Chatterbox

Whopper of the Week: George W. Bush

“I love New York.”

–George W. Bush, after swearing in 29 new U.S. citizens on Ellis Island, as quoted in the July 10 Washington Post.

“Mr. Bush has been heard to say privately that he cannot stand New York, and if one goes strictly by the numbers, that should come as no surprise. New York preferred Al Gore by a 59-to-35-percent margin. It has five registered Democrats to every three Republicans, and its two Democratic senators are almost certain ‘no’ votes on most Bush programs. New York City, which Mr. Bush visited only once during the campaign and whose mayor clearly preferred Senator John McCain’s candidacy, is statistically even more hostile. Mr. Bush got 15 percent of the city vote, against Mr. Gore’s 77 percent.”

Editorial in the New York Times, July 10.

(Thanks to an anonymous reader.)

Got a whopper? Send it to chatterbox@slate.com. To be considered, an entry must be an unambiguously false statement paired with an unambiguous refutation, and both must be derived from some appropriately reliable public source. Preference will be given to newspapers and other documents that Chatterbox can link to online.

Whopper Archive:

July 6, 2001: Sumner Redstone

June 29, 2001: David Brock

June 22, 2001: Edmund Morris

June 15, 2001: George W. Bush

June 8, 2001: Nepali Prince Regent (subsequently, King) Gyanendra

June 1, 2001: Mary McGrory

May 25, 2001: Ari Fleischer

May 18, 2001: York, Pa., Mayor Charles Robertson

May 11, 2001: Ted Olson

May 4, 2001: Rear Admiral Craig Quigley

April 27, 2001: Ben Affleck

April 20, 2001: South Carolina state legislator Chip Limehouse

April 13, 2001: Gray Davis

April 6, 2001: Sumner Redstone

March 30, 2001: Spencer Abraham

March 23, 2001: George W. Bush, Rep. Jennifer Dunn, and/or the Treasury Department

March 16, 2001: George W. Bush

March 9, 2001: Russ Freyman, spokesman, National Association of Manufacturers

March 2, 2001: Paul O’Neill

Feb. 23, 2001: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton

Feb. 16, 2001: Oscar spokesman John Pavlik

Feb. 9, 2001: Lynne Cheney

Feb. 2, 2001: Bobby Thomson

Jan. 26, 2001: Denise Rich