GW Bush--An English Teacher's Worst Nightmare

The picture comes from a Bush press conference in China, where reporters asked him a few hostile questions, he goes to leave but can't get past the locked doors.

In a sort of retrospective on our sitting President, who probably is more like "getting halfway up from the chair" President at this stage (don't let the door hit you in the hindspot on your way out), the BBC put together a concise little list of Bushisms.

Some of my favorites:

I want to thank my friend, Senator Bill Frist, for joining us today. He married a Texas girl, I want you to know. Karyn is with us. A West Texas girl, just like me.

It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it.

You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.

2004 was a particularly good year for vintage Bush gaffes. Here is what he had to say about "frivolous" lawsuits against physicians and about illiteracy, which must make his wife Laura wince in pain every time he opens his mouth about it.

Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country.

Then you wake up at the high school level and find out that the illiteracy level of our children are appalling.

On the literacy front, here's his comment from 2006 about his reading list:

I said I was looking for a book to read, Laura said you ought to try Camus. I also read three Shakespeares. ... I've got a eck-a-lec-tic reading list.

I have never understood why people voted for someone like Bush in the first place, much less twice. He claimed to be misunderestimated shortly after election in 2000. Here's a few quotes from 2001, and it's not like he wasn't saying dumb stuff like that before then.

I am here to make an announcement that this Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly out of Ronald Reagan Airport.

Do you have blacks, too?" --to Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso

Or from January of 2001, shortly after inaugeration:

I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.

That's mainly because they won't hold still.

My ultimate favorite, though, didn't make the article's list, but it should have. He was signing a defense budget bill back in 2004, and this is what he had to say about his reasons for doing so:

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful - and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people - and neither do we.

Truer words were never spoken. Watch out for those flying ticket counters.

-- DV