Reply #25: who cares what you think?

[chilly]

from 2001:

Who Cares What You Think?
an unconfirmed Smirk incident

"A friend of a friend met the President during his inspiring stop in Independence Park in Philly last Wednesday. Here's her account:

So when the President was here on July 4, I had the opportunity to shake his hand. I wasn't sure if that was a good idea or not but I did it anyway, and said to him, "Mr President, I hope you only serve four years. I'm very disappointed in your work so far."

He kept smiling and shaking my hand and answered, "Who cares what you think?" His face stayed photo-op perfect but his eyes gave me a nasty little gleam look that said, if we'd been drinking in some frathouse in Texas, he'd've happily answered, "let's take it outside.". He was(fortunately) constrained by Presidential propriety.

That was the end of it, until I turned away and started scribbling the quote down in my notepad, so as to remember "The Gift" forever. When he saw me do that he got excited and craned his neck over the rubberneckers to shout at me, "Who are you with? Who are you with?"

People started looking so he made a joke: "Make sure you get it right." But he kept at it: "Who do you write for?" I told him I wasn't "with" anybody and pointed to one of his staff people, who knows me a little, and said, "Ask him, he'll tell you."

Then I split. Half an hour later, my boss (who had helped organize the event we were at) came up to me and said, "Did you really tell the President that he was doing a 'lousy fucking job'?"

No way, I said, I was very polite, I just told him what I thought.
Fortunately, my boss believed me. He wasn't happy with me, but he believed me.

Sooooo, if you've ever wondered if the President really is kind of a jerk, I'm here to tell you, he is, and I got "The Gift" to prove it. I'm thinking of making up t-shirts so we can share The Gift with everyone:

"Who cares what you think?"
President George W. Bush, July 4, 2001



chilly