Slate's Bizbox
bushisms: The president's accidental wit and wisdom.

The Complete BushismsUpdated frequently.

By Jacob Weisberg
Updated Tuesday, July 22, 2008, at 5:31 PM ET

(Continued from page 3)

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 7:55.

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 6:22.

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 9:22.

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 56:45.

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 22:47.

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 11:21.

"Because of your work, children who once wanted to die are now preparing to live."—speaking at the White House summit on malaria, Dec. 14, 2006

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 1:29.

"Today I heard from some opinions that matter a lot to me, and these are the opinions of those who wear the uniform."—Washington, D.C., Dec. 13, 2006

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 8:19.

"Make no mistake about it, I understand how tough it is, sir. I talk to families who die."—speaking with reporters on facing the challenges of war, Washington, D.C., Dec. 7, 2006

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 23:16.

"And truth of the matter is, a lot of reports in Washington are never read by anybody. To show you how important this one is, I read it, and our guest read it."—speaking along with Prime Minister Tony Blair about the Baker-Hamilton Report, Washington, D.C., Dec. 7, 2006

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 44:13.

"This business about graceful exit just simply has no realism to it at all."—responding to speculation that American forces could be called back from Iraq, Amman, Jordan, Nov. 30, 2006

"No doubt in my mind, with your help, Dave Lamberti will be the next United States congressman."—speaking at a campaign rally for Jeff Lamberti, Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 26, 2006

"You know, when I campaigned here in 2000, I said, I want to be a war President. No President wants to be a war President, but I am one."—Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 26, 2006

"This morning my administration released the budget numbers for fiscal 2006. These budget numbers are not just estimates; these are the actual results for the fiscal year that ended February the 30th."—referring to the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, Washington, D.C., Oct. 11, 2006

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 0:41.

"One has a stronger hand when there's more people playing your same cards."—Washington, D.C., Oct. 11, 2006

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 44:54.

"You're one of the outstanding leaders in a very important part of the world. I want to thank you for strategizing our discussions."—Meeting with the prime minister of Malaysia, New York, Sept. 18, 2006

"The goals of this country is to enhance prosperity and peace."—Speaking at the White House Conference on Global Literacy, New York, Sept. 18, 2006

Click here to see a video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 5:27.

"You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror."—Interview with CBS News, Washington D.C., Sept. 6, 2006

Click here to see a video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 4:48.

"And I suspect that what you'll see, Toby, is there will be a momentum, momentum will be gathered. Houses will begat jobs, jobs will begat houses." —Speaking with reporters along the Gulf Coast, Gulfport, Miss., Aug. 28, 2006

"And the question is, are we going to be facile enough to change with—will we be nimble enough; will we be able to deal with the circumstances on the ground? And the answer is, yes, we will."—Washington, D.C., July 25, 2006

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 17:44.

"One thing is clear, is relations between America and Russia are good, and they're important that they be good."—Strelna, Russia, July 15, 2006

"We shouldn't fear a world that is more interacted."—Washington, D.C., June 27, 2006.

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 1:21.

"I've reminded the prime minister—the American people, Mr. Prime Minister, over the past months that it was not always a given that the United States and America would have a close relationship."—Washington, D.C., June 29, 2006

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 0:36.

"I tell people, let's don't fear the future, let's shape it."—Omaha, Neb., June 7, 2006

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 8:58.

"I think—tide turning—see, as I remember—I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of—it's easy to see a tide turn—did I say those words?"—Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006

Click here to see a video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 39:16.

President Bush: Peter. Are you going to ask that question with shades on?
Peter Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times: I can take them off.
Bush: I'm interested in the shade look, seriously.
Wallsten: All right, I'll keep it, then.
Bush: For the viewers, there's no sun.
Wallsten: I guess it depends on your perspective.
Bush: Touché.

—Exchange with legally blind reporter Peter Wallsten, to whom Bush later apologized, Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006

Click here to see a video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 50:16.

"I was not pleased that Hamas has refused to announce its desire to destroy Israel."—Washington, D.C., May 4, 2006

"If people want to get to know me better, they've got to know my parents and the values my parents instilled in me, and the fact that I was raised in West Texas, in the middle of the desert, a long way away from anywhere, hardly. There's a certain set of values you learn in that experience."—Washington, D.C., May 5, 2006

"You never know what your history is going to be like until long after you're gone."—Washington, D.C., May 5, 2006

"The point now is how do we work together to achieve important goals. And one such goal is a democracy in Germany."—Washington, D.C., May 5, 2006

"Finally, the desk, where we'll have our picture taken in front of—is nine other Presidents used it. This was given to us by Queen Victoria in the 1870s, I think it was. President Roosevelt put the door in so people would not know he was in a wheelchair. John Kennedy put his head out the door."—Showing German newspaper reporter Kai Diekmann the Oval Office, Washington, D.C., May 5, 2006

"That's called, 'A Charge To Keep,' based upon a religious hymn. The hymn talks about serving God. The president's job is never to promote a religion."—Showing German newspaper reporter Kai Diekmann the Oval Office, Washington, D.C., May 5, 2006

"That's George Washington, the first president, of course. The interesting thing about him is that I read three—three or four books about him last year. Isn't that interesting?"—Showing German newspaper reporter Kai Diekmann the Oval Office, Washington, D.C., May 5, 2006

"I can look you in the eye and tell you I feel I've tried to solve the problem diplomatically to the max, and would have committed troops both in Afghanistan and Iraq knowing what I know today."—Irvine, Calif., April 24, 2006

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 30:41.

"I aim to be a competitive nation."—San Jose, Calif., April 21, 2006

"I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."—Washington, D.C., April 18, 2006

"I strongly believe what we're doing is the right thing. If I didn't believe it—I'm going to repeat what I said before—I'd pull the troops out, nor if I believed we could win, I would pull the troops out."—Charlotte, N.C., April 6, 2006

Clich here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 1:07:53

"If the Iranians were to have a nuclear weapon they could proliferate."—Washington D.C., March 21, 2006

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 9:29.

"No question that the enemy has tried to spread sectarian violence. They use violence as a tool to do that."—Washington, D.C., March 22, 2006

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 6:36.

"And so I'm for medical liability at the federal level."—Discussing his support of medical liability reform, Washington, D.C., March 10, 2006

"After the bombing, most Iraqis saw what the perpetuators of this attack were trying to do."—(On the bombing of the Golden Mosque of Samarra in Iraq) March 13, 2006, Washington, D.C.

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 7:39.

"I think it's really important for this great state of baseball to reach out to people of all walks of life to make sure that the sport is inclusive. The best way to do it is to convince little kids how to—the beauty of playing baseball."—Washington, D.C., Feb. 13, 2006

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 8:31.

Click here to see a video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 50:17

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 19:07.
"We have enough coal to last for 250 years, yet coal also prevents an environmental challenge." —Washington, D.C., April 20, 2005

Click here to see video of Bush's comments. The Bushism is at 19:30.

"Now, there are some who would like to rewrite history—revisionist historians is what I like to call them."—Elizabeth, N.J., June 16, 2003

"I am determined to keep the process on the road to peace."—Washington, D.C., June 10, 2003 (Thanks to Tanny Bear.)

"The true strength of America happens when a neighbor loves a neighbor just like they'd like to be loved themselves."—Elizabeth, N.J., June 16, 2003

"We ended the rule of one of history's worst tyrants, and in so doing, we not only freed the American people, we made our own people more secure."—Crawford, Texas, May 3, 2003 (Thanks to Tony Marciniec.)

"This is a nation that loves our freedom, loves our country."—Washington, D.C, May 17, 2002

"The public education system in America is one of the most important foundations of our democracy. After all, it is where children from all over America learn to be responsible citizens, and learn to have the skills necessary to take advantage of our fantastic opportunistic society."—Santa Clara, Calif., May 1, 2002

"After all, a week ago, there were—Yasser Arafat was boarded up in his building in Ramallah, a building full of, evidently, German peace protestors and all kinds of people. They're now out. He's now free to show leadership, to lead the world."—Washington, D.C., May 2, 2002 (Thanks to M. Bateman.)

"This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating."—as quoted by the New York Daily News, April 23, 2002

"I want to thank the dozens of welfare to work stories, the actual examples of people who made the firm and solemn commitment to work hard to embetter themselves."—Washington, D.C., April 18, 2002 (Thanks to George Dupper.)

"And so, in my State of the—my State of the Union—or state—my speech to the nation, whatever you want to call it, speech to the nation—I asked Americans to give 4,000 years—4,000 hours over the next—the rest of your life—of service to America. That's what I asked—4,000 hours." —Bridgeport, Conn., April 9, 2002

"It would be a mistake for the United States Senate to allow any kind of human cloning to come out of that chamber."—Washington, D.C., April 10, 2002



VIEW AS SINGLE PAGE
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
Jacob Weisberg is editor-in-chief of the Slate Group and author of The Bush Tragedy.
Photograph by Rick Wilking/Reuters.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES
Washington Post
The Washington Post
OPINIONS
Topic A: Obama's Speech
| Pundits and diplomats respond.
Robinson: Sunshine in BerlinToles: Obama the UniterTelnaes: Meanwhile, McCain
PLUS » Stumped: Bring Back Bill Clinton