Monday, September 24, 2007

Halloween Came Early This Year

A host of scary things burst out of the mouths of presidents, administrations, and presidential-hopefuls recently.

Bewitched by President Bush's magical mumbo-jumbo
Republican presidential candidate (and Mormon!) Mitt Romney, July 7, 2007: "I know that it is popular today to be critical of the president. And he is not above making mistakes. But we should thank him for doing everything in his power to keep us safe. Against the objections of Democrats and even some in our own party, he pushed though the Patriot Act.* He made sure that someone was listening in when al-Qaida was calling. He made sure we were interrogating terrorists to learn how we could prevent attacks on our citizens." And then this gem from two days ago, Mitt Romney, Sept. 22, 2007: "We expect our elected officials to be good role models, not bad examples -- thank you, President Bush, for restoring personal integrity and dignity to the White House."

Rudy Giuliani spreads 9/11 over America like Cheez-Whiz on a cracker
Abandoning old ideals left and left, Rudy hopes to avoid the Kerry-esque label of "flip-flopper" by linking his changing "heart" to 9/11 and its aftermath. Most recently, Rudy thinks if he hadn't pushed gun control in NYC, maybe 9/11 wouldn't have happened. "I also think that there have been subsequent intervening events — September 11 — which cast somewhat of a different light on the Second Amendment and Second Amendment rights. It doesn't change the fundamental rights, but maybe it highlights the necessity for them more."

Speaking with a fork-ed tongue
President Bush on the "Jena-6"
"I feel strongly that there ought to be fair justice. And I just spoke out on it." Well said, sir.

President Bush on the economy
Reporter: Do you think there's a risk of a recession? How do you rate that?
Bush: You know, you need to talk to economists. I think I got a B in Econ 101. I got an A, however, in keeping taxes low and being fiscally responsible with the people's money ...
--Later, in the same interview--
Reporter: Mr. President, back to your grade-point average on holding the line on taxes.
Bush: I thought you were going to talk about the actual grade-point average. I remind people that, like, when I'm with Condi, I say she's the Ph.D. and I'm the C student and just look at who's the president and who's the advisor.
Indeed, Mr. President.

How can this not come back to haunt them?
From The Examiner: As for Obama, a senior White House official said the freshman senator from Illinois was "capable" of the intellectual rigor needed to win the presidency but instead relies too heavily on his easy charm. "It's sort of like, 'that's all I need to get by,' which bespeaks sort of a condescending attitude towards the voters," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "And a laziness, an intellectual laziness."

Spooktacular horrors lie ahead.

*Italics mine.

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