Bush's MBA prof: Bush was the opposite of an excellent student and person.

[BurtWorm]

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

"I don't remember all the students in detail unless I'm prompted by something," Tsurumi said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "But I always remember two types of students. One is the very excellent student, the type as a professor you feel honored to be working with. Someone with strong social values, compassion and intellect -- the very rare person you never forget. And then you remember students like George Bush, those who are totally the opposite."

[livetohike]

1. Bush needed tutored in Math because he couldn't

"get it". I know this through a friend whose professor was the tutor!

[ArkDem]

12. My 3rd cousin's best friend's ex-wife grew up with and was best

friends with a guy who took a lot of bush's tests for him (for money, of course). The guy is totally disgusting.

[livetohike]

16. My friend was a Math major at Ohio State in the early 80's

His professor told the whole class this info about Bush. Not that we didn't know he was dumb as a board anyway.

[BurtWorm]

2. 'The government doesn't have to help poor people -- because they are lazy.

Bush, by contrast, "was totally the opposite of Chris Cox," Tsurumi said. "He showed pathological lying habits and was in denial when challenged on his prejudices and biases. He would even deny saying something he just said 30 seconds ago. He was famous for that. Students jumped on him; I challenged him." When asked to explain a particular comment, said Tsurumi, Bush would respond, "Oh, I never said that." A White House spokeswoman did not return a phone call seeking comment.

In 1973, as the oil and energy crisis raged, Tsurumi led a discussion on whether government should assist retirees and other people on fixed incomes with heating costs. Bush, he recalled, "made this ridiculous statement and when I asked him to explain, he said, 'The government doesn't have to help poor people -- because they are lazy.' I said, 'Well, could you explain that assumption?' Not only could he not explain it, he started backtracking on it, saying, 'No, I didn't say that.'"

If Cox had been in the same class, Tsurumi said, "I could have asked him to challenge that and he would have demolished it. Not personally or emotionally, but intellectually."

Bush once sneered at Tsurumi for showing the film "The Grapes of Wrath," based on John Steinbeck's novel of the Depression. "We were in a discussion of the New Deal, and he called Franklin Roosevelt's policies 'socialism.' He denounced labor unions, the Securities and Exchange Commission, Medicare, Social Security, you name it. He denounced the civil rights movement as socialism. To him, socialism and communism were the same thing. And when challenged to explain his prejudice, he could not defend his argument, either ideologically, polemically or academically."

[Cassandra]

6. Repukes don't just campaign by soundbite...

they govern by it, too. Bush and Rove are a match made in hell.

[Frances]

9. Thanks for this post

Many of Bush's supporters agree with Bush's beliefs.

I have a cousin, for example, who depends on Social Security and Medicare, and yet she supports Bush. She simply doesn't "get it" that this Social Security and Medicare money comes from the government.

I am certain that she is in complete denial that Bush is responsible for the 17% rise in medicare costs. She will go along with Bush's ads that somehow Kerry is responsible.

I know, it doesn't make any sense but there it is.

[BurtWorm]

10. What would she think if she knew what Bush really thinks

about people in her situation? Would she think it was unpatriotic of someone to say such things about Bush?

[Frances]

13. In her mind she is upper class

It's an old Southern trick from the days of segregation.

Make the white people think that there will always be a group of people below them.

My cousin is white, Christian, descended from royalty, and her family had status in the small community where she grew up.

Instinctively she knows that Bush will see to it that someone will be in a class below her: it may be African Americans or it may be Hispanics or it may be Middle Easterners, but some group will be at the bottom and it won't be her.

Actually, I think that a lot of Bush's supporters feel this way. Ever notice how white his audience is (not the people they pose behind him)?

[BurtWorm]

14. You need sunglasses to look at his audiences.

And it ain't from the brilliance, if you know what I mean. ;)

[RobinA]

22. I Don't Think

this is just a southern thing. One of the things that I think allows people who are just doing so-so to support, and want more, tax cuts that go mainly to the rich is that many, many Americans seem to have some unconscious but operative belief they they are just two steps away from being one of those very rich people.

I do agree that there is a huge element of racism in all this. I know people who don't make very much and who have public sector jobs, who nevertheless spout off for tax cuts. The tax cuts aren't going to give them much relief, they are PAID in tax dollars, but no matter. Just so none of their tax dollars go to some black person who "is too lazy to get a job." I also know people who still think that "the government" makes it "too comfortable for people not to work." These people know NOTHING about welfare, but they think they do.

[Frances]

24. Great points

A friend in Maryland told me about a firefighter who was against a tax to pay firefighters.

I understand that poor people in Alabama voted against the Repub. governor's plan for higher taxes for very rich people even though the money would have gone to the schools.

I think the Am dream that you too may someday be very rich protects the very rich from paying their fair share. Most Americans don't realize that Bush is altering the playing field so that it will be harder and harder for them to achieve the American dream.

I have always thought of Bush as the one who will kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Yes, the rich will get richer and richer for a couple of generations, but Bush is sowing the seeds for a very unstable government. A stable middle class is what has kept this country strong, and it is what has kept the rich safe.

[BurtWorm]

3. How did Bush get into Harvard? 'My dad has good friends.'

Students who challenged and embarrassed Bush in class would then become the subject of a whispering campaign by him, Tsurumi said. "In class, he couldn't challenge them. But after class, he sometimes came up to me in the hallway and started bad-mouthing those students who had challenged him. He would complain that someone was drinking too much. It was innuendo and lies. So that's how I knew, behind his smile and his smirk, that he was a very insecure, cunning and vengeful guy."

Many of Tsurumi's students came from well-connected or wealthy families, but good manners prevented them from boasting about it, the professor said. But Bush seemed unabashed about the connections that had brought him to Harvard. "The other children of the rich and famous were at least well bred to the point of realizing universal values and standards of behavior," Tsurumi said. But Bush sometimes came late to class and often sat in the back row of the theater-like classroom, wearing a bomber jacket from the Texas Air National Guard and spitting chewing tobacco into a cup.

"At first, I wondered, 'Who is this George Bush?' It's a very common name and I didn't know his background. And he was such a bad student that I asked him once how he got in. He said, 'My dad has good friends.'" Bush scored in the lowest 10 percent of the class.

The Vietnam War was still roiling campuses and Harvard was no exception. Bush expressed strong support for the war but admitted to Tsurumi that he'd gotten a coveted spot in the Texas Air National Guard through his father's connections.

[buycitgo]

4. unfit for command

hahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa

sorta like miserable failure

love it!

[BurtWorm]

7. Trying to do a little Google bombing.

;) I'm not the only one. Look around. A bunch of us have made it our sig line.

[spooky3]

5. Much as I enjoy reading this, the prof. really should not be revealing

private grade info unless the student has agreed to it.

[BurtWorm]

8. This prof may feel a national emergency requires of him this disclosure.

The "president's" grade history is the nation's grade history. Especially if his poor scholarship is having a direct impact on the fate of the nation. I think the prof is doing his patriotic duty.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

15. Revealing = bad, not to mention

the small matter of a federal law.

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

He can talk in general about his past students, but releasing grades is a clear violation.

Edited to add:

Former HBS Prof Blasts Bush

>>
Business scholar says president was 'shallow,' 'flippant' in 1970s class

“All Harvard Business School students want to become president of a company one day,” Tsurumi said. “I remember saying, if you become president of a company some day, may God help your customers and employees.”
<<

[BurtWorm]

17. Did he release Bush's grades?

Is saying Bush was in the bottom 10% "releasing grades?"

[Bridget Burke]

26. He didn't reveal Bush's grades.

The article includes the statement "Bush scored in the lowest 10 percent of the class." It is not attributed to the Professor.

[ItsMyParty]

11. Another section from Kelley's book

I was reading key parts at Borders the other day. And was reading the info posted above in several posts. In addition, the prof pointed out that all these kids were conservative and republicans BUT that they still were human, decent people. But what stood out about Bush is that he didn't have that human decency. He was in a 'class' all by himself. Then it goes on to state what you've posted above about the other students hating him, he couldn't defend himself, he lied all the time, etc. This man and his family are the lowest of creeps even with the 'wealthy' families. In fact it emphasizes that not only George but the whole family have no intellectual curiosity, are boorish, don't read, etc. They are hated even among the rich.

[TWiley]

19. You just confirmed my suspicions.

However, I arrived at the same conclusion by instinct. So nice to hear that it is in print.

[TWiley]

18. I read that Kerry was endorsed by 10 economics Laureates.

I have not heard anything since the initial reporting. Lets put the anti-Christ's MBA professor on TV in a comparison / contrast ad with Kerry's Nobel endorsements. It does need to become common knowledge.

Where is Move-on.pac when ya need them?

[Stephanie]

20. PIX!

Yes, it's real. From Bush's Harvard days. Not photoshopped. Appeared in the Washington Post. Possibly from a yearbook or something similar.

[BurtWorm]

21. They really don't call him smirk for nothing.

:puke:

[Democrat 4 Ever]

23. How about asking Kerry and Bush to appear on Jeopardy together?

Of course, Cheney would have to be there to answer the questions, Rumsfeld would have to be there to insist they have irrefutable proof that Bush already knows all the answers, Rice would have to hold the buzzer and ring in for Bushie, Wolfowitz would have to be behind the scenes writing the questions and the Supreme Court would have to serve as judges so they could say everything Bush says is correct - and still, yet...

Kerry, by himself, could whip them all - on any subject. Anybody got Trebek's home phone number?

[Supersedeas]

25. Strong values, compassion and intellect--Bush totally the opposite (eom)