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."
Today, every alphabet network ran Arnold, the Twins and the First Lady's speeches.
No, they are not.
I agree with you.
I didn't see anything offensive with the Bush twins' speech. Cheesy perhaps, but offensive or bad, not at all.
Jenna and Barbara are basically the President's liasons to the MTV Rock the Vote generation. By keeping things lighthearted, they were able to connect with them, poke fun at themselves, and get a good dig in at Kerry.
The people who are taking this speech seriously on here miss the point and should lighten up. This is a speech that is aimed at undecided and soft Democrat or Republican voters in the 18-24 range and it was effective IMHO.
Oh, yes, they are.
"Two UT sorority sisters that sound like airheads? What are the odds?"
Barbara is a Yale graduate.
They sound like 22 year old chicks.
And here on FR, with the extreme right wing?
Michael Badnarik - 2%
George W. Bush - 89%
John F. Kerry - 1%
Ralph Nader - 0%
Michael A. Peroutka - 3%
Other - 0%
Undecided/NA/Pass - 1%
Don't get your hopes up; it ain't gonna happen.
You can't win an election with just your base. You have to try to appeal to people outside your base to win.
I doubt the Bush twins' attempt at humor is going to make many people vote for Kerry.
And if you think that someone didn't write their material, you're mistaken. It was scripted -- and targeted at a particular audience. You might just not be in it.
Either security at the convention is not what it is cracked up to be or the NY Times editors are not what they are cracked up to be. I think they meant "yoke."
if you saw it on TV, they were stupid yeah but great way to setup the intro with the Pres. live, baseball game goin' on in the background, daddy+camping trip we never had+daddys workin image' .. that was all worth it.
I wonder if they thought to bring out a couple of Chuy's margaritas and toast the press for being so nice to them and giving them so much privacy all through college. Now that's what I'd call payback.
Where are they going to go; to Nader? Just curious.
And if they try to appeal only to their base, we end up with Kerry.
If you can't get elected, you can't get much accomplished.
I gotta admit, it was painful for me to watch. I had a high puckker factor before hand because I knew the world would analyze every word to death. One of the things conservatives have to fight every day is the myth that we are to "dumb" to see liberal intellectual superiority. By coming off as typical teen airheads, it only fuels the fire, whether they are or not.
Her outfit recalled the 1950's, which is exactly the soft of stereotypical old fashioned home-making, "woman's work" wife she has really been. I agree she seems sincere but Laura was simply dull and unwatchable. Zzz.
Amazing how people love her and hate Liz Dole who I've found a far better speaker historically. Speaking of Liddy, where were the Freepers who slam Liz as a liberal when she was delivering the pro-life message?
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.
The other thing that conservatives have to fight is the reality that too many of them are congenitally incapable of having a good time when one is on offer.
Duhhhh! Is that how it works????? Thanks for 'splainin' it to me. I have already pointed THAT out on two other threads. I certainly don't blame them. I blame their scripters and handlers. Despite the poor jokes and direction they still came across as normal, healthy, happy, well-adjusted, very pretty young girls.
My comments were directed to your comments. I understand exactly what the Republicans were attempting to do. If they continue to ignore their base, they will lose them, and I am not referring to myself.
"You might just not be in it."
HUH?
But they said nothing that would make anyone young or older vote republican.
Those who were put off by the MTV-style delivery of the twins should get a grip. You were expecting a dissertation on world affairs? You wanted the standard beauty pageant civics lesson? These are 22-year old kids and that's exactly how they acted. I thought the hamster comment was the perfect antidote to the prattlings of the Kerry spawn, who are older and should have known better.
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