"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"
-- Florence, South Carolina, Jan. 11, 2000
"I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family."
-- in Nashua, New Hampshire, Jan. 27, 2000
"Will the highways on the Internet become more few?"
-- in Concord, New Hampshire Jan. 29, 2000
"If you're sick and tired of the politics of cynicism and polls
and principles, come and join this
campaign."
-- Hilton Head, South Carolina, Feb. 16, 2000
"The senator has got to understand if he's going to have-he can't
have it both ways. He can't take the
high horse and then claim the low road."
-- Florence, South Carolina, Feb. 17, 2000
"I understand small business growth. I was one." -- New York
Daily News, Feb. 19, 2000
The Complete Bushisms
Updated daily.
"The great thing about America is everybody should
vote."-Austin, Texas, Dec. 8, 2000
"Dick Cheney and I do not want this nation to be in a recession.
We want anybody who can find work to be able to find
work."-60 Minutes II, Dec. 5, 2000
"I knew it might put him in an awkward position that we had a
discussion before finality has finally happened in this presidential
race."
-Describing a phone call to Sen. John Breaux. Crawford,
Texas, Dec. 2, 2000
"As far as the legal hassling and wrangling and posturing in
Florida, I would suggest you talk to our team in Florida led by
Jim Baker."-Crawford, Texas, Nov. 30, 2000
"The legislature's job is to write law. It's the executive branch's
job to interpret law."-Austin, Texas, Nov.
22, 2000
"They misunderestimated me."-Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000
"Think about that. Two hundred and eighty-five new or
expanded programs, $2 trillion more in new spending, and not
one new bureaucrat to file out the forms or answer the
phones?"-Minneapolis, Nov. 1, 2000
"They want the federal government controlling Social Security
like it's some kind of federal program."-St. Charles, Mo., Nov.
2, 2000
"They said, 'You know, this issue doesn't seem to resignate with
the people.' And I said, you know something? Whether it
resignates or not doesn't matter to me, because I stand for doing
what's the right thing, and what the right thing is hearing the
voices of people who work."-Portland, Ore., Oct. 31, 2000
"Anyway, after we go out and work our hearts out, after you go
out and help us turn out the vote, after we've convinced the good
Americans to vote, and while they're at it, pull that old George
W. lever, if I'm the one, when I put my hand on the Bible, when
I put my hand on the Bible, that day when they swear us in,
when I put my hand on the Bible, I will swear to not-to uphold
the laws of the land."-Toledo, Ohio, Oct. 27, 2000
"It's your money. You paid for it."-LaCrosse, Wis., Oct.
18,
2000
"That's a chapter, the last chapter of the 20th, 20th, the 21st
century that most of us would rather forget. The last chapter of
the 20th century. This is the first chapter of the 21st century.
"-On the Lewinsky scandal, Arlington Heights, Ill., Oct. 24,
2000
"It's important for us to explain to our nation that life is
important. It's not only life of babies, but it's life of children
living
in, you know, the dark dungeons of the Internet."-Arlington
Heights, Ill., Oct. 24, 2000
"I don't want nations feeling like that they can bully ourselves
and our allies. I want to have a ballistic defense system so that
we can make the world more peaceful, and at the same time I
want to reduce our own nuclear capacities to the level
commiserate with keeping the peace."-Des Moines, Iowa, Oct.
23, 2000
"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take
dream."-LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000
"If I'm the president, we're going to have emergency-room care,
we're going to have gag orders."
"Drug therapies are replacing a lot of medicines as we used to
know it."
"It's one thing about insurance, that's a Washington term."
"I think we ought to raise the age at which juveniles can have
a
gun."
"Mr. Vice President, in all due respect, it is-I'm not sure 80
percent of the people get the death tax. I know this: 100 percent
will get it if I'm the president."
"Quotas are bad for America. It's not the
way America is all
about."
"If affirmative action means what I just described, what I'm for,
then I'm for it."-St. Louis, Mo., October 18, 2000
"Our priorities is our faith."-Greensboro, N.C., Oct. 10,
2000
"I mean, there needs to be a wholesale effort against racial
profiling, which is illiterate children."-Second presidential
debate, Oct. 11, 2000 (Thanks to Leonard Williams.)
"It's going to require numerous IRA agents."-On Gore's tax
plan, Greensboro, N.C., Oct. 10, 2000
"I think if you know what you believe, it makes it a lot easier
to
answer questions. I can't answer your question."-In response
to a question about whether he wished he could take back any
of his answers in the first debate. Reynoldsburg, Ohio, Oct. 4,
2000 (Thanks to Peter Feld.)
"I would have my secretary of treasury be in touch with the
financial centers, not only here but at home."-Boston, Oct. 3,
2000 (Thanks to M. Bateman.)
"I know the human being and fish can coexist
peacefully."-Saginaw, Mich., Sept. 29, 2000
"I will have a foreign-handed foreign policy."-Redwood, Calif.,
Sept. 27, 2000
"One of the common denominators I have found is that
expectations rise above that which is expected."-Los Angeles,
Sept. 27, 2000
"It is clear our nation is reliant upon big foreign oil. More
and
more of our imports come from overseas."-Beaverton, Ore.,
Sep. 25, 2000
"Well, that's going to be up to the pundits and the people to
make
up their mind. I'll tell you what is a president for him, for
example, talking about my record in the state of Texas. I mean,
he's willing to say anything in order to convince people that I
haven't had a good record in Texas."-MSNBC, Sept. 20, 2000
(Thanks to Gregory H. Monberg.)
"I am a person who recognizes the fallacy of humans."-Oprah,
Sept. 19, 2000
"A tax cut is really one of the anecdotes to coming out of an
economic illness."-The Edge With Paula Zahn, Sept. 18, 2000
"The woman who knew that I had dyslexia-I never
interviewed her."-Orange, Calif., Sept. 15, 2000
"The best way to relieve families from time is to let them keep
some of their own money."-Westminster, Calif., Sept. 13, 2000
"They have miscalculated me as a leader."-Ibid.
"I don't think we need to be subliminable about the differences
between our views on prescription drugs."-Orlando,
Fla., Sept.
12, 2000
"This is what I'm good at. I like meeting people, my fellow
citizens, I like interfacing with them."-Outside Pittsburgh, Sept.
8, 2000
"That's Washington. That's the place where you find people
getting ready to jump out of the foxholes before the first shot is
fired."-Westland, Mich., Sept. 8, 2000
"Listen, Al Gore is a very tough opponent. He is the
incumbent. He represents the incumbency. And a challenger is somebody
who
generally comes from the pack and wins, if you're going to win. And
that's
where I'm coming from."-Detroit, Sept. 7, 2000 (Thanks to Michael
Butler, Houston, Texas.)
"We'll let our friends be the peacekeepers and the great country
called America will be the pacemakers."-Houston, Texas,
Sept. 6, 2000
"We don't believe in planners and deciders making the decisions
on behalf of Americans."-Scranton, Pa., Sept. 6, 2000
"I regret that a private comment I made to the vice presidential
candidate made it through the public airways."-Allentown,
Pa.,
Sept. 5, 2000.
"The point is, this is a way to help inoculate me about what has
come and is coming."--on his anti-Gore ad, in an interview with
the New York Times, Sept. 2, 2000
"As governor of Texas, I have set high standards for our public
schools, and I have met those standards."--CNN online chat,
Aug. 30, 2000
"Well, I think if you say you're going to do something and don't
do it, that's trustworthiness."--Ibid.
"I don't know whether I'm going to win or not. I think I am. I
do
know I'm ready for the job. And, if not, that's just the way it
goes."-Des Moines, Iowa, Aug. 21, 2000
''This campaign not only hears the voices of the entrepreneurs
and the farmers and the entrepreneurs, we hear the voices of
those struggling to get ahead."-Ibid.
"We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this nation
hostile or hold our allies hostile.''-Ibid.
"I have a different vision of leadership. A leadership is someone
who brings people together."-Bartlett,
Tenn., Aug. 18, 2000
(Thanks to Tarja Black.)
"I think he needs to stand up and say if he thought the president
were wrong on policy and issues, he ought to say
where."-Interview with the Associated Press, Aug. 11, 2000
(Thanks to Ryan Rhodes.)
"I want you to know that farmers are not going to be secondary
thoughts to a Bush administration. They will be in the
forethought of our thinking."-Salinas, Calif., Aug. 10, 2000
(Thanks to Kris Sester.)
"And if he continues that, I'm going to tell the nation what I
think
about him as a human being and a person."-President George
H.W. Bush, on the Today show, Aug. 1, 2000
"You might want to comment on that, Honorable."--To New
Jersey's secretary of state, the Hon. DeForest Soaries Jr., as
quoted by Dana Milbank in the Washington Post, July 15, 2000
"This case has had full analyzation and has been looked at a lot.
I understand the emotionality of death penalty cases."--Seattle
Post-Intelligencer, June 23, 2000 (Thanks to Johnny Green.)
"States should have the right to enact reasonable laws and
restrictions particularly to end the inhumane practice of ending a
life that otherwise could live."-Cleveland, June 29, 2000
(Thanks to Douglas Basford.)
"Unfairly but truthfully, our party has been tagged as being
against things. Anti-immigrant, for example. And we're not a
party of anti-immigrants. Quite the opposite. We're a party that
welcomes people."-Cleveland, July 1, 2000 (Thanks to M.
Bateman.)
"The fundamental question is, 'Will I be a successful president
when it comes to foreign policy?' I will be, but until I'm the
president, it's going to be hard for me to verify that I think I'll
be
more effective."-In Wayne, Mich., as quoted by Katharine Q.
Seelye in the New York Times, June 28, 2000
"The only things that I can tell you is that every case I have
reviewed I have been comfortable with the innocence or guilt of
the person that I've looked at. I do not believe we've put a guilty
... I mean innocent person to death in the state of Texas."
All
Things Considered, NPR, June 16, 2000 (Thanks to Andy
Nouraee.)
"I'm gonna talk about the ideal world, Chris. I've read-I
understand reality. If you're asking me as the president, would I
understand reality, I do."-On abortion, Hardball, MSNBC;
May 31, 2000
"There's not going to be enough people
in the system to take
advantage of people like me."-On the coming Social Security
crisis; Wilton, Conn.; June 9, 2000 (Thanks to Andy Mais.)
"I think anybody who doesn't think I'm smart enough to handle
the job is underestimating."-U.S. News & World Report, April
3, 2000 (Thanks to Alfred Stanley, Austin, Texas.)
Bush: "First of all, Cinco de Mayo is not the independence day.
That's dieciséis de Septiembre, and ..."
Matthews: "What's that in English?"
Bush: "Fifteenth of September." (Dieciséis de Septiembre
=
Sept. 16)
-Hardball, MSNBC, May 31, 2000 (Thanks to numerous
readers.)
"Actually, I-this may sound a little West Texan to you,
but I
like it. When I'm talking about-when I'm talking about myself,
and when he's talking about myself, all of us are talking about
me."-Ibid.
"This is a world that is much more uncertain than the past. In
the past we were certain, we were certain it was us versus the
Russians in the past. We were certain, and therefore we had
huge nuclear arsenals aimed at each other to keep the peace.
That's what we were certain of. ... You see, even though it's an
uncertain world, we're certain of some things. We're certain that
even though the 'evil empire' may have passed, evil still remains.
We're certain there are people that can't stand what America
stands for. ... We're certain there are madmen in this world, and
there's terror, and there's missiles and I'm certain of this, too:
I'm certain to maintain the peace, we better have a military of
high morale, and I'm certain that under this administration,
morale in the military is dangerously low."-Albuquerque, N.M.,
the Washington Post, May 31, 2000
"He has certainly earned a reputation as a fantastic mayor,
because the results speak for themselves. I mean, New York's
a safer place for him to be."-On Rudy Giuliani, The Edge With
Paula Zahn, May 18, 2000 (Thanks to Peter Goldman.)
"The fact that he relies on facts-says things that are not
factual-are going to undermine his campaign."-New York
Times, March 4, 2000 (Thanks to Garry Trudeau.)
"I think we agree, the past is over."-On his meeting with
John
McCain, Dallas Morning News, May 10, 2000
"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."--Reuters,
May 5, 2000 (Thanks to Allison Fansler.)
GOV. BUSH: Because the picture on the newspaper. It just
seems so un-American to me, the picture of the guy storming
the house with a scared little boy there. I talked to my little
brother, Jeb-I haven't told this to many people. But he's the
governor of-I shouldn't call him my little brother--my brother,
Jeb, the great governor of Texas.
JIM LEHRER: Florida.
GOV. BUSH: Florida. The state of the Florida.-The
NewsHour With Jim Lehrer, April 27, 2000
"I hope we get to the bottom of the answer. It's what I'm
interested to know."-On what happened in negotiations
between the Justice Department and Elián González's Miami
relatives, as quoted by the Associated Press, April 26, 2000
(Thanks to Saul Selzer.)
"Laura and I really don't realize how bright our children is
sometimes until we get an objective analysis."-Meet the Press,
April 15, 2000
"You subscribe politics to it. I subscribe freedom to
it."-Responding to a question about whether he and Al Gore
were making the Elián González case a political issue. In Palm
Beach, Fla., as quoted by the Associated Press, April 6, 2000
(Thanks to Helen Kennedy.)
"I was raised in the West. The west of Texas. It's pretty close
to California. In more ways than Washington, D.C., is close to
California."-In Los Angeles as quoted by the Los Angeles
Times, April 8, 2000
"Reading is the basics for all learning."-Announcing his
"Reading First" initiative in Reston, Va., March 28, 2000
(Thanks to Carl LaRocca.)
"We want our teachers to be trained so they can meet the
obligations, their obligations as teachers. We want them to know
how to teach the science of reading. In order to make sure
there's not this kind of federal-federal cufflink."-At Fritsche
Middle School, Milwaukee, March 30, 2000
"Other Republican candidates may retort to personal attacks and
negative ads."-Fund-raising letter from George W. Bush,
quoted in the Washington Post, March 24, 2000
"I've got a reason for running. I talk about a larger goal, which
is
to call upon the best of America. It's part of the renewal. It's
reform and renewal. Part of the renewal is a set of high
standards and to remind people that the greatness of America
really does depend on neighbors helping neighbors and children
finding mentors. I worry. I'm very worried about, you know, the
kid who just wonders whether America is meant for him. I
really worry about that. And uh, so, I'm running
for a reason.
I'm answering this question here and the answer is, you cannot
lead America to a positive tomorrow with revenge on one's
mind. Revenge is so incredibly negative. And so to answer your
question, I'm going to win because people sense my heart, know
my sense of optimism and know where I want to lead the
country. And I tease people by saying, 'A leader, you can't say,
follow me the world is going to be worse.' I'm an optimistic
person. I'm an inherently content person. I've got a great sense
of where I want to lead and I'm comfortable with why I'm
running. And, you know, the call on that speech was, beware.
This is going to be a tough campaign."-Interview with the
Washington Post, March 23, 2000
"People make suggestions on what to say all the time. I'll give
you an example; I don't read what's handed to me. People say,
'Here, here's your speech, or here's an idea for a speech.'
They're changed. Trust me."-Interview with the New York
Times, March 15, 2000
"It's evolutionary, going from governor to president, and this
is a
significant step, to be able to vote for yourself on the ballot, and
I'll be able to do so next fall, I hope."-In an interview with
the
Associated Press, March 8, 2000 (Thanks to Joshua Micah
Marshall.)
"It is not Reaganesque to support a tax plan that is Clinton in
nature.''-Los Angeles, Feb. 23, 2000
"I don't have to accept their tenants. I was trying to convince
those college students to accept my tenants. And I reject any
labeling me because I happened to go to the
university."-Today, Feb. 23, 2000
"I understand small business growth. I was one."-New York
Daily News, Feb. 19, 2000
"The senator has got to understand if he's going to have-he
can't have it both ways. He can't take the high horse and then
claim the low road."-To reporters in Florence, S.C., Feb. 17,
2000
"Really proud of it. A great campaign. And I'm really pleased
with the organization and the thousands of South Carolinians that
worked on my behalf. And I'm very gracious and
humbled."-To Cokie Roberts, This Week, Feb. 20, 2000
"I don't want to win? If that were the case why the heck am I
on the bus 16 hours a day, shaking thousands of hands, giving
hundreds of speeches, getting pillared in the press and cartoons
and still staying on message to win?"-Newsweek, Feb. 28,
2000
"I thought how proud I am to be standing up beside my dad.
Never did it occur to me that he would become the gist for
cartoonists."-ibid.
"If you're sick and tired of the politics of cynicism and polls
and
principles, come and join this campaign."-Hilton Head, S.C.,
Feb. 16, 2000
"How do you know if you don't measure if you have a system
that simply suckles kids through?"-Explaining the need for
educational accountability in Beaufort, S.C., Feb. 16, 2000
"We ought to make the pie higher."-South Carolina Republican
Debate, Feb. 15, 2000
"I do not agree with this notion that somehow if I go to try to
attract votes and to lead people toward a better
tomorrow
somehow I get subscribed to some-some doctrine gets
subscribed to me."-Meet The Press, Feb. 13, 2000
"I've changed my style somewhat, as you know. I'm less-I
pontificate less, although it may be hard to tell it from this show.
And I'm more interacting with people."-ibid
"I think we need not only to eliminate the tollbooth
to the middle
class, I think we should knock down the tollbooth."-Nashua,
N.H., as quoted by Gail Collins in the New York Times, Feb. 1,
2000
"The most important job is not to be governor, or first lady in
my
case."-Pella, Iowa, as quoted by the San Antonio
Express-News, Jan. 30, 2000
"Will the highways on the Internet become more
few?"-Concord, N.H., Jan. 29, 2000
"This is Preservation Month. I appreciate preservation. It's what
you do when you run for president. You gotta
preserve."-Speaking during "Perseverance Month" at
Fairgrounds Elementary School in Nashua, N.H. As quoted in
the Los Angeles Times, Jan. 28, 2000
"I know how hard it is for you to put food on your
family."-Greater Nashua, N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan.
27, 2000
"What I am against is quotas. I am against hard quotas, quotas
they basically delineate based upon whatever. However they
delineate, quotas, I think vulcanize society. So I don't know how
that fits into what everybody else is saying, their relative
positions, but that's my position.''-Quoted by Molly Ivins, the
San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 21, 2000 (Thanks to Toni L.
Gould.)
"When I was coming up, it was a dangerous world, and you
knew exactly who they were," he said. "It was us vs. them,
and
it was clear who them was. Today, we are not so
sure who the
they are, but we know they're there."-Iowa Western
Community College, Jan 21, 2000
"The administration I'll bring is a group of men and women who
are focused on what's best for America, honest men and
women, decent men and women, women who will see service to
our country as a great privilege and who will not stain the
house."-Des Moines Register debate, Iowa, Jan. 15, 2000
"This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and
uncertainty and potential mential losses."-At a South Carolina
oyster roast, as quoted in the Financial Times, Jan. 14, 2000
"We must all hear the universal call to like your neighbor just
like
you like to be liked yourself."-ibid.
"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children
learning?"-Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000
"Gov. Bush will not stand for the subsidation of failure."-ibid.
"There needs to be debates, like we're going through. There
needs to be town-hall meetings. There needs to be travel. This is
a huge country."-Larry King Live, Dec. 16,
1999
"I read the newspaper."-In answer to a question about his
reading habits, New Hampshire Republican Debate, Dec. 2,
1999
"I think it's important for those of us in a position of responsibility
to be firm in sharing our experiences, to understand that the
babies out of wedlock is a very difficult chore for mom and baby
alike. ... I believe we ought to say there is a different alternative
than the culture that is proposed by people like Miss Wolf in
society. ... And, you know, hopefully, condoms will work, but it
hasn't worked."-Meet the Press, Nov. 21, 1999
"The students at Yale came from all different backgrounds and
all parts of the country. Within months, I knew
many of
them."-From A Charge To Keep, by George W. Bush,
published November 1999
"It is incredibly presumptive for somebody who has not yet
earned his party's nomination to start speculating about vice
presidents."-Keene, N.H., Oct. 22, 1999, quoted in the New
Republic, Nov. 15, 1999
"The important question is, How many hands have I
shaked?"-Answering a question about why he hasn't spent
more time in New Hampshire, in the New York Times, Oct. 23,
1999
"I don't remember debates. I don't think we spent a lot of time
debating it. Maybe we did, but I don't remember."-On
discussions of the Vietnam War when he was an undergraduate
at Yale, Washington Post, July 27, 1999
"The only thing I know about Slovakia is what I learned
first-hand from your foreign minister, who came to Texas."-To
a Slovak journalist as quoted by Knight Ridder News Service,
June 22, 1999. Bush's meeting was with Janez Drnovsek, the
prime minister of Slovenia.
"If the East Timorians decide to revolt, I'm sure I'll have a
statement."-Quoted by Maureen Dowd in the New York
Times, June 16, 1999
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