Remember this little gem? Kanye’s infamous “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” announcement? All right, now remember 9/11? Yes? And that whole War on Terror thing? And the actual Hurricane Katrina, not just Kanye’s comments on how Bush handled it? Ok, now that you have those things in your head, guess which one George Bush considers the worst moment of his presidency.
Matt Lauer interviewed Bush about the former president’s upcoming book, Decision Points (both of which you can check out next week), and Matt had some questions about what Bush wrote about the Kanye comment, which was that “the suggestion that I was racist because of the response to Katrina represented an all-time low.” Bush got upset all over again, and Matt decided to push it:
Lauer: “You say you told Laura at the time it was the worst moment of your presidency?”
Bush: “Yes. My record was strong, I felt, when it came to race relations and giving people a chance. And it was a disgusting moment.”
Lauer: “I wonder if some people are going to read that, now that you’ve written it, and they might give you some heat for that. And the reason is this — “
Bush [interrupting]: “Don’t care.”
Lauer: “Well, here’s the reason. You’re not saying that the worst moment in your presidency was watching the misery in Louisiana. You’re saying it was when someone insulted you because of that.”
Bush: “No, and I also make it clear that the misery in Louisiana affected me deeply as well. There’s a lot of tough moments in the book. And it was a disgusting moment, pure and simple.”
One of my nieces used to be an absolute demon. She wouldn’t listen to anyone, she liked to pull hair and pinch and say mean things. But after a while of this, she’d always get to the point where she was just spinning, like she was just sputtering out nonsense, and that’s when I’d pick her up and put her on my lap, and I’d say “it’s ok, honey, it’s ok, just go to sleep.” And that’s exactly what this interview makes me want to do to George Bush. The man is sputtering out nonsense, and somebody needs to rock him to sleep.
What is so nonsensical about becoming upset and responding to an accusation that you’re a racist? I have no argument that the actions of the Bush administration resulted in a lot of fuck ups, but for some ghetto-assed, illiterate rapper to come on national TV and make this accusation towards the President of the United States showed a complete display of ignorance. It is not likely that the incompetent handling of the Hurricane Katrina situation had a racial foundation or because Bush didn’t care about black people. Here’s a little info courtesy of the Washington Post (which is not known as being exactly conservative, btw): “Bush increased direct development and humanitarian aid to Africa to more than $4 billion a year from $1.4 billion in 2001, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. And four African nations — Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt and Uganda — rank among the world’s top 10 recipients in aid from the United States.” Does that sound like someone who doesn’t care about black people to you?
I saw a poll a few days ago that stated that a majority of people now if had a choice would rather have Bush back as President then the idiot we have in there now. Lets thank GOD that the great people of this country woke up Nov. 2nd and put a big STOP to obama and his distructive policies! Rock on good people!
Hey Gary, why don’t you go self-“distruct”?
you’re a hateful little twit are you?
Yeah – let’s go back to the Bush years – THEY WERE WONDERFUL – two wars, attack on America, surplus to deficit, Cheney, horrible response to Katrina. Ah yes, the good old days.
*than*
He never cared about the majority of Americans, only Karl Rove.
I think he means it was the most disgusting moment of his presidency because it reflected directly on him and his actions and he believes contradicts everything that he was trying to do.
The 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina were no fault of Bush’s. The wars were, but let’s not forget that they were supported at the time by a mass majority of Americans. Sure, after a while, everyone wanted out, but ending a war is certainly not as easy as starting one.
Katrina could have been handled better, yes, but I’m sure he was doing what he thought was best at the time, mistaken and misguided or not. He handled it in the way that he knew how and, for someone to make an unfounded accusation that he “doesn’t care” about a huge group of people that he is fighting to help and protect would be disgusting. For someone to have such a baseless opinion on such a volatile topic would be very upsetting.
At the moment, whether or not the American people agreed, Kanye West was representing them. And to believe that the American people think you’re racist despite all the actions you have taken and lack of proof you have given for that accusation would be, to me at least, disgusting.
Get it straight. Kanye didn’t call him a racist. He said he didn’t care about black people. And there is no reason to believe that he does. The mistake Kanye made was that it wasn’t black people Bush doesn’t care about. It’s people too poor to contribute to his campaign. That pretty much left those people in N.O. out of luck.