Bush Has Entered "Book-Reading Competition With Karl Rove" & He's Winning

[kpete]

A Humbled Presidency
After a series of setbacks, Bush tries a more thoughtful approach
By Kenneth T. Walsh

Posted Sunday, August 20, 2006

Maybe it was the influence of his wife, Laura, a former librarian, or his mother, Barbara, a longtime promoter of literacy. Or perhaps he was just eager to dispel his image as an intellectual lightweight. But President Bush now wants it known that he is a man of letters. In fact, Bush has entered a book-reading competition with Karl Rove, his political adviser. White House aides say the president has read 60 books so far this year (while the brainy Rove, to Bush's competitive delight, has racked up only 50). The commander in chief delved into three volumes in August alone-two on Abraham Lincoln and, more surprising for a man of unambiguous convictions, The Stranger, Albert Camus's existential tale of murder and alienation.

Bush's critics aren't buying. A man who so regularly mangles the English language and seems to disdain complexity couldn't possibly be so cerebral, they argue. But portraying Bush as a voracious reader is part of an ongoing White House campaign to restore what a senior adviser calls "gravitas" to the Bush persona. He certainly needs something. Only about 34 percent of Americans approve of his job performance-and 58 percent say Bush "seems in over his head," according to Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg. If nothing changes, the president could be a major liability for Republicans in November's congressional elections.

more at:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060820/28presidency.htm

[Lefty-Taylor]

1. Oh puleeeeze!!! And I just came up with a cure for cancer.

[WI_DEM]

16. that's more likely than Bush picking up a book to read

[skygazer]

2. Of course, they were picture books....

... and The Pet Goat which he's had a fondness for since 2001.

[tanyev]

3. Most people who read books don't have to announce it in a press release.

They just do it. For fun, even.

:eyes:

[sweetheart]

10. nor are they paid for negligence on the job

whilst fucking off and reading...

[shain from kane]

14. Clinton got a bj. n/t

[sweetheart]

44. so iran's to get a bj.

And as bush goes down on her,
his gape all nuclear and wide,
iran says just like ben hur,
rome's mouth sneeringly snide.

Bunker's rumble hate so nuclear,
women's rights pregnant bonifide,
bush's thoughs just so unclear,
most of us are horrified.

Lebannon darfur, ethiopia, sudan,
Afganistan, columbia, somalia, japan
men in suits at war shrines praying
arms that loot, in tanks painted greying
unrepresented and forgotten,
spoilt milk tastes rotten.

[bloom]

47. Are you sure

it's not Israel getting the blow job?

It seems that that would fit the metaphor better.

[sweetheart]

48. depends what one means by 'blow'

The word conjures large black clouds from arial bombardment;
sharon'ed from the before the grave;
a terrible blow to IDF credibility;
a blow of nationalism across the world,
The blow of men's coats worshipping at war shrines,
...the blow of cocaine hollowing out cosmopolitain mostrils,
...blowing the moisure off your fine wet cigar,
...blowing up the world trade center,
...blown in the winds of katrina's wake,
...blowing it in defending the country,
...blown across a thicket of lies,

oh,
yea.
.
we're gettin' a blow job.

[panader0]

4. bush reading Camus? No way!

Maybe 60 comic books, or Cliff Notes. Maybe he gets the taped versions or has books read to him. But read books himself, I don't believe it.

[EFerrari]

8. And Hamlet!

:rofl:

[babylonsister]

5. Nice to see he's 'edumicating' himself.

:crazy:

[Skidmore]

6. So does he get a star on his chart when he's finished one

and get to pick a treat? Are there rules? Like there has to be more words than pictures?

[Sanity Claws]

7. Competition?

So he has no intrinsic interest in books. He just wants to win, prove his manhood. He'll cheat at that as he does at everything else.

[ShortnFiery]

Yes ...

Let me see if I can envision the scene? ... as he "sped reds hez buks" I smell something burning? :eyes: Oh, W's quest for knowledge! What? As he turns the pages I hear him exclaim, "AIR ASSAULT!" :crazy:

Oh, what a man, what a man, what an embarrassment to our beloved Country. :(

[angstlessk]

9. Rove vs Bush..give me a fucking break..it is called P R O P A G A N D A

NOT reading!

[rocktivity]

11. ..

:boring:
rocknation

[shain from kane]

12. See Abe run. See Abe win. See Civil War, Oh, Fiddle-dee-dee. I don't

know nothing about birthing babies. See Abe go to the theatre. See Abe get shot.

(Apologies to Mad magazine.)

From the internets ---

"Mad Magazine once condensed "Gone with the Wind" into "Fiddle-Dee-Dee -- Boom!""



Edited to add line.

[MADem]

13. Say WHAT??? ... the brainy Rove???

That guy isn't BRAINY, he's a junior college dropout who is a mean, nasty 'anything to win' thug. He makes Atwater look like a goddamned choir boy.

Tony Soprano knows how to stay on top, and though he at least watches the History Channel and has a certain sophisticated cunning, he's not an intellectual powerhouse--what he is, is a gangster with a few smarts...and that is the BEST you could say about that asshole Rove.

Trying to say that the Andover, Yale and Harvard educated IDIOT has to somehow compete with the "dropout" Rove (because he is smarter???) makes me want to tell parents to steer their kids away from those pricy schools, because...they SUCK!

[EFerrari]

21. That's right. Rove is not a genius. He's a criminal. n/t

[tanyev]

23. Funny, that. If you google "Karl Rove photographic memory"

you'll find all sorts of anecdotes of people recalling what a phenomenal memory he has. A memory that was oh-so-conveniently blocked when it came to recalling the Plame incident.

[patricia92243]

15. Did Bush think Rove would seriously beat him. Rove is no fool, he knows w

which side his bread is buttered on.

Can you imagine if George were allowed to lose? The pouting would last for a month.

[Montagnard]

17. The Explains How He Knew

Russia and China are big countries.

[izzie]

18. My God what will his base think? IF it is true.

Now I know what is in the back of all those pick-ups,.. with the dog. Books. I must have missed that when I lived in the South.

[klook]

19. Wow, and he came back from vacation after only 10 days!!

I'm sure that'll impress the soldiers who are on their third tour of duty in Iraq with no vacation.

[gratuitous]

20. Who do they think they're kidding?

Bush reading books in an attempt to "restore" Bush's gravitas. What a load of malarkey, and Useless News and World Distort should be ashamed for running this nonsense.

Okay, fun time, kiddies. Let's build Bush's reading list of 60 books:

1. The Cat in the Hat
2. McElligott's Pool
3. Go Dog Go
4. Are You My Mother?
5. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

Anybody got the next five?

[Sanity Claws]

27. The Cat in the Hat Comes Back

My Pet Goat


I don't think he read an additional five.

[guinivere]

30. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Oh, The Places You'll Go!
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Little Bear's Peek a Boo
The Growing Tree

[jmowreader]

31. The next five

6. Help, Mom! There are Liberals Under My Bed
7. Help, Mom! Hollywood's In My Hamper
8. Bumbly Wumbly and the Spotted Spacecraft
9. Teetle the Timid Taxidermist
10. Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. Listen to the clear, concise words of Officer Barbrady as he reviews Ms. Rand's magnum opus: "I read every word of this garbage, and because of this piece of shit I'm never reading again."

Number eleven is "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." It is a very good book. In it, a bunch of hippies walk around and paint stuff. They eat lunch, and then they discover a magical camel which they have to eat to stay alive. Dubya gives it a B-minus.

[KatyMan]

60. don't forget

Heather Has Two Mommies
Jennifer Has Two Daddies

[Rex]

22. Hey Chuckle Nuts, reading 60 books means you are not doing your

FUCKING JOB! YOU KNOW THE ONE YOU STOLE! What a total fucking loser, the king of all pathetic little men - George Bush.

Did Washington read 60 books a year? Did FDR? NO. THEY DID THEIR FUCKING JOB, DIDN'T HAVE TIME.

Zod, what a joke.

[MissWaverly]

24. The only thing I want him to read is his resignation

Please spare us the special hallmark moments with a man our closest ally, the Brits call
"a man of low intellect"

[patricia92243]

25. Is there a way to get a list of the books, and let some of our readers her

here see how long it takes them to read them. Or they could be assigned to one and another of us and then we could tally how long it takes.

[Mabus]

28. Here's a link:

http://www.booktv.org/misc/081706_bush.asp

on edit: you're assuming he's opening the books to read them. I think he's just reading the titles and calling it good. :shrug:

fwiw, I wish he'd read his other reading list, a.k.a. "Presidential Daily Briefings"

[jmowreader]

35. I don't even think he's reading the titles

It's more like someone went to a bookstore, bought 60 books at random, made a list of them and stuck them next to his bed at the pig farm.

The only one of those 60 books I can see Bush reading is the one about Babe Ruth. That looks kinda good, actually.

There are two Shakespeare books on this list. You KNOW he didn't read those. He would have read The Stranger long before he cracked a Shakespeare book.

[Mabus]

36. Well, when you skip over the big words

the reading goes a lot quicker. :rofl:


Actually I don't even give him credit for reading the titles. :yoiks:

[LSparkle]

26. Gravitas? (gulp, spit-take, wheeze) GRAVITAS?

This bumpkin couldn't even SAY it right, much less aspire to it ...

[lectrobyte]

54. Sad to say, I can see him giving a speech and using that word a

lot: I'm the preznit, and I have gravitas, because presidents need a lot of gravitas, and there's a lot of gravitas involved in it, and I use gravitas every day...

But when you get right down to it, you can't polish a turd, no matter how many books they want us to think it's read.

[driver8]

29. Does an "Archie" comic book count as a book??

In Bush's world, it probably does.

[ConcernedCanuk]

32. Could he at least made the time and effort to read the Constitution ????

.
.
.

He coulda read (and possibly understood THAT) 60 times or more

But then again, maybe he did

and figured out how to screw y'all

TWICE

"Mission Accomplished"

[zulchzulu]

53. I mentioned that later...

...didn't see your contribution until it was too late...couldn't agree more...maybe Chimpy could have his daughters read it to him...

[ConcernedCanuk]

61. "maybe Chimpy could have his daughters read it to him...", THESE girls???

.
.
.



more likely THIS guy

But his own "version"

[Lisa]

33. I bet his own very thin book, "Things Which Interest Me", is on the list

C'mon everyone! Let's help out Dubya by suggesting some nice short books ...

"Profiles in Courage ... in the Bush Administration"

"Why I Love Peace" -- by Donald Rumsfeld

"My Wild Life" -- by Alan Greenspan

"A Sightseeing Guidebook to New York City" -- by Homeland Security (the same folks who omitted most major landmarks from their inventory of NYC)

"My Search for the Real Killers" -- O.J. Simpson

"The Amish Guide to Home Electronics"

[alcibiades_mystery]

34. As if the very notion of a "book reading competition" screams GRAVITAS?

:rofl:

[Earth_First]

37. The fact that these are round numbers make this suspect to me...

White House aides say the president has read 60 books so far this year (while the brainy Rove, to Bush's competitive delight, has racked up only 50).

Round numbers always sets my radar off.

[Skinner]

51. Nice catch.

Now that you mention it, the round numbers are pretty fishy.

[klook]

38. Here's one of his favorites

[Retrograde]

39. If you're going to make up stuff

at least try to make it sound plausible!

Two books a week, huh? When does that leave time for presidenting?

I'd believe it of other presidents - I know people who regularly read even more than that, but coming from a person who consistantly shows a total lack of curiosity - but Incurious George?

[Missy M]

40. I read what his list of books are for his summer reading....

Hamlet and Macbeth were on the list yet I read both of them in high school. You would think he already read those two in either high school or college. I don't believe any of this story and it is probably more Rove propaganda. Rove is also trying to make himself seem like an intellectual in the process. These people will stoop to the lowest levels possible.

[WinkyDink]

41. Is Bush TRYING to alienate his base?! HAHAHAHA! READ, Bushie, READ!

YA BIG MORAN.
Probably makes Rove read in 100-degree heat, too.

[TahitiNut]

42. Next, we'll hear Junior is making copious marginal notes in Kirkegaard's

... "Either/Or."

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[AspenRose]

43. My Pet Goat vs. Mein Kampf

:eyes:

[LittleClarkie]

45. The president had a summer reading program?

Did the bookmobile stop at the White House?

Reading is fun-damental, doncha know.

[tibbiit]

46. Next we will see pictures of him

Swimming the Delaware river in the winter.

Right in goosestep with any commie country propaganda. How can americans swallow this?
tib

[Retrograde]

49. Let me know when he starts chopping down cherry trees (n/m)

[babylonsister]

56. We don't swallow it, but it's pervasive, isn't it. nt

[seabeyond]

50. cheating. like jack sparrow,.... pirate. bush..... cheating

has cheated all his life. so consistantly. i am sure this is no different.

[zulchzulu]

52. Maybe if the AWOL Cowboy read the US Constitution for once, I'd be happy

Apparently he's never read that document...

[Generic Brad]

55. He has time to read a book every 3.9 days?

That's the biggest load of hooey I have heard today.

[aaronbees]

57. "Choose Your Own Adventure" books? ....

"Turn to page 666 for Armageddon with Iran."

That's pretty much his style. The story is pure propaganda.

[Bluebear]

58. What hardworking person of ANY profession has time to read 60 books?

In 8 months, yet?

[Starbucks Anarchist]

59. Just reading the title doesn't count, George.

[tom_paine]

62. A lie: plain and simple

n/t

[soup]

63. Well, that changes EVERYTHING.

I hereby rescind each and every negative thought or disparaging comment previously made regarding the intellititude of my most Glorious Leader. I now hold The Uniter in the highest esteem and bow before the eruditedinity of My Learned Commander. I apologize for my miserable failure to revere the perspicaciousality of the One True Decider and will do my best to remember to refer to him as His Royal Scholarliness in the future.

Yep. That's what I'm a gonna do...


"One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures." --George W. Bush, Jan. 3, 2000

"Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?" --George W. Bush, Florence, South Carolina, Jan. 11, 2000

"Reading is the basics for all learning." --George W. Bush, announcing his "Reading First" initiative in Reston, Va., March 28, 2000

"We want our teachers to be trained so they can meet the obligations, their obligations as teachers. We want them to know how to teach the science of reading. In order to make sure there's not this kind of federal --" federal cufflink." --George W. Bush, at Fritsche Middle School, Milwaukee, March 30, 2000

"I'm gonna talk about the ideal world, Chris. I've read --" I understand reality. If you're asking me as the president, would I understand reality, I do." --George W. Bush on abortion, MSNBC's "Hardball," May 31, 2000

"Bill wrote a book at Yale. I read one." --George W. Bush, on William F. Buckley, Al Smith Dinner, New York City, Oct. 19, 2000

"That's a chapter, the last chapter of the 20th, 20th, the 21st century that most of us would rather forget. The last chapter of the 20th century. This is the first chapter of the 21st century. " --George W. Bush, on the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Arlington Heights, Ill., Oct. 24, 2000

"I want it to be said that the Bush administration was a results-oriented administration, because I believe the results of focusing our attention and energy on teaching children to read and having an education system that's responsive to the child and to the parents, as opposed to mired in a system that refuses to change, will make America what we want it to be — a more literate country and a hopefuller country." —George W. Bush, Jan. 11, 2001

"One reason I like to highlight reading is, reading is the beginnings of the ability to be a good student. And if you can't read, it's going to be hard to realize dreams; it's going to be hard to go to college. So when your teachers say, read—you ought to listen to her."—Nalle Elementary School, Washington, D.C., Feb 9, 2001

"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.'' —George W. Bush, Feb. 21, 2001

"You know, sometimes when you study history, you get stuck in the past." —George W. Bush, on what he told Russian president Vladimir Putin, as quoted in the Wall Street Journal, June 25, 2001

"They didn't think we were a nation that could conceivably sacrifice for something greater than our self; that we were soft, that we were so self-absorbed and so materialistic that we wouldn't defend anything we believed in. My, were they wrong. They just were reading the wrong magazine or watching the wrong Springer show." —George W. Bush. Washington, D.C., March 12, 2002

"Sometimes when I sleep at night I think of (Dr. Seuss's) 'Hop on Pop.'" —George W. Bush, in a speech about childhood education, Washington, D.C., April 2, 2002

"The public education system in America is one of the most important foundations of our democracy. After all, it is where children from all over America learn to be responsible citizens, and learn to have the skills necessary to take advantage of our fantastic opportunistic society."—Santa Clara, Calif., May 1, 2002

"I glance at the headlines just to kind of get a flavor for what's moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves." —Washington, D.C., Sept. 21, 2003

"Then you wake up at the high school level and find out that the illiteracy level of our children are appalling." —Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

"I wish you'd have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it…I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn't yet….I don't want to sound like I have made no mistakes. I'm confident I have. I just haven't — you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one." —President George W. Bush, after being asked to name the biggest mistake he had made, Washington, D.C., April 3, 2004

"I'm occasionally reading, I want you to know, in the second term." --Washington, D.C., March 16, 2005

"That's George Washington, the first president, of course. The interesting thing about him is that I read three -- three or four books about him last year. Isn't that interesting?" --George W. Bush, while showing German newspaper reporter Kai Diekmann the Oval Office, Washington, D.C., May 5, 2006

quotes source:
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm

[Crankie Avalon]

64. Are we truly supposed to believe he's read 60 books in under eight months?

He supposedly reads two books a week and on top of that does all that excercising they say he does? No wonder he's never working!

Nothing against "The Stranger," but it is a fast read straight off the college freshman year syllabus. Maybe he'll hit the high school syllabus, next..."Brave New World"..."The Catcher in the Rye"..."Watership Down".

By the way, get a load of this part of the article, "The commander in chief delved into three volumes in August alone...". They try to make it sound like he's going through books even faster than usual, but "three volumes in August alone" would be well below the average pace necessary to have got through 60 books in under eight months. Someone needs to get the lie straight before they try to spread it!

[symbolman]

65. Reading and Comprehension are two different animals

and the question to be raised is, "Does Coloring books count Karl? Sometimes they have words in them.."

Cliff Note Coloring books. :)

What this "A Humbled Presidency" Shit? He's admitting he's a goddamned IDIOT? NOW he's "humbled"?

Total crock of shit, fluff piece.. What I want this guy reading is all the CHARGES against him when he'd shuffled into the Hague with leg irons, and thrown into a cell on suicide watch with ONE tiny little window at the top of the cell to remind him that there IS such a thing as sunlight, and birds, etc.. to drive him crazy.. THEN we'll give you all the books you want...

More likely Bush and Rove are having a BOOK BURNING Contest, and Bush has him beat, only because he learned a lot about lighters blowing Frog assholes up as a kid.

Creature no read.

[matcom]

66. IS your pResident learning?

the answer is no.

[peaches2003]

67. When does he read all these books?

In 7.5 months he has read 60 books? That's 8 books a month, 2 books a week. And these books they say he is reading are not lightweight or fast reading. When does he do all this reading? He's in the office by 7 they say, we know he rides his mountain bike out in MD in the afternoon for several hours, we know he exercises in his private gym, and we know he is asleep by 9.

Now, when the hell is he reading all these scholarly works? Over exaggerating anything makes it unbelievable and a joke to everyone but the kool-aid drinkers. Big mistake, Karl.

[Matariki]

70. My Pet Goat?

[SeveneightyWhoa]

68. I have a new-found respect for George W. Bush.

He actually employs people who can make him seem smart -- to really stupid people.

What a genius!!

[Matariki]

69. Well he sure as hell isn't running the country

Which would explain how he has time to read 60 books in 8 months. Not that i don't believe the bulk of them were 'My Pet Goat' parts 1 through 58

[Matariki]

71. I wonder how many of those 50 books Rove read

was The Prince?

Karl "I'VE READ THE PRINCE ABOUT A HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SEVEN TIMES, AND IT KEEPS GETTING FUNNIER" Rove