Drunk, Or Stupid?

[Plaid Adder]

I am reminded as I read about our great leader these days of a story my father tells about his early days as a salesman in a chemical company:

This was back in the bad old days, when people got hammered at "business lunches" without shame. Early on, my dad's boss told him that if he was going to drink at business lunches, he should drink beer instead of, say, vodka, because "I'd rather have clients think you're drunk than think you're stupid." (As a non-drinker, I had to have that one explained to me: vodka, you see, does not smell, so someone tanked on vodka martinis would not have an immediate explanation for their tanked behavior, whereas beer breath takes care of that for you.)

I dunno. I always assumed that Bush was stupid; but maybe he's just drunk. I can't figure out why else he spends so much time out at that "ranch" in Crawford while everything else is going to hell...unless, you know, he's just hiding.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[Brian Sweat]

1. False Dilemma

Why does he have to be drunk OR stupid. I say he is both.

[Plaid Adder]

3. You make a compelling logical point, Brian.

Of course the two are not mutually exclusive. It's just, you know, I always figured the rumors about him hitting the bottle again were just trash-talking, but now I'm really starting to wonder.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[TahitiNut]

15. Yes. IOW, drunk IS stupid.

:shrug: Nobody has the brain cells to spare.

[arcane1]

2. wouldn't you just LOVE it if a reporter, OR debate opponent...

would say to him: "do I smell alcohol on your breath?"

LOL!!!!!

[trogdor]

7. Remember Gore/Bush debate #3?

At one point, Gore walked right up behind * while he was slurring out the answer to a question. The media whores said he was trying to intimidate Bush; I say he was trying to smell his breath.

I saw * on TV last night; he sure looked like shit for somebody who was supposed to be on vacation.

[RamboLiberal]

8. I thought he looked shitty last night too

He's looking worse and worse everday for someone who supposed to be so damn fit. And that hair last night - looked really terrible.

[sangh0]

4. Not mutually exclusive

.

[HFishbine]

5. Is that why he tapes "press conferences?"

So nobody will smell his breath?

[Demobrat]

6. I don't know if it's booze but,

he's wasted on something. I don't think he was born stupid, I think he's probably on the low end of average, but years of substance abuse will take their toll.

[Changenow]

9. Are these the eyes of sobriety?

My money is that it is more than booze

[Octafish]

10. "The Low End of Average"

"Uh. Well said, Demobrat."

[nannygoat]

13. OMG, * looks just like that Lily Tomlin character! n/t

[smirkymonkey]

18. He looks like he's about to hurl...

which, if he was drunk, would make a lot of sense. Then again, his stupidity is pretty nauseating as well, so it's hard to tell.

[notadmblnd]

20. can you..

substitute that chair for an electric chair?

[ninkasi]

11. Even if he's not drinking...

years of alcohol abusive can lead to permanent brain damage. He claims he quit "cold turkey", without any help from A.A. or rehab. Quitting that way after so many years, or sudden withdrawal can lead to seizures. I know, because this happened to someone in my family.

According to the docs, while the guy was still on heavy sedation to control the seizures, and aid in withdrawal, it could lead to permanent neurological damage. Start with someone not too bright to begin with, like Chimp, and what you get is a brain-damaged, dry drunk, semi-moran with his finger on the red button.

Not a reassuring thought.

[Clete]

12. I used to be a bartender. It was my second job after I did my

daytime job to make ends meet. I know when people are under the influence and when they are hungover. Bush has shown signs of being in both conditions. He is on rare occasions very lucid, which tells me he's been off the sauce for a couple of days and he can actually speak in complete sentences.

To bad we can't get a pissed off White House staffer to expose this. I don't think we need a drunk driver at the wheel of our ship of state when we sail through the dangerous waters of world politics and diplomacy.

[Gordon25]

14. Perhaps something a little stronger?

http://www.nathanielblumberg.com/neil.htm
(scroll down)
   "Our Man in Nirvana" is how the New York Times headlined an op-ed column (1/22/92) detailing the fact that President Bush has been taking benzodiazepene in the form of the prescription drug Halcion when he travels. More than a year ago Secretary of State James Baker's similar drug problem was hardly noted by the mainstream media when he admitted he was taking Halcion while engaged in overseas negotiations.
    Halcion is banned in England and three other countries and the side effects of the controversial tranquilizer/anti-insomniac have led to major litigation not only in this country but around the world. U.S. Food and Drug officials are frantically trying to explain their 1982 approval of the drug since the "pivotal study" they cited has been exposed as the work of a confessed fraud. The Upjohn Co. of Kalamazoo, manufacturer of Halcion, finally has acknowledged underreporting side effects such as paranoia and memory loss.
    "When Halcion hits you," according to the Times column, "it's as if an angel of the Lord appears in your bedroom and tells you that nothing is important, that everything you were worried about is happening on Mars and that nirvana, Lethe and the warm arms of mother are all waiting for you. People who have used heroin tell me Halcion is better than heroin for making bad thoughts simply disappear. . . . It clouds judgment and forecloses careful analysis. It makes the user alternately supremely confident and then panicky with an unnameable dread. It causes intense, truly terrifying forgetfulness, as well as a serene bliss about that forgetfulness..."

Side effects check out.

Gordon25

[TahitiNut]

16. As one who was once treated with Halcion ...

... in 82-83 (PTSD redux under divorce/cuckold stress) I can say the side-effect of a near-psychotic break is very real. It's a very scarey side-effect and when I heard BushSr was on it, I was even more scared.

[DoYouEverWonder]

17. Wow, this sure explains a lot

about the behavior of many of the BCF members. Sounds like being on ecstasy multiplied by 100. These folks are real psychos. Like father, like son, W looks like a classic case.


I love the last quote:

It was the gossip columnist, Liz Smith—not our bland syndicated establishment-oriented editorial-page columnists or broadcast commentators—who had the guts to ask: "Can our Peerless Leader possibly be the victim of unwitting substance abuse?" Months earlier she had reported that Halcion was the "drug of choice" and was "being taken in epidemic numbers on Air Force One by both an exhausted press and jet-lagged administration insiders."

There are drug problems and there are drug problems, but the orthodox press picks and chooses the ones it wants to address—too often in inverse order of their importance.

[Pathwalker]

19. So what drugs are the press taking??????

It says the press were taking Halcion too. So what are they on NOW??

[DoYouEverWonder]

21. Whatever happens to be W's

cup of tea I suppose? I'm must admit, I'm not really up on these kinds of perscription drugs.