hereinstead.com presents:
THE UNQUOTABLE W:
ON HIS CRITICS:
"They misunderestimated me." -Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000
"They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program." -St. Charles, Mo., Nov. 2, 2000
"The woman who knew that I had dyslexia -- I never interviewed her." -Orange, Calif., Sept. 15, 2000
"They have miscalculated me as a leader." - Westminster, Calif., Sept. 13, 2000
"I don't think we need to be subliminable about the differences between our views on prescription drugs." -Orlando, Fla., Sept. 12, 2000
"I think he [Al Gore] needs to stand up and say if he thought the president were wrong on policy and issues" -Interview with the Associated Press, Aug. 11, 2000
"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
"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
"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
"And if he continues that, I'm going to tell the nation what I think about him as a human being and a person." -W's Father, Former President George H. W. Bush, on the Today show, Aug. 1, 2000, referring to Bill Clinton.
ON WHAT HIS ADMINISTRATION WILL STAND FOR:
"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
"If affirmative action means what I just described, what I'm for, then I'm for it." -St. Louis, Mo., October 18, 2000
"I mean, there needs to be a wholesale effort against racial profiling, which is illiterate children." -Second presidential debate, Oct. 11, 2000
"I would have my secretary of treasury be in touch with the financial centers, not only here but at home." -Boston, Oct. 3, 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 best way to relieve families from time is to let them keep some of their own money." Westminster, Calif., Sept. 13, 2000
"We don't believe in planners and deciders making the decisions on behalf of Americans." -Scranton, Pa., Sept. 6, 2000
"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
"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
"We ought to make the pie higher." -South Carolina Republican Debate, Feb. 15, 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
"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
ON SCHOOLS, EDUCATION AND CHILDREN
"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
"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
"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
"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
"Reading is the basics for all learning." -Announcing his "Reading First" initiative in Reston, Va., March 28, 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
"I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family." -Greater Nashua, N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan. 27, 2000
"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?" -Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000
ON BASIC VALUES:
"The great thing about America is everybody should vote." -Austin, Texas, Dec. 8, 2000
"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream." -LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000
"It's your money. You paid for it." -LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000
"Our priorities is our faith." -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
"Well, I think if you say you're going to do something and don't do it, that's trustworthiness." -- CNN online chat, Aug. 30, 2000
"I have a different vision of leadership. A leadership is someone who brings people together." -Bartlett, Tenn., Aug. 18, 2000
"Will the highways on the Internet become more few?" -Concord, N.H., Jan. 29, 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.''-Quoted by Molly Ivins, the San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 21, 2000
"We must all hear the universal call to like your neighbor just like you like to be liked yourself." - Des Moines Register debate, Iowa, Jan. 15, 2000
ON HIMSELF
"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 -Portland, Ore., Oct. 31, 2000
"I am a person who recognizes the fallacy of humans." -Oprah, Sept. 19, 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
"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." - —Hardball, MSNBC, May 31, 2000
"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
"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." -As quoted by the Los Angeles Times, April 8, 2000
"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." -Interview with the Washington Post, March 23, 2000
"I understand small business growth. I was one." -New York Daily News, Feb. 19, 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." - Meet The Press, Feb. 13, 2000
"I read the newspaper." -In answer to a question about his reading habits, New Hampshire Republican Debate, Dec. 2, 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 was just inebriating what Midland was all about then." -From a 1994 interview, as quoted in First Son, by Bill Minutaglio
ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
"I will have a foreign-handed foreign policy." -Redwood, Calif., 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
"We'll let our friends be the peacekeepers and the great country called America will be the pacemakers." -Houston, Texas, Sept. 6, 2000
"We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or hold our allies hostile.''-Des Moines, Iowa, Aug. 21, 2000
"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
"[I will] keep good relations with the Grecians." -Quoted in the Economist, June 12, 1999
"[The] Kosovians can move back in." -CNN Inside Politics, April 9, 1999
ON THE CAMPAIGN:
"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
"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 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
"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." - Des Moines, Iowa, Aug. 21, 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'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." -Interview with the Washington Post, March 23, 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." - Today, Feb. 23, 2000
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
FACTS, FINDINGS AND TRUTHS
"The legislature's job is to write law. It's the executive branch's job to interpret law." -Austin, Texas, Nov. 22, 2000
"One of the common denominators I have found is that expectations rise above that which is expected." -Los Angeles, Sept. 27, 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
"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
"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
"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
"When I was coming up, it was a dangerous world, and you knew exactly who they were. 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 Hereinstead Prayer: "Oh Lord, save us from this moron."
This was excerpted and rearranged from "The Complete Bushisms" at:
http://slate.msn.com/Features/bushisms/bushisms.asp by Jacob Weisberg, Slate's chief political correspondent
