professor recalls bush as a shitty and arrogant student

[mopaul]

http://salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/16/tsurumi/index1.html

"I used to chat up a number of students when we were walking back to class," Tsurumi said. "Here was Bush, wearing a Texas Guard bomber jacket, and the draft was the No. 1 topic in those days. And I said, 'George, what did you do with the draft?' He said, 'Well, I got into the Texas Air National Guard.' And I said, 'Lucky you. I understand there is a long waiting list for it. How'd you get in?' When he told me, he didn't seem ashamed or embarrassed. He thought he was entitled to all kinds of privileges and special deals. He was not the only one trying to twist all their connections to avoid Vietnam. But then, he was fanatically for the war."

Tsurumi told Bush that someone who avoided a draft while supporting a war in which others were dying was a hypocrite. "He realized he was caught, showed his famous smirk and huffed off."

Tsurumi's conclusion: Bush is not as dumb as his detractors allege. "He was just badly brought up, with no discipline, and no compassion," he said.

[HerbieHeadhunter]

1. Hmmmm....sort of like he is at being pResident.

nm

[Lerkfish]

2. but..but...I thought he was a compassionate conservative....

dang. You mean I can't trust anything he says? dang.

[grace0418]

11. LOL

Next you're going to tell me there is no Santa Claus!

[Kid_A]

3. "He was just badly brought up, with no discipline, and no compassion,"

And that's exactly why I loathe him. If there's one character trait I can't stand, it's a sense of entitlement. I went to high school with a lot rich brats who drove sports cars to school and treated everyone else like shit. Whenever one of them would cut me off in the parking lot and I gave them finger, they would flash the same smirk that Bush has. One that says "I have a rich daddy, and that means I can do whatever the hell I want, so fuck you."

[NeonLX]

4. That perfesser gots some kinda furrin-sounding name.

I don't trust no furriners. That perfesser prolly hates Murka. He otta move back ta Eye-ran or wherever.

[elperromagico]

8. Yeah, besta ship 'em off to Gwantahnuhmoe!

Y'all cain't be badmouthin' tha pres'dent durin' a 'lection year. That jus' ain't nice.

[vi5]

5. This is one of those things I very much want to be true....

..and for my purposes believe his assesement of the man to be 100% true. But some of those lines he quotes georgie as saying almost seem TOO GOOD to be true.

[elperromagico]

6. "No discipline... no compassion." Well, that's hardly surprising. n/t

[PeaceProgProsp]

7. Bush is doing to Kerry the same thing he did to his fellow students.

The professor says that if another student embarrassed Bush in class (by actually studying and knowing the answer) Bush would run in to the professor, "by chance" and "happen to mention" that that student was an alcoholic.

Bush is doing that to Kerry. Kerry is showing up Bush by obviously being more presidential, so Bush is going around the country telling lies to voters about Kerry.

[elperromagico]

9. Bush accusing people of alcoholism? Wow, praise from Caesar. n/t

[mopaul]

10. how very childlike

even for a coked out dunce

[starroute]

12. Is it time to add up the indictments of Bush's early character?

There's this Harvard professor.

There's Marian Knox.

There are the quotes from people who worked on the Blount campaign about how he would show up late, boast about his drinking, and let others do his share of the work.

There's the family whose house he rented and then wrecked.

There's a quote (I think from the Kitty Kelley book) from a woman about how Bush came on to her and she avoided him because he was such an arrogant creep.


And *all* of these statements are totally consistent with one another.

I've got other things I have to get done today or I'd do it, but I'd really like to see somebody put them all together with a little tasty commentary.

[Karenina]

13. The CONTENT of his CHARACTER???????

Hmmmmm... :think: :think: :think:

[Lisa]

14. yes, the picture is pretty consistent ...

Far more consistent than his assumed "Texas" identity.

And interestingly, the disrespectful streak that's evident from his grade school antics (and might have been just cute and rambunctious at that stage) gets meaner and uglier as he ages. Almost as if he really changed after Yale. The arrogance, the resentment, and duplicitous behaviour (party guy and "people person" one minute, class fink the next) become much more pronounced while he's in the Guard and at Harvard. Perhaps his anger with his family and his feelings about Vietnam (and having to confront his own cowardice) messed him up?

The only incidents I've read about where I really felt sorry for George W. Bush were the death of his little sister, the alternate hectoring and flattery bestowed by his mom, and his telling a Yale classmate that he would rather hang around with that guy's family for graduation than with his own, because he was happier and more comfortable there.

I don't buy his excuses about mistreatment at Yale and Andover having made a negative impression on him. I suppose he'd like to blame the "snobs" for all his problems. But that's a cop-out (speaking as someone who also had to cope with richer, cleverer, more "hip" people). It's always possible to find at least a few buddies you can get along with, no matter how lousy the job or circumstance.

Speaking of which, where are they? If he's as jolly a guy as he's made out to be, he should have a whole trail of friends, from all walks of life, from his sandbox days all the way to the Governor's office. But all I'm seeing are his daddy's pals, and Karl's people from the gubernatorial campaigns.


p.s. I've been teaching college for more than a decade, and I've never had a student talk about classmates to me in such a way! (Sometimes they get upset about people not pulling their weight on group projects, but never personal stuff. No wonder the prof remembered him.)

[tilsammans]

15. I wish MORE people would come forward . . .

. . . to tell all about Dumbya. But they no doubt fear for their lives.