harry hope

"Our country has had no finer vice president than **** Cheney," Mr.
Bush said at both fund-raisers, and then, after waiting for the
applause to die down, he added:

"Mother may have a different thought."

It is a reference, of course, to President Bush's father, who served
as a far less influential vice president to Ronald Reagan than Mr.
Cheney is to the current president.

But what is most interesting about Mr. Bush's new speech is the way
that he puts the two brief wars of his presidency -- first in
Afghanistan, then in Iraq -- to political use.

Mr. Bush makes no references to the troubles American forces have
encountered in each country or the near-daily attacks on American
troops around Iraq.

Instead, he portrays himself as a liberator.

There is no mention, not surprisingly, of the record deficits or the
rising unemployment rate -- though clearly those issues are at the
forefront of his political team's concerns as Mr. Bush prepares to
travel this week to Philadelphia and Michigan to make the case for his
economic policy.

(It is a trip he will combine with more fund-raising.)

Mr. Bush could not resist tweaking the members of the news media as
they stood in the blazing sun awaiting a glimpse of a Crawford
tradition: the president, driving his white pickup truck with Texas
plates, arriving to pick up his guests.

As he passed a collection of sweating American and Italian reporters,
Mr. Bush, showing his compassionate conservative side, rolled down his
window, waved, and said:

"Let me turn down my air conditioner -- how y'all doing out there?"

From The New York Times, 7/21/03:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/21/politics/campaigns/21BUSH.html

By DAVID E. SANGER

CRAWFORD, Tex. --

Mr. Bush spoke at two fund-raisers, one on Friday night in Dallas and
another on Saturday evening in Houston, delivering a version of his
new campaign speech at each stop.

The speech is about 2,700 words long.

So, if this weekend was representative, his campaign coffers swell by
about $1,300 a word -- not bad for a weekend, especially one primarily
devoted to tending to the ranch.

__________________________________________________ ___

That air conditioner story reminds me of two other Bush personality
revelations:

----When he was a boy he used to sadistically insert firecrackers into
frogs and blow them up for kicks.

----On February 2, 1998, the Bush arrogance bordered on the sadistic
with the execution of convicted killer and born-again Christian Karla
Faye Tucker. He joked about Karla Faye Tucker's desperate plea for
life, which had been aired on Larry King Live. During an interview
with Talk Magazine, Bush mocked Karla Faye, whimpering "Please, don't
kill me" in an imitation of her voice.

Harry