which no intelligent person could confuse.
In a speech defending his administration’s Iraq policy, Bush said former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s brutality had made it impossible for a unifying leader to emerge and stop the sectarian violence that has engulfed the Middle Eastern nation.
“I heard somebody say, Where’s Mandela?’ Well, Mandela’s dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas,” Bush, who has a reputation for verbal faux pas, said in a press conference in Washington.
It is very clear he is using the name Mandela as a term for charismatic unifying leaders.
September 22nd, 2007 at 8:58 am
On past performance we shouldn’t expect too much (ie intelligent comment) from most NZ media.
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 8:59 am
On the other hand, the Presidents speech-writers appear to have lifted this talking point straight out of this weeks issue of the Economist.
http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9804000
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 9:17 am
the really funny one was at the tail-end of the daily show last night..
when monkey-president was in a press conference..and was asked a question about the ongoing economic meltdown..
(’twas a thing of beauty..and bush in a nutshell)
his face went blank..he said ‘dunno..you’d have to ask an economist about that’..(!)
(he then ‘recovered’ slightly)..
and said..”i’m a fighter against taxes..!”
(finishing in that triumphant tone..)
as they say..”priceless!’..
phil(whoar.co.nz)
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 9:19 am
i think bush jnr did too much ‘blow ‘n booze’..eh..?
how else to explain a mind like a piece of (rotting) gorgonzola cheese..?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 9:21 am
Incidentially I am not sure I agree that the lack of Mandelas is due to Saddam.
And in fact Danyl the talking point came from the US Ambassador to Iraq, so I presume Bush’s staff may have got it directly rather than via the Economist.
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 9:25 am
It’s not as if most countries are overflowing with Mandelas, even without having had Saddam’s, how many has NZ got?
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 9:29 am
we’ve got key..
will he do..?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 9:44 am
“On past performance we shouldn’t expect too much (ie intelligent comment) from most NZ media.”
..or from some compulsive commentators on Kiwiblog…
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 10:13 am
This is just more proof that the mainstream media is infested with left wing liberals. Another recent example was the twisting of Greenspan’s words from his book into an attack on Bush. The mainstream media is dying, and they don’t even know why, and are so locked into their left wing mindset, and so determined to keep pushing their left wing cause, that they’ll just keep on with it until nobody picks up a newspaper or turns on the TV news anymore. (Unless you’re the kind of self medicating moron who drinks that anti-Bush kool aid by the bucket full. eh eh eh???)
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 10:18 am
Yes Redbaiter, it was rather a pleasure to watch the New York Times quietly dip below the $20 mark this week. Death by Deficit.
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 10:33 am
“Incidentially I am not sure I agree that the lack of Mandelas is due to Saddam.”
Fair comment.. it’s a bit more complicated than that and more just Middle East politics at their best. For instance, two of the best known terrorists, Saddam and Arafat (prior to Ramallah) were well known for rarely sleeping in the same bed each night. In their cases power came from an uncanny ability to stay alive in their chosen jobs. In Iran, the Mullahs survive because of the Qods Force and something similar is available for the Libyan of Many Spellings.
You can see the problem for democrats in Lebanon right now. Syria got another of the anti Syrian party the other day, which brings to eight (I think) of that party that’s been assassinated in the last year or two. Democracy Lebanon style thus hangs by a thread and on the remaining anti Syrian party managing to survive till the next election.
Nor do I think Islam is really the issue, you only have to read Bin Laden’s words, substitute “brothers”, “martyrs” etc for “Comrades” and Allah for “Glorious Revolution” and you’ve got Stalin, Lenin and that whole bag.. Islam like Marxism and anti-Semitism is just a tool that thugs use to get what they want. Here of course, we use more genteel phrases like “a fairer democracy” and the EBs as our token Jews for the local thugs to introduce anti democratic laws.
JC
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 10:42 am
Incidentally, here’s the Bush quote, in context:
” Part of the reason why there is not this instant democracy in Iraq is
because people are still recovering from Saddam Hussein’s brutal rule.
I thought an interesting comment was made when somebody said to me,
I heard somebody say, where’s Mandela? Well, Mandela is dead, because
Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas.
He was a brutal tyrant that divided people up and split families, and people are recovering from this. So there’s a psychological recovery that is taking place. And it’s hard work for them. And I understand it’s hard work for them.
Having said that, I’m not going the give them a pass when it comes to
the central government’s reconciliation efforts.”
JC
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 10:56 am
Phil U
” I think bush jnr did to much ‘blow ‘n booze’ …eh?”
Yeah, you would know Phil, Bush sounds like you more everyday. Incoherent and confused, you two should really get together.
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 11:48 am
jc..quoting bush..on saddam..
“..He was a brutal tyrant that divided people up and split families,..”
um..!..just how many iraqis has bush killed..?..and ‘families split’..
and..y’know..you two toxic twins..ssb and ratbiter..
johhny cash said something that i can relate directly back to you both..
he said:..”it is very important to have the right people hating you..”
eh..?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Hey phil, I’d be interested to know if I am one of “the right people”??
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 12:10 pm
“um..!..just how many iraqis has bush killed..?..and ‘families split’..”
Wrong question. He can claim “Just War” theory as a defence to bring a rogue Govt. to heel. Helen Clark used this defence to attack and invade Afghanistan. She knew full well that al Qaeda, not the Taleban Govt. planned and executed 911, and that she had to take out the Taleban to get at al Qaeda.
Johhny cash said something that i can relate directly back to you both..
he said:..”it is very important to have the right people hating you..”
More appropriate is the song the Sunni Middle East are singing to Dubya:
“Do not forsake me, oh my darlin’”
JC
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 12:57 pm
i don’t know d.b..
only you can answer that..
phil(whoar.co.nz)
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 1:06 pm
I reckon he’s an embrassement, on many levels.. justify him all you like, but amougst 273 million, surely they could have found someone a wee bit better.
I posted on this same story here:
http://www.cairnsblog.net/2007/09/bushs-bloopers-make-fine-funny-fodder.html
Mike
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Bushes rhetoric here is actually commanding and intelligent inflection.
In print you can see how he has combined the three personalties to reflect himself.
the tyrant (saddam)
the martyr (Mandela)
the saviour (Bush)
He has cunningly compared himself to the modern emancipator and at the same time justified his intervention in Iraq by explaning the physches of the ancient people need to adjust to modern democracy bought by the great white messiah.
In time and after trillions of $$$$ (1% of which could have dealt with Hurricane Katrina) his magnanimous decision to ‘stay the course’ will have been justified. And so what if a few hundred thousand Americans were made poorer for it . They were all poor white trash, black and native American anyway.
How he would love General genocide Custers mantle ‘son of the morning star’ labelled to his conscienceless brow.
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Number of times Bush has acted or said things that lead any objective (non-lefty) observer to logically conclude he’s the worst President in US history: 14,983
Number of times the media has got it wrong: 1
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 1:53 pm
gaffe my arse, the guy’s an idiot!
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 2:50 pm
One, Nil, your favour.
Vote:I’ll read your future ramblings with new interest.
September 22nd, 2007 at 2:51 pm
why thank you..db..
very gracious of you to concede like that..
phil(whoar.co.nz)
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 3:46 pm
but seriously, Bush’s spin has been getting increasingly desperate. The Republicans are losing control and they don’t understand why or how it’s happening, which is the funniest part. Finally on the left we’re starting to see some new leadership just as the Reagan legacy has almost been entirely squeezed out of juice. Good luck finding some new strategies guys. You’re bankrupt!
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 3:49 pm
Sorry REID…If you had of watched the fair and balanced Fox News last night Bill O’Reilly you would have seen another example of the New York Times headlining something Bush said completely out of context. To prove the point Bill displayed the full video clip.So thats 2 at least. Now quote your 14,983 with verification.
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 4:04 pm
so baxter..you pop down the rabbit hole..
and come up in fox-land’..eh..?
(don’t you go mistaking that for reality now..!..y’hear..!..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Sorry BAXTER…If you haven’t worked out the reality by now then I doubt that anything I give you would make any difference, so I won’t waste my time.
Also, lookup “humour” and “facetious” in the dictionary.
And I’m not really sorry.
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Achmed Zaoui is our Mandela.
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Quite, I’m just waiting for Zaoui to free us from those overbearing people who demand equal rights for women. /sarcastic
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Lee,,
Not for kiwi’s he’s not.
He might’ve opened the doors for Muslim immigration to swell and the risk of terroist bombing here.
But how can he be a Kiwi Mandela
John Minto would have loved that perception, but no such grand comments from his corner.
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 5:43 pm
hinamanu
A Maori worried about a few terrorists who
happen to say they follow the Muslim faith.
Different, dear boy, different.
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Grumpy,,
this is where it starts.
Fascinated as I am by how the sexually frustrated Somalian girls advertise their butts in tight wrap arounds I can’t help feeling threatened when I hear about Muslim leaders denouncing this country in the mosques.
Their religion forbids them to make friends with infidels (kiwis)
and when their numbers gfive them confidence they will strike.
Why should we feel immune.
even if it has been proven the last video of Bin laden was doctored to mean he is really dead, the fact he didn’t keep us on his Christmas list for saying no nukes to America shows he has no discretionary nous at all.
btw,, have you checked out those Somalian butts, very serious.
Vote:they bend over lots too
September 22nd, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Ah, Bush, where would the left be without him? One one hand he is a goofy fool with big ears who cannot string a sentence together, but on the other hand he is an evil genius (with big ears).
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 6:53 pm
“Their religion forbids them to make friends with infidels (kiwis)
and when their numbers gfive them confidence they will strike.”
What a load of crap, there are plenty of friendships between Muslims ans Christian, perhaps you’re thinking of some Christian sect? The EB, Amish or Cooperites?
Islam, like Christianity is has a huge diversity, it is not a monolithic giant waiting to pounce.
“btw,, have you checked out those Somalian butts, very serious.
they bend over lots too ”
Very strange.
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 8:15 pm
hinamanu
Do a check, see how many of the EB mob have
Maori friends.
We better make sure those EB types are not
mixing up ANFOS.
So I take it you are against the Irish coming to NZ, for they may have been terrorists.
Hmm, what Iwi?.
Vote:September 22nd, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Here’s a thought that’ll make the left go apoplectic
They may not want any Mandela’s, the Rainbow Nation has a higher violent death rate than Iraq in “Civil War”
Vote:Disclaimer: this is calculating the Iraqi death rate at the level of the last few not over the last year.
September 22nd, 2007 at 10:49 pm
His only mistake was to allow his speech writers to use Mandela rather than Gandhi.
Vote:September 23rd, 2007 at 12:34 am
fost,,
good thought, but I think the stradegy is to make Bush look like a modern hero.
Besides, how can you compare a non violent charismatic with a white president thinking he’s a warrior cause his finger hovers over a button that produces mushroom clouds far, far away from himself.
Vote:September 23rd, 2007 at 7:56 am
So many suffering so deeply from Bush Derangement Syndrome.. what a yawn… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….
Vote:September 23rd, 2007 at 11:16 am
“If you had of watched the fair and balanced Fox News last night Bill O’Reilly”
Vote:Glad I wasnt drinking milk when I read that
September 23rd, 2007 at 11:50 am
That’s the same thing I think Redbaiter, when people try to defend Bush.
Vote:September 23rd, 2007 at 11:57 am
“Glad I wasnt drinking milk when I read that”
Well you wouldn’t have been of course. Socialist kool aid is probably all you have in the fridge..
Vote:September 23rd, 2007 at 12:45 pm
“Well you wouldn’t have been of course. Socialist kool aid is probably all you have in the fridge..”
Vote:socialist kool is only on the left half of my fridge
there’s room for milk
September 23rd, 2007 at 3:51 pm
“That’s the same thing I think Redbaiter, when people try to defend Bush.”
Reid, the defence is rock solid on Bush. The prosecution only has a bunch of weak unsubstantiated allegations and cowardly smears.
1) If Bush lied, so did every other western leader including almost every leading light of the Democrat party. ..and all who “lied” must have had greater knowledge than their own intelligence agencies.
2) If the war was about oil, then after all that money and all of those lives, to the point where they’re now starting to wind down the war effort, how come the US still doesn’t control Iraq’s oil output?
3) The war is not a failure. A threatening mass murdering totalitarian dictator and his henchmen have been removed, a constitution written, elections held and a parliament is in place. Terrorism will be defeated, in spite of the left’s politically motivated efforts to ensure it isn’t.
4) The WMD threat was an important issue, but it was only one of the reasons for the Iraq invasion. The US needed to reassert its pride and place on the global stage, and if it did so by establishing a beach head for democracy in the Middle East then well and good.
5) The anti war movement is not about Iraq or peace or anything other than the extreme left’s objective of global totalitarianism. The left only pretend to be against war. When it suits them, they’re all for it. Look at their poster boys- Castro, Che Guevera, Stalin, Mao, all war mongers psychopaths and mass murderers who came to power by force.
6) The strategy is the same toward any politician who stands in the way of the left’s obsession with power. Bush lied. Howard lied. Brash lied. ..anything to remove the need for the left to justify their policies and to distract from their real totalitarian objectives. If Clinton had started the war, it would have been OK and would still be OK.
Wake up Reid- like so many others, you’re being duped and manipulated by the communist liars and thugs who make up the power obsessed extreme left.
Vote:September 23rd, 2007 at 8:21 pm
“Fost Says:
His only mistake was to allow his speech writers to use Mandela rather than Gandhi”
His only mistake was trying to sound intelligent at all, metaphors and analogies – please. the guys a total moron, and if any of you out there trying to defend this twat and that speech, don’t waste your time with the transcript, go to youtube look at the video and see for yourself what a complete and utter twat he is.
To not only pretend to use words to be clever but also offend a nation in one swoop takes a whole lot of stupidity. The Canadians (where I’m living) picked up on this gaff and had a ball with it. Mind you when he was in Australia he thanked the Austrian troops in Iraq. What a tosser.
Vote:September 23rd, 2007 at 8:23 pm
Redbaiter – keep taking the blue pill buddie, you like your reality more than we do.
Vote:September 24th, 2007 at 12:20 am
Nice to see all these non Americans putting their educated 2 pence worth into the anti-Bush bangwagon. YAAAAWN.
What are you all going to do when he leaves the White House? (apart from getting a life)
Vote: