Much has been said about the intelligence of the upper class. I must say
that what follows is a good example what is wrong with our educational
system. Many, including Harry Pollard and Bill Clinton, say that the
current White House resident is smarter than people think.
I read these quotes and frankly I just don't see it. People who have all
they need should be more humble about the accident of their birth. If they
are going to be President, they should at least try to put up a good image
in public. I would have no problem with a President speaking like a dummy
in private because that is their private life. But being a clever dummy
verbally in public, if not dumb, is at least lazy and I find that annoying
and I don't trust anyone to do the job who has that character flaw.
Some people demand sexual fidelity as a pre-requisite for office. I don't
defend the breaking of marital contracts but I put those issues, if kept
discreet, in the area of private lives and not necessary to public
discourse. I've read enough history to know that what we call sexual
fidelity today, has not been one of the character traits of most of the
great leaders of the world male or female. What do you think of all of
those "handmaidens", "male consorts" and concubines were throughout history
from Abraham to the present? It gets very dumb sometimes in these
discussions. I remember a voice teacher at a major conservatory who when
discussing the life of Violetta Valery the female Consort in La Traviata
accused another teacher of introducing sex into the opera. As if her life
was not about that already. Sexuality is a difficult issue for all people.
We have problems with staying in marriages, problems with staying in some
marriages too long and problems in raising our children with a stable home
and yet allowing divorce. These are all difficult issues and issues for
the private lives of individuals.
In fact some of the greatest leaders have had remarkable sexual private
lives. Many of our own Founding fathers who wrote or designed the basic
laws and Constitution of the country had "exotic" sexual habits. These
have been areas of privacy and I believe that is the way it should be as
long as they do not physically hurt anyone and are superior at doing their
jobs. Power tends to draw individuals who are not lacking in
testosterone or estrogen. I didn't make them that way and I refuse to
criticize the One that did. There is a purpose to public life or "polite
society" and private life or "common humanity." I require them to be
uncommon in their public life if I need them to do their public job. If
the private life is an issue then let them be ministers and priests and have
no private life and give their public life over to humility and service.
Politicians are servants but they are neither Priests, Ministers, Rabbis or
Mullahs and when any of that class or profession becomes political they have
a remarkable historical record of abuse and violence. So lets have a
little more sophistication and a solid elocution from our leaders, since
what a leader says effects us all and can start wars. Respect is not only
a matter of a big defense budget but must come from the Leader's
intelligence and ability to control many things at once. If these quotes
sounds like that man, then you vote for him but don't just throw them away.
I didn't say these things, GWBush did and he should be graded on such things
since he is the one in the Oval Office not me. But first let us begin
with the honorable Julius Caesar Watts, former Congressman from Oklahoma and
football hero.
REH
Quotes:
"You don't need to be smart to be president"
--Republican Congressman J.C. Watts - said at a February campaign
appearance on Bush's behalf. Washington Post, 6/11/00
"I think anybody who doesn't think I'm smart enough to handle the job is
underestimating."
--U.S. News & World Report, April 3, 2000
"Rarely is the question asked: is our children learning"
--Florence, SC, Jan. 11, 2000
"Actually, I -- this may sound a little West Texan to you, but I like it.
When I'm talking about -- when I'm talking about myself, and when he's
talking about myself, all of us are talking about me."
--Hardball, MSNBC, May 31, 2000
"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."
--Reuters, May 5, 2000
"I think we agree, the past is over."
--On his meeting with John McCain, Dallas Morning News, May 10, 2000
"Laura and I really don't realize how bright our children is sometime until
we get an objective analysis."
--Meet the Press, April 15, 2000
"I was raised in the West. The west of Texas. It's pretty close to
California. In more ways than Washington, D.C., is close to California."
--Los Angeles Times, April 8, 2000
"We want our teachers to be trained so they can meet the obligations; their
obligations as teachers. We want them to know how to teach the science of
reading. In order to make sure there's not this kind of federal cufflink."
--Fritsche Middle School, Milwaukee, March 30, 2000
"The fact that he relies on facts -- says things that are not factual -- are
going to undermine his campaign."
--New York Times, March 4, 2000
"It is not Reaganesque to support a tax plan that is Clinton in nature."
--Los Angeles, Feb. 23, 2000
"I understand small business growth. I was one."
--New York Daily News, Feb. 19, 2000
"How do you know if you don't measure if you have a system that simply
suckles kids through?"
--Explaining the need for educational accountability, Beaufort, S.C.,Feb.16,
2000
"The senator has got to understand if he's going to have he can't have it
both ways. He can't take the high horse and then claim the low road."
--To reporters in Florence, S.C., Feb. 17, 2000
"If you're sick and tired of the politics of cynicism and polls and
principles, come and join this campaign."
--Hilton Head, S.C., Feb. 16, 2000
"We ought to make the pie higher."
-South Carolina Republican Debate, Feb. 15, 2000
"I've changed my style somewhat, as you know. I'm less, I pontificate less,
although it may be hard to tell it from this show. And I'm more interacting
with people."
--Meet The Press, Feb. 13, 2000
"I think we need not only to eliminate the tollbooth to the middle class, I
think we should knock down the tollbooth."
--Nashua, N.H., as quoted by Gail Collins, New York Times, Feb. 1, 2000
"The most important job is not to be governor, or first lady in my case."
--Pella, Iowa, as quoted in the San Antonio Express News, Jan. 30, 2000"
"This is Preservation Month. I appreciate preservation. It's what you do
when you run for president. You gotta preserve."
--Speaking during Perseverance Month at Fairgrounds Elementary School in
Nashua, N.H.
"I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family."
--Greater Nashua, N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan. 27, 2000
"This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and
potential mental losses."
--At a South Carolina oyster roast; quoted in the Financial Times, Jan.14,
2000
"There needs to be debates, like we're going through. There needs to be
townhall meetings. There needs to be travel. This is a huge country."
--Larry King Live, Dec. 16, 1999
"The important question is, How many hands have I shaked?"
--Answering a question about why he hasn't spent more time in New
Hampshire; quoted in the New York Times, Oct. 23, 1999
"Keep good relations with the Grecians."
--Quoted in the Economist, June 12, 1999
"When it is all said and done, I will have made more money than I ever
dreamed I would make."
--Source & Date unknown (please email us the source if you know)
"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."
--On discussing the Vietnam War as an undergraduate at Yale, in the
Washington Post, July 27, 1999
"Put the 'off' button on."
--South Carolina, February 14, 2000
"I did denounce it. I de-I denounced it. I denounced interracial dating. I
denounced anti-Catholic bigacy... bigotry."
--Referring to his Bob Jones University visit and the subsequent criticism,
Virginia, February 25, 2000
"We believe in opportunity for all Americans: Rich and poor, black and
white...."
--From a speech at Bob Jones Univ., in South Carolina, 2/2/00
"We must all hear the universal call to like your neighbor just like you
like to be liked yourself."
--George W. Bush puts an interesting twist on Jesus Christ's proverb: "Love
thy neighbor." (Quote is from the Financial Times)
"I would have said yes to abortion if only it was right. I mean, yeah it's
right. Well no it's not right that's why I said no to it."
--South Carolina, February 14,2000
"My [tax cut] plan is realistic because it avoids meaningless 15-year
projections."
--George W. Bush goes to extraordinary lengths to defend his tax cut plan.
(Quote is from a Bush speech in Iowa, 12/1/99)
"The fundamental question is: 'Will I be a successful president when it
comes to foreign policy?' I will be, but until I'm the president, it's going
to be hard for me to verify that I think I'll be more effective."
--New York Times, 7/28/99
"There ought to limits to freedom"
--at a Press conference at the Texas State House, May 21, 1999, referring to
GWBush.com
"We have struggle to not proceed but to preceed to the future of a nation's
child."
--Journal Gazette 11/12/00
"My opponent seems to think that Social Security is a federal program. I
believe that money is yours and you should be able to invest it yourself."
-The final Presidential debate
"Down in Washington they're playing with Social Security like it's some kind
of government program!"
-NBC Nightly News (Date unknown, anyone out there know?)
"The reason we start a war is to fight a war, win a war, thereby causing no
more war!"
--The first Presidential debate
"They said, 'You know, this issue doesn't seem to resignate [sic] with the
people.' And I said, you know something? Whether it resignates [sic] or not
doesn't matter to me, because I stand for doing what's the right thing, and
what the right thing is hearing the voices of people who work.
--Portland, Ore., Oct. 31, 2000
"It's your money. You paid for it."
--LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000
"It's important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It's
not only life of babies, but it's life of children living in, you know, the
dark dungeons of the Internet.
-Arlington Heights, Ill., Oct. 24, 2000
"If affirmative action means what I just described, what I'm for, then I'm
for it."
--The Presidential Debates. St. Louis, Mo., October 18, 2000
"It's going to require numerous IRA agents."
--On Gore's tax plan, Greensboro, N.C., Oct. 10, 2000
"I don't think we need to be subliminable [sic] about the differences
between our views on prescription drugs."
--Orlando, Fla., Sept. 12, 2000. He then repeatedly mispronounced the word
after his press conference.
"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully"
--Saginaw, Mich., Sept. 29, 2000
"Will the highways on the Internet become more few?"
--Concord, N.H., Jan. 29, 2000
"It is clear our nation is reliant upon big foreign oil. More and more of
our imports come from overseas."
--Beaverton, Ore., Sep. 25, 2000
"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier...just as long
as I'm the dictator..."
--Washington, DC, Dec 18, 2000, during his first trip to Washington as
President-Elect
"They misunderestimated me."
--Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000
"That's a chapter, the last chapter of the 20th, 20th, the 21st century that
most of us would rather forget. The last chapter of the 20th century. This
is the first chapter of the 21st century."
--On the Lewinsky scandal, Arlington Heights, Ill., Oct. 24, 2000"
"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream."
-LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000"
"There's a huge trust. I see it all the time when people come up to me and
say, 'I don't want you to let me down again.'"
- Boston, Massachusetts, October 3, 2000
"I think if you know what you believe, it makes it a lot easier to answer
questions. I can't answer your question"
--Reynoldsburg, Ohio, October 4, 2000
"You teach a child to read and he or her will be able to pass a literacy
test."
--February 21, 2001 - President Bush at Townsend Elementary School, touting
his education reform plans.
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