aybe girls do just want to have fun. The Bush girls, at least.Posted on 08/31/2004 11:30:11 PM PDT by conservative in nyc
aybe girls do just want to have fun. The Bush girls, at least.
Forget four years of shunning the spotlight. President Bush's twin 22-year-olds, Jenna and Barbara, strutted into it last night with a sassy, sexy serenade to their parents at the Republican National Convention, every wisecracking word broadcast live on national television. They spared no one.
"She thinks 'Sex in the City' is something married people do, but never talk about," Jenna, the blonde, razzed her grandmother, Barbara Bush. Jenna was referring to the HBO program "Sex and the City."
Mrs. Bush's namesake, the brunette, said of her alma mater, "When your dad's a Republican and you to go to Yale, you learn to stand up for yourself."
And dear old dad?
Jenna Bush took Mr. Bush's words about his own youthful indiscretions as her punch line. "We kept trying to explain to Dad that when we were young and irresponsible," she said as Madison Square Garden erupted in cheers, "well, we were young and irresponsible."
For a coming-out party, the girls were notably underdressed: Jenna in a shiny brown jacket over white T-shirt and jeans, Barbara in a sleeveless black dress with embroidered yolk. But they embraced that aesthetic, seeking to fill any coolness gap their father might face with the MTV set by mentioning OutKast and even its lyrics.
Mr. Bush's daughters have slowly been emerging as public figures in recent months, occasionally appearing on the campaign trail. "Since we've graduated from college, we're looking around for something to do for the next few years," Jenna said by way of explanation on Tuesday night. "Kind of like Dad."
The twins' turn yesterday at the microphone, part of the introduction of Laura Bush, brought the first public words many had heard from their mouths.
Barbara Bush took the teeniest slap at the opposition, invoking the story Senator John Kerry's older daughter, Alexandra, briefly stole the show with at the Democratic convention in July. Ms. Kerry described a dad so devoted that he dove off a dock to save her pet hamster from drowning.
"We had a hamster too," Ms. Bush said last night. "Let's just say, ours didn't make it."
I liked Arnold's the best. I knew Rudy's would be good, but wasn't as sure about Arnold's. Did you notice the subtle dig at Kerry's 3 purple heart exit from Vietnam? It was towards the end when he mentioned the soldier who lost a leg and couldn't wait to rejoin his buddies in Iraq. At least that's how I took that story.
The presidents family is really a family. They are regular folks.
Seriously, I can't picture how the Kerry Klan functions - they are all so self absorbed pretentious snobs that probably can't stand to be under the same roof together. No wonder they need so many homes.
It could also most certainly be argued that had he championed the cause of conservatism the way Reagn did, his election in 2000 would have been decisive.
If he wins by a greater margin this time, which I certainly hope he does, it will be because of the swiftboat veterans and the war on terrorism, which will have a greater influence on centrists than the pandering.
Four million evangelicals sat home last election and we can ill afford that this time. THAT is my point.
Where did Reagan pander? Prove to me how it is the same qualitatively and quantitatively to the way Bush has been pandering.
Did he propose amnesty at either convention?
arnold described the republican base well enough
anyone else appointing themselves as the base due to some narrow cultural affiliation is unamerican and unwelcome
Reagan was the one who pitched the big tent.
That, my friend, was about as subtle as a sledgehammer. He didn't state the obvious, which is that he considered Kerry a girlie man, but he didn't have to...
the infowarrior
My wife and I really cringed at the Bush Twins. I think they did hurt the president, in the regard that they perpetuated the (democratic) conventional wisdom that GWB is "dumb". Their daughters certainly came off that way.
It was an absolutely dreadful performance.
sense of humor? I thought they were darn funny and most other people (especially the audience they were trying to reach) did too. I suppose there was something for everyone last night.
Apparently many replying to this thread don't see the twins' appearance as nothing but sarcasm at the kerry campaing and his daughters' hampster story. I feel their entire "speech" was a direct artillery hit into the kerry camp.
A lot of this has to do with America's unending obsession with pop culture, beauty, a desire to know what makes famous people tick, and a need to feel important by proximal relating.
"That picture is a classic. All three of them smiling as if they are having a good time. Do you think maybe just possibly, they are, actually, having a good time? We wouldn't want too much of that to get around. What would people think if they saw Republican women having a good time? They might stop thinking that we are a bunch of frightening prigs and vote for more of us. It seems to have "the base" terrified though, so it must be a bad idea."
Compared to hamster CPR this was spun gold.
uh, I forgot the ( end / psychoanalysis) tag : )
Personally speaking, these girls are not politicians, "movie stars" staged, scripted, caged.
They have been allowed to grow up as individuals and what they showed last night is a couple of young people having FUN introducing their mother.
Hardly the children of what some in this world have called their father "Hitler like".
Perhaps the twins' appearance was that nuanced. I doubt it. If I were W, I'd want a refund from t.u. and Yale. But then the children of the privileged never have to scratch and work as our children do, to get the grades, to learn to interview, to keep the job. Do you really think that Chris Wallace is a better TV journalist than the hundreds of "no name" kids who graduated with a Communications degree and could have had that spot on Fox? That's the way it is in the real world we live in, and that's why lower and middle class children usually achieve more than children of the upper class in areas other than entertainment, sports, and politics.
Whether they may have given the Democrats more fodder for their claims that Bush is stupid or not, is not what I said. What I did say was that they did not cost the President any votes...and I don't see any reason why any intelligent individual would change his vote based on the "performance" of the Bush twins.
At least they are not advising the president on Nuclear War (Amy Carter), or trying to pass themselves off as experts on Stem Cell Research (Ron Reagan Jr.).
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