REUTERS/Jason Reed
Posted on 11/04/2004 6:10:34 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
"S o a teacher in a small town asks her class how many of them are George Bush fans. Not really knowing what a George Bush fan is, but wanting to be liked by the teacher, all the kids raise their hands except one boy. The teacher asks Johnny why he has decided to be different. Johnny says, 'I'm not a George Bush fan.'
"The teacher asks, 'Why aren't you a George Bush fan?'
"Johnny says, 'I'm a John Kerry fan.'
"The teacher asks why he's a John Kerry fan. The boy says, 'Well, my mom's a John Kerry fan and my dad's a John Kerry fan, so I'm a John Kerry fan!'
"The teacher is kind of angry, so she asks, 'What if your mom was a moron and your dad was an idiot, what would that make you?'
"And Johnny says, 'That would make me a George Bush fan.' "
A friend and Bush critic sent me this yuk-yuk sometime last spring. I laughed and told him I'd save his Bush-is-a-moron joke since I was sure he and his Bush-bashing buddies would need some major cheering up come Election Day. It's tough to lose a big election. It must be especially tough to lose a big election to someone your superior self considers an idiot.
Over the past four years, "Bush is a moron" has become a kind of cottage industry -- joke logs and the "Somewhere in Texas a village is missing an idiot" bumper sticker -- and some of the sweetest, most sensible people I know have bought into this bum rap. Delaware Democratic Sen. Joe Biden took things to a new low, really, when he said recently that Bush "is brain dead." They all might need a good joke this week.
Then again, they might reconsider their whole Bush-is-a-moron shtick. Not only would this in some small way help restore a measure of civility to our prickly public life, but it would also show a decent respect for another individual and the office of the presidency.
Furthermore, it would have the added benefit of comporting with reality -- always a plus in life if not politics.
In addition to achieving a substantial record of governance, Bush has taken on the Democratic Party's stars -- Texas Gov. Ann Richards, Vice President Al Gore and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry -- and won. And after this Election Day, critics won't be able to cite one of the main sources of their unseemly bitterness over the past four years: the notion that Bush somehow stole the White House. Bush racked up an impressive re-election victory in some of the toughest political circumstances imaginable (Iraq, for starters). He won the popular vote by almost 4 million ballots. He became the first president since his father, George H.W. Bush, to win a majority of the popular vote. And his Republican Party gained seats in the House and Senate. Bush achieved all this while advancing a clear, meaty governing agenda.
Maybe Bush-bashers can chalk up all these Bush accomplishments to super-sharp political advisers -- Karl Rove, "Bush's brain," and other imagined Dubya puppeteers -- or the stupidity of the voters, but at some point even the harshest critic will have to acknowledge that Bush himself has a lot to do with all this success.
Certainly, efforts to reunite and tone down the divisiveness need to take place on both sides. Kerry made a noble move in this direction Wednesday -- not so much by what he said, which was gracious enough, but by what he did in refusing to contest the Ohio vote. The Democratic candidate's supporters could contribute by knocking off the Bush-is-a-moron garbage.
As for the republic's unreconstructed, sour Bush-bashers, here's another joke:
"Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and George Bush go into a bar. Rumsfeld orders first. 'I'll have a B and C.'
"The bartender asks, 'What's a B and C?'
" 'Bourbon and Coke,' Rumsfeld says.
"Cheney orders. 'And I'll have a G and T.'
"The bartender asks, 'What's a G and T?'
" 'Gin and tonic,' Cheney replies.
"Dubya wants to be cute, too. He says, 'I'll have a 15.'
"The bartender asks, 'What's a 15?'
"Dubya says, 'A 7 and 7.' "
You get it: George W. Bush can't count!
Except, of course, to 279 -- as in 279 electoral votes and counting . . .
David Reinhard, associate editor, can be reached at 503-221-8152 or davidreinhard@news.oregonian.com.
It must suck to get your a$$ kicked by a moron.
Does the term 'mis-underestimated' come to mind?
LOL! And in front of the known universe to boot!
Very good. Thanks for the post!
Tee hee! I work as a TA in a university and it was great to listen to some of my fellow grad students whine about Bush. I actually overheard some complaining that Bush "fooled them by playing into their assumption that he was stupid; why he never did anything to dispell this idea." Bwahahaha, that "mean ol' Bush" led us to believe that he was stupid when he was an "evil genius" the whole time. You gotta love "strategery."
A misunderestimated moron at that. Don't you just love it.
The snake is still writhing -- don't step on it.
Since Dewey in 1948, the candidate who claims to be more intelligent or seems to think his opponent is a dunce has lost EVERY ELECTION! Wilson may be the last "intellectual superior" to win.
I and other conservatives could only say, "We tried to tell you that he was a strategic thinker with more brains than you accredit to him."
LIBERAL elites hold average Americans in contempt.
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"I'm saddened by what I feel is the obtuseness and shortsightedness of a good part of the country - the heartland," Dr. Joseph said. "This kind of redneck, shoot-from-the-hip mentality and a very concrete interpretation of religion is prevalent in Bush country - in the heartland."
"New Yorkers are more sophisticated and at a level of consciousness where we realize we have to think of globalization, of one mankind, that what's going to injure masses of people is not good for us," he said.
His friend, Ms. Cohn, a native of Wisconsin who deals in art, contended that New Yorkers were not as fooled by Mr. Bush's statements as other Americans might be. "New Yorkers are savvy," she said. "We have street smarts. Whereas people in the Midwest are more influenced by what their friends say."
"They're very 1950's," she said of Midwesterners. "When I go back there, I feel I'm in a time warp."
Dr. Joseph acknowledged that such attitudes could feed into the perception that New Yorkers are cultural elitists, but he didn't apologize for it.
"People who are more competitive and proficient at what they do tend to gravitate toward cities," he said.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1269799/posts
"It must suck to get your a$$ kicked by a moron.....LOL! And in front of the known universe to boot!"
And by one that says Nu'clur.....!
Anyone explain just what that is supposed to mean.
And we were a "misunderestimated" public. HAHAHA The media and the Democrats (OK, I realize the two are interchangeable) completely misjudged the American people.
We're not as gullible as they thought we were. Nor are we influenced by rock stars and movie stars.
yea, right. Try telling that to the supper efficient and competive people that grow the food to feed all of you aholes in the city...elitest Pr*ck.
Don't ferget Jimmy boy in '76. Widely ballyhooed as the modt intellgent president we've ever had.
The Democrat Party is in for some very difficult times over the next four years. It will be useless for them to try and use President Bush as the central focus of their anger in an attempt to attract "brains full of mush" folks to their party. That dog just won't hunt anymore. And without the "hate Bush" pitch, they will have to focus on policies instead of personalities. When they do that, they are sunk. The Republican agenda will advance, and with it life will improve for the vast majority of Americans. The Dems will have the task of convincing folks that black is white. Sure, some idiots will get sucked in, but most people will compare what they see with what the Dems are selling and realize the Dem's pitch is lies.
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