Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with georgewbush

Replica of Mission Accomplished Banner

davextreme — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:29:07 -0800

I'd like to buy a replica (but smaller) of the "Mission Accomplished" banner that President Bush stood in front of on the U.S.S. Lincoln. I've found sites that will make custom banners but none selling one that's specifically a replica of that event, which surprised me. The joke's a bit stale by now, but it would be fun to have whenever anyone has a celebration, graduation party, etc.

For reference there's a photo accompanying this article.

Tipping of the 2004 election

crapmatic — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:17:42 -0800

What exactly was it in 2004 that suggested in the final weeks that John Kerry was going to win? Case in point here and here (yeah, I know the latter is a Democrat site). Maybe I have selective memory but I thought a lot of pundits had expected a Kerry win. Or did many neutral sources have Bush pegged? If not, what I'm trying to figure out is where the forecast errors were made, and whether these same issues could produce a surprise tomorrow (not counting a "Bradley effect", since that was of course not a factor in 2004).

What Makes a Dubya 2000 Vote an Understandable Decision?

WCityMike — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:38:18 -0800

I'd honestly like to know why half of America voted for George W. Bush in 2000: what their reasoning was. Please note right off the bat: I'm not asking this in order to encourage mockery of, or lambaste, those people who voted for George W. Bush in 2000. Quite the contrary: I am actually asking this in order to try to fuel an attempt to get rid of a mindset that does mock and lambaste them. (2004 was a different matter, as far as people's reasoning was concerned: the terrorist attack introduced the meme, appropriate or not, that Dubya was needed to continue to be tough on terror, that it was patriotic to vote for him, and so on. So that meme was there and can explain among other things the 2004 win.)

But in the 2000 election, patriotism while under attack was not a theme available to Dubya yet. Yet he got a huge part of the country. The precise vote count and the election controversy doesn't matter for this question: he convinced nearly (or over) half the country that he would be a good President.

My question is: why? Is there a way that this question can be modeled where that half of America doesn't come off as looking bad?

A few days ago, in order to write a comment in a thread (that ended up being deleted), I ended up digging up via the Internet Archive an old web post I wrote the first weekend of December 2000.

That made me realize this question was in my mind and had never been answered, and that it was really coloring my opinion of the people who live in this country with me towards the heavy negative. All that evidence was available before the election took place, if I was able to write that essay a few weeks after the election. Why didn't it count in the public eye? There's about ten to twelve good and even media-juicy stories, any one of which you would think would have sunk his campaign. Why didn't it?

Since the 2000 election, so for eight years now, my answer has been one that paints an extremely nasty picture of HALF of the country. "Those who voted for Bush in 2000 are fucking dumbasses who didn't bother to research their vote." Complete with the hostile anger implied by "fucking dumbasses."

I imagine some of you are going, "Yeah, that's exactly how I feel, they are dumbasses." But that's not what I want your answer to be! I don't want this thread to be a pile-on for Bush voters. I don't want to think that half of America are fucking dumbasses. I have walked around with anger and with cynicism, and while I'm not seeking to swing all the way over to the other pole of things ("Charrrrliiiiieee!"), I am trying to get a better framework — free of preconceptions made angrily a long time ago — of parts of my worldview. I think the world is filled with a lot more kindness and nobility than I gave it credit for, and I think I need to start thinking better of the world in general.

So in order to do that, I want to figure this out. I want to know why people thought about it and decided to themselves that George W. Bush would be a good President, a better one than Al Gore would. And, moreover, why that decision was made with such evidence as to have that decision repeated in such massive numbers that the 2000 election was so damn close. I don't want my explanation to be "nation of dumbasses" or "sheep led by media trends" or "neocon manipulation" or other cynical nastiness anymore, so I am trying to get a different perceptual framework of the event.

It doesn't necessarily mean that media trends or neocon manipulation wasn't at play. But I just want to get a handle on why it would be a understandable decision for half of America to make back in 2000.

Anyone?

Did Rice Actually Refer to Bush as Her Husband?

donfactor — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 23:59:28 -0800

I have been told by a few people something that I don't really believe and I would appreciate confirmation of its untruth, They have said that Condoleeza Rice referred to GW Bush as her husband - in some interview or in answer to some question. Could this be true?

Help finding a Reggae song

MLIS — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 15:14:12 -0800

ReggaeFilter: Help finding a Reggae song. [MI] About a week before the presidential election I heard a reggae song – the line I remember is “Mr. Bush your weapons of mass destruction are a lie. . .” Or something to that effect. I have tried googling “reggae” and “wmd [spelled out]” but have been unable to locate it. It is not the song by Xzibit. Anyone know the song or have suggestions on how I could find it?

Election results leave me feeling despondent, what can I do?

xmutex — Wed, 03 Nov 2004 09:42:30 -0800

Considering last night, what can we do, those of us who feel something deeply tragic happened? Not just in the race for the White House, but across America, with the ballot initiatives and the Senate and House races?

Realistic activism for the newly impassioned? Last-ditch attempts to save this sinking ship of a country?

Advice! Opine! Help me! Help us all.

Precedents for avoiding military service

mischief — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 06:38:09 -0800

Has George W. Bush established a moral precedent for evading military service in the United States? How about a legal precedent?

What's the origin of "all hat, no cattle"?

JollyWanker — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 16:54:50 -0800

I'm looking for the origin of the phrase former Governorof Texas Ann Richards used to describe George W. Bush, "All hat, no cattle." A cursory look has turned up the fact that it's a traditional Texan putdown, but I haven't been able to dig down any further to where it might have originated. Ideas? Similar local or regional putdowns?

Are the war on terror and the war on drugs neoTrotskyesque?

Kwantsar — Sat, 10 Jul 2004 01:07:10 -0800

BushTrotsky? To my non-historian eyes, the war on terror and to some extent the war on drugs strike me as neotrotskyesque. Is this a fair characterization, or have other political philosophers advanced a theory more similar to the current trends in modern US "war"?