| Top Bushisms in the Category of: Speaking Personally | |
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| 1. | "You know I could run for governor, but I'm basically a media creation. I've never done anything. I've worked for my dad. I worked in the oil business. But that's not the kind of profile you have to have to get elected to public office." - George W. Bush, 1989 | ||
| 2. | "Listen, I'm just as shocked as you are that I'm sitting here talking about the presidency -- it's never been a part of my -- my life's ambition hasn't always been to be the president." - George W. Bush, Apr. 27, 2000 (No, you couldn't possibly have been as shocked as I was.) | ||
| 3. | "I'm also not very analytical. You know I don't spend a lot of time thinking about myself, about why I do things." - George W. Bush, aboard Air Force One, June 4, 2003 | ||
| 4. | "I'm not going to play like I've been a person who's spent hours involved with foreign policy. I am who I am." - George W. Bush, the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Apr. 27, 2000 (If he'd said "years" I wouldn't have been surprised. But "hours?") | ||
| 5. | "Sitting down and reading a 500 page book on public policy or philosophy or something." - George W. Bush, when asked to name something he's not good at. Talk Magazine, Sep. 1999 | ||
| 6. | "As I understand it, the current FBI form asks the question, 'Did somebody use drugs within the last 7 years?' and I will be glad to answer that question, and the answer is no." - George W. Bush, Time magazine, Aug. 18, 2000 (Putting to rest rumors of past illicit drug use - at least between 1993 and 2000.) | ||
| 7. | "There's nothing more deep than recognizing Israel's right to exist. That's the most deep thought of all. ... I can't think of anything more deep than that right." - George W. Bush, Washington, DC, March 13, 2002 | ||
| 8. | "This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating." - George W. Bush, as quoted by the New York Daily News, April 23, 2002 | ||
| 9. | "I'm the commander - see, I don't need to explain - I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being president." - George W. Bush, as quoted in Bob Woodward's Bush at War | ||
| 10. |
"I do remain confident in Linda. She'll make a fine labor secretary. From what I've read in the press accounts, she's perfectly qualified." - George W. Bush, Austin, TX, Jan. 8, 2001 |
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| 11. | "I want to thank all my citizens for coming." - George W. Bush, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota, Oct. 31, 2002 | ||
| 12. | "We don't take a bunch of polls and focus groups to tell us what - to how to, to how to - to what we ought to do in the world." - George W. Bush, White House, Mar. 21, 2002 (Really? What do you do with them?) | ||
| 13. | "I don't make any apologies for what I do on the campaign trail." - George W. Bush, when asked about his campaign visit to Bob Jones University. New York Times, Feb. 24, 2000 (Since his campaign and their surrogates went on to slime the military service of John McCain in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004, this was fair warning.) | ||
| 14. | "I appreciate [FL Governor] Jeb [Bush] -- talk about swamping somebody, he knows the definition of 'swamp' when it comes to political campaigns." - George W. Bush, Tampa, FL, Jun. 30, 2003 | ||
| 15. | "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." - George W. Bush, On discussions of the Vietnam War when he was an undergraduate at Yale, Washington Post, July 27, 1999 | ||
| 16. | "In the corporate world, sometimes things aren't exactly black and white when it comes to accounting procedures." - George W. Bush, White House press conference, Washington, DC, July 8, 2002 | ||
| 17. | "I appreciate my love for Laura." - George W. Bush, Washington, DC, April 20, 2005 | ||
| 18. | "In this job you've got a lot on your plate on a regular basis; you don't have much time to sit around and wander, lonely, in the Oval Office, kind of asking different portraits, 'How do you think my standing will be?'" - George W. Bush, Washington, DC, March 16, 2005 | ||
| 19. | "You know, I like, uhh, my buddies from West TX I liked
'em when I was young, I liked 'em when I was middle age, I liked 'em before
I was President, and I like 'em during President and I like 'em after President.
And it's fun to have 'em come to the White House." - George W. Bush,
shoots for downhome charm and instead enters a vortex of bizarre phrasing,
Grand Ole Opry House, Nashville, Tennessee, Feb. 1, 2006 [AUDIO] |
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