It’s Monday. I have a bad cold. I feel like, well, the proverbial four letter word for feces. But this morning my spirit was lifted when I read something that was so funny, I just had to pass it along to the rest of you. Ladies and Germs, I give you the Dana Perino, Press Secretary for the White House, and budding stand up comedian:
Spokeswoman Dana Perino was making the case that it’s no surprise that Bush has low poll ratings because he is overseeing an unpopular war. But then her argument went off the tracks.
“Both the president and the vice president have long believed, and it’s a part of what has made them the leaders that they are, which is not to chase popularity polls but to hold themselves to a standard that requires people not to like them,” she said.
Oh, Dana, you jokester you. Leno and Letterman couldn’t have said it any better. Bush and Cheney hold themselves to a standard that requires people not to like them. That’s rich. You clearly are thinking about your next career after this White House gig runs out at the end of this year.
Unless, of course, you were inadvertently telling the truth for once . . . Because, that would explain a lot of things. Oh, and thanks for passing along this bit of information, too:
“And I think that the way that the president looks at it is that there’s – I don’t know, maybe – the media polls a lot. That’s your prerogative; go ahead. And I think that the questions are – that come to us, that every day when there’s a new poll that’s out, and that the numbers don’t change dramatically, we’re expected to express frustration.”
Makes you wonder why President Bush hasn’t passed an executive order banning opinion polls. A man who can spy on all our emails and financial dealings without a warrant, who can start wars on a whim, who can declare anyone a terrorist and detain them without trial for as long as he sees fit, surely can ban pollsters. But then again, how would he know if his master plan to make himself unpopular was succeeding? A real catch 22, that is.
She can get a job at the airport waiting for the metal detector to go off. LOL
What an idiot.
…it’s a part of what has made them the leaders that they are…
In other countries, those leaders are called cruel dictators.
But here they are wise statesmen who have risen above petty partisan politics. Just one more thing that makes us better than everyone else. <snark>
LOL.
makes me wonder who has higher approval poll ratings, Hugo Chavez, President of Iran (can’t spell name), or W.
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No President or PM is more disliked than Olmert …
TEL AVIV (IHT) Sept. 2007 – Israel has clamped a news blackout on the raid, which Syria announced and U.S. officials have confirmed. Foreign media reports have suggested Israel struck a nuclear facility in Syria built with North Korean technology, or Iranian arms destined for Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.
Olmert’s approval ratings have been battered over the past year by last summer’s flawed war against Hezbollah and a series of corruption allegations. In March, he declared himself to be an unpopular leader, but insisted he would continue to lead.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Thanks Steven, I needed that laugh.
So you don’t like me huh? That was my plan all along, hero and genius that I am. My PR people can explain it to all you peasants.
1,000mg Vitamin C, echinacea, and zinc every four hours. Get well soon.
I read some white papers pre-9/11 that described just that scenario as necessary – their term was ‘Wildman’ President. The authors felt that would be necessary to provide a credible threat against enemies not impressed by UN sanctions, etc. They also thought it would provide cover for distasteful, but ‘necessary’ polices.
Same documents discussed required ‘galvanizing event’ – sound familiar?
Well, like Cheney says, “You cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.”
Hmmm….Let’s take a look at the latest ARG Poll and get a gander at all this fluctuation he’s talking about.
An average approval rating of 29% since last March. Median approval rating is 31%.
Looks more like a trend to me, not a fluctuation.
But hey, it’s all just semantics, right?
You hit on a Cheney statement that’s been generally overlooked while the focus has been his “So” instead.
Cheney marches to a different drummer…that doesn’t exist in our version of reality.
That was what struck me first when I heard what he said. I thought, “What fluctuation?” He talks like the polls have just been jumping around, willy-nilly, from one side of the fence to the other. So some days, he implies the polls show the Prez’s policy in the crapper. And some days the polls show huge support. Damn fickle American public. Blowing with the wind. So easily conned by the liberal media. Gotta just ignore them. Can’t make up their mind.
But that’s not the case at all. The public has overwhelmingly rejected the President’s policy for years!!
Never seems to get much play in the corporate media, though. You’d think a President so glaringly at odds with the wishes of the people would be called out, at least occasionally, by those “journalists” who cover him. So who is advocating for us?
Nobody. That’s who.
So it would follow that the more unpopular they are, the better the leaders they are. An inverse measure of success, as it were.
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Dana Perino on the presidential prerogative not to answer questions!
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Good thing she’s pretty.
She didn’t misspeak. She’s not talking about their independence from polls either. She really means that they aim to piss us off.
How else could America be forgiven for recent ridiculousness we’ve pulled (and neither Obama or Clinton will roll back), except if ‘The American People’ hate the leaders who’ve pulled it?
“Must be willing to assume Evil Wildman Cowboy Idiot persona” is part of the job description for a ‘temporary insanity plee’ President. The “TIP” President is the only type of American President who can take over a few countries and take the blame with him when he leaves office.
The TIP President has to be followed up by a “Redemption” (Obama) or “Back to the Good Old Days” President (Clinton), of course.