Fun_People Archive
26 Sep
More Dubya misspeaks of the past 18 months

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 100 03:06:13 -0700
To: Fun_People
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Subject: More Dubya misspeaks of the past 18 months

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"The point is, this is a way to help inoculate me about what has come and
is coming."
--On his anti-Gore ad, interview with New York Times,Sept. 2, 2000.

"As governor of Texas, I have set high standards for our public
schools, and I have met those standards."
--CNN online chat, Aug. 30, 2000.

"Well, I think if you say you're going to do something and don't do it,
that's trustworthiness."
--Ibid.

"I don't know whether I'm going to win or not. I think I am. I do know I'm
ready for the job. And, if not, that's just the way it goes."
--Des Moines, Iowa, Aug. 21, 2000

"This campaign not only hears the voices of the entrepreneurs and the
farmers and the entrepreneurs, we hear the voices of those struggling to
get ahead."
--Ibid.

"We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or
hold our allies hostile."
--Ibid.

"I have a different vision of leadership. A leadership is someone who brings
people together."
--Bartlett, Tenn., Aug. 18, 2000

"I think he needs to stand up and say if he thought the president were
wrong on policy and issues, he ought to say where."
--Interview with AP Aug. 11, 2000.

"I want you to know that farmers are not going to be secondary thoughts to
a Bush administration. They will be in the forethought of our thinking."
--Salinas, Calif., Aug. 10, 2000.

"And if he continues that, I'm going to tell the nation what I think about
him as a human being and a person."
--George H.W. Bush, Today Show, Aug. 1, 2000

"You might want to comment on that, Honorable."
--To New Jersey's secretary of state, the Hon. DeForest Soaries Jr.,
  quoted in Washington Post, July 15, 2000

"This case has had full analyzation and has been looked at a lot. I
understand the emotionality of death penalty cases."
--Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 6/23/00.

"States should have the right to enact reasonable laws and restrictions
particularly to end the inhumane practice of ending a life that otherwise
could live."
--Cleveland, June 29, 2000.

"Unfairly but truthfully, our party has been tagged as being against things.
Anti-immigrant, for example. And we're not a party of anti-immigrants.
Quite the opposite. We're a party that welcomes people."
--Cleveland, July 1, 2000.

"The fundamental question is, 'Will I be a successful president when it comes
to foreign policy?' I will be, but until I'm the president, it's going to be
hard for me to verify that I think I'll be more effective."
--Wayne, Mich., as quoted by Katharine Q. Seelye in the New York Times,
  June 28, 2000.

"The only things that I can tell you is that every case I have reviewed I
have been comfortable with the innocence or guilt of the person that I've
looked at. I do not believe we've put a guilty ... I mean innocent person
to death in the state of Texas."
--All Things Considered, NPR, June 16, 2000.

"I'm gonna talk about the ideal world, Chris. I've read. I understand
reality.  If you're asking me as the president, would I understand reality,
I do."
--On abortion, Hardball, MSNBC; May 31, 2000

"There's not going to be enough people in the system to take advantage of
people like me."
--On Social Security crisis; Wilton, Conn., June 9, 2000.

"I think anybody who doesn't think I'm smart enough to handle the job is
underestimating."
--U.S. News & World Report, April 3, 2000.

Bush: "First of all, Cinco de Mayo is not the independence day. That's
  dieciseis de Septiembre, and ..."
Matthews: "What's that in English?"
Bush: "Fifteenth of September." (dieciseis de Septiembre = Sept. 16)
--Hardball, MSNBC, May 31, 2000 (Thanks to numerous readers.)

"Actually, this may sound a little West Texan to you, but I like it. When
I'm talking about when I'm talking about myself, and when he's talking
about myself, all of us are talking about me."
--Ibid.

"This is a world that is much more uncertain than the past. In the past we
were certain, we were certain it was us versus the Russians in the past.
We were certain, and therefore we had huge nuclear arsenals aimed at each
other to keep the peace. That's what we were certain of. ... You see, even
though it's an uncertain world, we're certain of some things. We're certain
that even though the 'evil empire' may have passed, evil still remains.
We're certain there are people that can't stand what America stands for.
...We're certain there are madmen in this world, and there's terror, and
there's missiles and I'm certain of this, too: I'm certain to maintain the
peace, we better have a military of high morale, and I'm certain that under
this administration, morale in the military is dangerously low."
--Albuquerque, N.M., the Washington Post, May 31, 2000.

"He has certainly earned a reputation as a fantastic mayor, because the
results speak for themselves. I mean, New York's a safer place for him to
be."
--On Rudy Giuliani, The Edge With Paula Zahn, May 18, 2000 .

"The fact that he relies on facts, says things that are not factual, are
going to undermine his campaign."
--New York Times, March 4, 2000.

"I think we agree, the past is over."
--On his meeting with John McCain, Dallas Morning News, May 10, 2000.

"It's clearly a budget. It hast a lot of numbers in it."
--Reuters, May 5, 2000.

GOV. BUSH: Because the picture on the newspaper. It just seems so
un-American to me, the picture of the guy storming the house with a scared
little boy there. I talked to my little brother, Jeb. I haven't told this
to many people.  But he's the governor, I shouldn't call him my little
brother--my brother, Jeb, the great governor of Texas.
JIM LEHRER: Florida.
GOV. BUSH: Florida. The state of the Florida.
--The NewsHour April 27, 2000.

"I hope we get to the bottom of the answer.  It's what I'm interested to
know."
--On what happened in negotiations between the Justice Department and
  Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives, Associated Press, April 26, 2000.

"Laura and I really don't realize how bright our children is sometimes
until we get an objective analysis."
--Meet the Press, April 15, 2000

"You subscribe politics to it. I subscribe freedom to it."
--Responding to a question about whether he and Al Gore made Elian a
  political issue. In Palm Beach, Fla., as quoted by the Associated
  Press, April 6, 2000.

"I was raised in the West. The west of Texas. It's pretty close to
California. In more ways than Washington, D.C., is close to California."
--In Los Angeles as quoted by the Los Angeles Times, April 8, 2000.

"Reading is the basics for all learning."
--Announcing his "Reading First" initiative in Reston, Va., March 28, 2000.

"We want our teachers to be trained so they can meet the obligations,their
obligations as teachers. We want them to know how to teach the science of
reading. In order to make sure there's not this kind of federal federal
cufflink."
--At Fritsche Middle School, Milwaukee, March 30, 2000.

"Other Republican candidates may retort to personal attacks and negative
ads."
--Fund-raising letter quoted in the Washington Post, March 24, 2000

"I've got a reason for running. I talk about a larger goal, which is to
call upon the best of America. It's part of the renewal. It's reform and
renewal.  Part of the renewal is a set of high standards and to remind
people that the greatness of America really does depend on neighbors helping
neighbors and children finding mentors. I worry. I'm very worried about,
you know, the kid who just wonders whether America is meant for him. I
really worry about that.  And uh, so, I'm running for a reason. I'm
answering this question here and the answer is, you cannot lead America to
a positive tomorrow with revenge on one's mind. Revenge is so incredibly
negative. And so to answer your question, I'm going to win because people
sense my heart, know my sense of optimism and know where I want to lead
the country. And I tease people by saying, 'A leader, you can't say, follow
me the world is going to be worse.' I'm an optimistic person. I'm an
inherently content person. I've got a great sense of where I want to lead
and I'm comfortable with why I'm running. And, you know, the call on that
speech was, beware. This is going to be a tough campaign."
--Interview with the Washington Post, March 23, 2000.

"People make suggestions on what to say all the time. I'll give you an
example; I don't read what's handed to me. People say, 'Here, here's your
speech, or here's an idea for a speech.' They're changed. Trust me."
--Interview with the New York Times, March 15, 2000.

"It's evolutionary, going from governor to president, and this is a
significant step, to be able to vote for yourself on the ballot, and I'll
be able to do so next fall, I hope."
--Associated Press,  March 8, 2000.

"It is not Reaganesque to support a tax plan that is Clinton in nature."
--Los Angeles, Feb. 23, 2000

"I don't have to accept their tenants. I was trying to convince those
college students to accept my tenants. And I reject any labeling me because
I happened to go to the university."
--Today, Feb. 23, 2000

"I understand small business growth. I was one."
--NY Daily News, Feb. 19, 2000.

"The senator has got to understand if he's going to have he can't have it
both ways. He can't take the high horse and then claim the low road."
--To reporters in Florence, S.C., Feb. 17, 2000

"Really proud of it. A great campaign. And I'm really pleased with the
organization and the thousands of South Carolinians that worked on my
behalf.  And I'm very gracious and humbled."
--To Cokie Roberts, This Week, Feb. 20, 2000.

"I don't want to win? If that were the case why the heck am I on the bus
16 hours a day, shaking thousands of hands, giving hundreds of speeches,
getting pillared in the press and cartoons and still staying on message to
win?"
--Newsweek, Feb. 28, 2000

"I thought how proud I am to be standing up beside my dad. Never did it
occur to me that he would become the gist for cartoonists."
--Ibid.

"If you're sick and tired of the politics of cynicism and polls and
principles, come and join this campaign."
--Hilton Head, S.C., Feb. 16, 2000.

"How do you know if you don't measure if you have a system that simply
suckles kids through?"
--Explaining the need for educational accountability in Beaufort, S.C.,
  Feb. 16, 2000

"We ought to make the pie higher."
--South Car. Republican Debate, Feb. 15, 2000.

"I do not agree with this notion that somehow if I go to try to attract
votes and to lead people toward a better tomorrow somehow I get subscribed
to someisome doctrine gets subscribed to me."
--Meet The Press, Feb. 13, 2000

"I've changed my style somewhat, as you know. I'm less. I pontificate less,
although it may be hard to tell it from this show. And I'm more interacting
with people."
--ibid

"I think we need not only to eliminate the tollbooth to the middle class, I
think we should knock down the tollbooth."
--Nashua, N.H., as quoted by Gail Collins in the New York Times, Feb. 1, 2000

"The most important job is not to be governor, or first lady in my case."
--Pella, Iowa, as quoted by the San Antonio Express-News, Jan. 30, 2000

"Will the highways on the Internet become more few?"
--Concord, N.H., 1/29/00.

"This is Preservation Month. I appreciate preservation. It's what you do
when you run for president. You gotta preserve." Speaking during
"Perseverance Month"
--at Fairgrounds Elementary School in Nashua, N.H. As quoted in the Los
  Angeles Times, Jan. 28, 2000

"I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family."
--Greater Nashua, N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan. 27, 2000

"What I am against is quotas. I am against hard quotas, quotas they basically
delineate based upon whatever. However they delineate, quotas, I think
vulcanize society. So I don't know how that fits into what everybody else is
saying, their relative positions, but that's my position."
--Quoted by Molly Ivins, the San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 21, 2000.

"When I was coming up, it was a dangerous world, and you knew exactly who
they were," he said. "It was us vs. them, and it was clear who them was.
Today, we are not so sure who the they are, but we know they're there."
--Iowa Western Community College, Jan 21, 2000

"The administration I'll bring is a group of men and women who are focused
on what's best for America, honest men and women, decent men and women,
women who will see service to our country as a great privilege and who will
not stain the house."
--Des Moines Register debate, Iowa, Jan. 15, 2000

"This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty
and potential mential losses."
--At a South Carolina oyster roast, as quoted in the Financial Times,
  Jan. 14, 2000

"We must all hear the universal call to like your neighbor just like you
like to be liked yourself."
--Ibid.

"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"
--Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000

"Gov. Bush will not stand for the subsidation of failure."
--ibid.

"There needs to be debates, like we're going through. There needs to be
town-hall meetings. There needs to be travel. This is a huge country."
--Larry  King Live, Dec. 16, 1999.

"I read the newspaper."
--In answer to a question about his reading habits, New  Hampshire
  Republican Debate, Dec. 2, 1999.

"I think it's important for those of us in a position of responsibility to
be firm in sharing our experiences, to understand that the babies out of
wedlock is a very difficult chore for mom and baby alike. ... I believe we
ought to say there is a different alternative than the culture that is
proposed by people like Miss Wolf in society. ... And, you know, hopefully,
condoms will work, but it hasn't worked."
--Meet the Press, Nov. 21, 1999.

"The students at Yale came from all different backgrounds and all parts of
the country. Within months, I knew many of them."
--From A Charge To Keep, by George W. Bush, published November 1999.

"It is incredibly presumptive for somebody who has not yet earned his party's
nomination to start speculating about vice presidents."
--Keene, N.H., Oct. 22, 1999, quoted in the New Republic, Nov. 15, 1999

"The important question is, How many hands have I shaked?"
--Answering a question about why he hasn't spent more time in New
  Hampshire, in the New York Times, Oct. 23, 1999.

"I don't remember debates. I don't think we spent a lot of time debating
it.  Maybe we did, but I don't remember."
--On discussions of the Vietnam War when he was an undergraduate at Yale,
  Washington Post, July 27, 1999.

"The only thing I know about Slovakia is what I learned first-hand from
your foreign minister, who came to Texas."
--To a Slovak journalist as quoted by Knight Ridder News Service, June 22,
  1999. Bush's meeting was with Janez Drnovsek, the prime minister of
  Slovenia.

"If the East Timorians decide to revolt, I'm sure I'll have a statement."
--Quoted by Maureen Dowd in the New York Times, June 16, 1999

"Keep good relations with the Grecians."
--The Economist, June 12, 1999

"Kosovians can move back in."
--CNN Inside Politics, April 9, 1999

"It was just inebriating what Midland was all about then."
--From a 1994 interview, as quoted in First Son, by Bill Minutaglio.

© 2000 Peter Langston