Some blame 'bubble' for poor Bush debating

[wicket]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1963&e=25&u=/afp/20041007/ts_alt_afp/us_vote_bush_bubble_041007090206

Some critics and supporters of US President George W. Bush agree on an intriguing explanation for his poor showing in his first debate with Democratic rival John Kerry: Blame it on the White House "bubble."

The term refers to the protective layers of aides, spokespeople, Secret Service security and supporters that encase the modern US president, keeping reporters, hecklers and threats away from the chief executive.

Even allowing for heightened protection around him in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Bush has taken unusual pains to insulate himself from hard questions from those who disagree with him.

He has held fewer press conferences than any modern president -- including his father, former president George Bush -- and aides who disagreed publicly with him have generally recanted swiftly and humbly or left the administration.

-------------------------------------------------------

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! This is something we here at DU have been saying since day 1, never thought I'd see it in the mainstream news!! :D The "Bush Bubble" - I like it! :D

[unblock]

1. the boy in the bubble

[UpInArms]

5. and treated like the baby he is

[ender]

30. the boy in the bubble and ...

the pres'dent with a baboon face...

I believe in lazers in the jungle... lasers in the jungle somewhereeee

[kysrsoze]

50. How about blaming the bubble-head, himself. Nothing inside.

[barb162]

63. what's wrong with him turning on the TV, radio, looking at a paper

as long as he thinks it's okay for Condi to give him all his news, well, he sets the rules and created his own bubble

[kysrsoze]

75. You're absolutely right. It's self-induced. He's a stupid ass.

[Amigust]

82. He's a megalomaniac

Don't disagree with me.

Tell me what I want to hear.

If you can't live with these two simple rules, then walk through that door now.

[The Zanti Regent]

92. Where's Don Ho when we need him?

A new version of "Tiny Bubbles"...

Tiny Bubbles
In cocaine...

[mrbassman03]

59. Awesome!

And I thought I would be the only one with a Paul Simon post...

[AngryLizard]

70. Stacatto signals of constant information

The lose affiliation of millionaires and billionaires and bay-be...

[lancdem]

20. My co-worker and I were just laughing about this

We said someone should do a cartoon with Bush as the boy in the bubble who's afriad of any "germ of truth."

[mrbassman03]

58. and the baby with the baboon heart...

and I believe...

[Javaman]

95. Bubble is in his brain...

[54anickel]

2. Oh BS, again looking to place blame rather than accept the responsibility

to admit he's a miserable failure and the idiot son of an asshole!

[wicket]

4. He's the Blame President

He'll never admit a mistake, not when he's got other people to blame!

[Tangledog]

60. There's a lot of us to blame

That's right, B*boy blames everybody sooner or later. I'm waiting my turn, and I hope I'll stand there like a man, like a CAN-DO SORT OF GUY, and take it.

But I hope it doesn't happen on my burfday!

x( x( x(

[krkaufman]

16. Exactly. The primary spin of the article attempts to cast blame...

... to the typical "Presidential bubble" -- and not specifically the extreme isolation bubble that Rove has established for the Idiot President.

Oh, and he's an intellectual midget, as well. Seriously.

http://www.n3t.net/humor/Seriously.mpg

[54anickel]

31. HA!!! ROFLMAO! I haven't seen that one before. Priceless!!!!

[NVMojo]

78. tooo baaaad!

we can't show this on national tv!!!

[klook]

3. Catastrophic success

Things have been going so well for Bush he wasn't prepared for a little turbulence. :evilgrin:

[trumad]

8. He wasn't in the bubble before the presidency

and he was still stupid as shit.

[Kierkegaard]

21. Exactly...

I was just about to point that out myself. Being isolated from the real world doesn't cost you IQ points, it just makes you uninformed. This clown is friggin Stoopid with a capital S.

[Dem2theMax]

88. Now you've got me to thinking,

maybe there really IS something wrong with him in the 'medical' department.

Besides the obvious - lack of brain. But that's besides the point. ;)

[DustMolecule]

6. What came first? Poor communication skills or "the bubble"?

This story is trying to say that his poor debate/conferencing/communication skills are a result of his being in a protective 'bubble'.

We here at DU (and others) believe that the 'bubble' was REALLY created to hide *'s poor communication skills in the first place.

[soothsayer]

7. yes, but the bubble is there because he is INCOMPETENT

so it all comes back to that.

[lefthandedskyhook]

94. Right on!

Its a chicken and egg situation, but in this case the chicken existed before he got egg all over his face. Ineptitude necessitated the insulating bubble which in turn exacerbated the ineptitude.

[salinen]

9. It's not his fault

The blame should go to the military, those guys won the war too fast!

[demokatgurrl]

10. Funny, Bill Clinton was in the bubble for 8 years

and it didn't seem to affect his ability to think and communicate.

[JerseygirlCT]

40. I don't think so

I don't remember him segregating himself from those with differing views. I don't remember loyalty pledges before a regular citizen could ask him a question.

Bush doesn't want to hear anything but echoes. Unless you're in agreement with him, he sticks his fingers in his ears and sings lalalalala, I can't hear you!

Clinton studied every issue -- some said obsessively. Bush wants to be spoonfed his own opinions, then makes a big courageous (smirk) decision using his "gut". This should scare the hell out of the American electorate, but apparently nearly half seem to be oblivious themselves.

[Judi Lynn]

45. Their claim does fall apart when you bring up Bill Clinton, doesn't it?

He most surely wasn't wandering around in a fog. He was VERY aware of what was going on around him.

It's unforgiveable that they can try to hand out this lame excuse.
Inexcuseable.

[vogonity]

51. Early in Clinton's fisrt term...

I remember reading a news story called something like "Whitehouse University." It detailed how Clinton used his new office to invite various experts from different fields to come in and explain or debate their opinions with him and others. As I best can recall, he invited not only people with similar political opinions, but people who might have differed with him also.

Wow, what a concept. A President who might make use of something other than an echo chamber.

GWB-- Worst President in American History. Period.

[ckramer]

61. Stock market bubble?

[xxqqqzme]

65. Xactly what I was thinking

Clinton does read however.

[On the Road]

11. It's a Polite Way of Saying He Only Talks to Yes-Men and Supporters

but at least the article is out there. The search for excuses is very telling, and it's planted in the public's mind.

[catmandu57]

12. The good puppy press and first ammendment zones

kept the idiot* insulated, but, still the deteoration of alcohol and cocaine has caught up and kicked his ass big time.

[maryallen]

47. Change the President's JOB DESCRIPTION:

Require that every President of the US hold a minimum of ONE PRESS CONFERENCE PER MONTH.

[grasswire]

52. I have been pushing for a ...

....bill of rights for White House transparency. Your suggestion is one of my provisions in the document. Check it out at http://webdems.blogspot.com.

[Cha]

13. bushie BUBBLE gonna..

BURST!

[Malva Zebrina]

14. I don't believe it

I think he is just plain stupid and that fact had to be kept from the media, so they built the bubble to hide what a complete, incompetant, willfully ignorant man he is.

[rocktivity]

15. Candidate for this month's "You call this NEWS?" award

BLAME it on the bubble? Why isn't this story asking why he NEEDS a bubble--because the mainstream media itself is part of the problem?

:headbang:
rocknation

[AspenRose]

28. Preach it, Rocknation

You sure got that right.

[leftchick]

17. JK needs to point out the lack of chimpy press conferences...

and contrast by saying as President he will hold them every eight weeks or so and NOT pre-screen the questions and without a mic in his ear! There is a lot of material here!

[wicket]

29. I believe Kerry has addressed this...

He said something to the effect of he would hold press conferences MONTHLY. WOO HOO! :D

[leftchick]

41. Take That Bubble Boy!!!

[ILeft]

67. Seriously, that is a great suggestion.

"As your President, I will hold monthly press conferences, I will not require questions from the press to be submitted in advance, and I will not, I repeat, will not, ever use a hidden radio receiver of any kind to assist me in a debate or in any other public speaking context."

[davhill]

18. Kind of like what happened to Saddam

That is the characteristic weakness of dictatorship. The dictator becomes further and futher detatched from reality.

[mirounga]

19. I Blame the bubble too

the "Bubble Brain"

[GoddessOfGuinness]

72. Right on!

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[MallRat]

22. AFP has been ruthless with Bush this election year.

Yet another reason for * to hate the French.

:-)

-MR

[freedom_to_read]

23. Some blame emperor's "nakedness" for Bush's lack of good clothing <eom>

[ima_sinnic]

77. ha ha--good one! (nt)

[muchacho]

24. I agree

Except I consider his head the bubble.

[bif]

25. He's Chauncy Gardner!

In his own small world.

[Clyde39]

34. Except that Chauncey was a good person

and only talked when asked a question and never said his life was "hard work".

[young_at_heart]

39. At the end of the movie they want him to be a presidential candidate

"Being There" says that if you look right, sound right, speak in platitudes and have powerful friends, you can go far in our society. Sound familiar? I agree about Chauncey being a lot nicer!

[wryter2000]

26. I've been convinced for some time this was true

His usual strategies work so well inside his bubble, none of them are prepared for the reaction of the rest of the world. Think about them and their Purple Heart bandaids. They loved them, but everyone else was horrified. They have no clue how regular people are going to respond to his hate messages.

[Infomaniac]

27. Bubble Boy? The answer is "the moops"

The bubble makes me think of that Seinfeld episode. Bush as the Bubble Boy. The thought just makes me laugh.

[0007]

33. Goddammit! they killed Kenny - The boy that lives in the bubble.

Kenny

[MADem]

32. FRICKIN' AMAZING!

I've heard of LAME excuses, but that is way, way worse than "The cat peed on my homework" which is a step up from "The dog ate my homework."

My first thought was, how did Bill Clinton avoid this bubble? Is it a bubble that only envelops rightwing fundamentalist whackjobs with a Messianic complex? Or did someone sneak the bubble into the White House while no one was looking?

Weak, weak, WEAK! Weewee is a WEAK MAN!

[Hans Delbrook]

57. Hey

You made me laugh so hard I spit on my screen! Stop that :)

[JPace]

35. Yes part of the problem was the bubble,

but a bigger part was he inflated ego,
natural bliss in remaining ignorant of
the real facts, arrogance that has grown
dramatically in the last four pampered
years of his life and his inability to
change course.....EVER.

[Seabiscuit]

36. Bubble, Bubble, Toil And Trouble...

"It's hard work... it's hard work....." - Bubble Boy

[Leilani]

37. Intriguing Explanation?

HUH?

Was this a MYSTERY?

Morans, all of them!

[frylock]

38. i think it's his bubbler..

the one he uses to smoke rocks in.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

42. The only Bubble here is

his cranium.

[mom cat]

43. Bubble brain Bush! Nice ring to it! Serves him right for demanding

loyalty oaths from those who would dare approach the throne.

[Pirate Smile]

44. I read that most Presidents fight the bubble that they get put in which

separates them from the people. Clinton was always trying to break out to talk to and with people.

Bush doesn't fight the bubble, he embraces it and tries to extend it.

[MisterP]

46. "chimp-inna-bubble"

[Sterling]

48. That is what I said, and the fact...

he has ruined the country and that is hard to defend even if he were not a sheltered moron.

[kskiska]

49. As soon as he got into office he cut out the White House tours

Hell, on Inauguration Day, he chose not to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue among "his people."

He's only had, maybe 3 State Dinners, since he's got no friends in the rest of the world, either.

[thecrow]

54. he chose not to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue among "his people."

uh, that's because the demonstrators were throwing eggs at him.
<snicker>

I love this paragraph...
One of his reelection campaign's staple events is dubbed "Ask President Bush", a session in which he takes questions from friendly
audiences of campaign aides and carefully screened supporters with nary a heckler in sight.

Isn't this what we've always been saying?!?!?!

I love this article.
Please rate it a FIVE!!!!!

[Southpaw Bookworm]

55. Raises an interesting thought

What if the president gave a state dinner and no one showed up?!

[Trajan]

53. He has the mental 'bends' ....

The stupidity keeps bubbling up to the surface when he speaks ....

[tuvor]

56. As long as bush doesn't have to accept any blame, that's all that counts.

[Politicub]

62. Some repukes are probably blaming Clinton's weenis

for Bush's poor debate performance. It was blamed for everything else. I bet it's still a factor in their feeble minds.

[sendero]

64. Sorry....

... it is Clinton's penis, you are not allowed to use the term cock here, unless you are referring to fowl :)

[Politicub]

66. I made a slight edit

:)

[Philostopher]

68. I get this creepy feeling ...

that part of Snarlin' Dick's underground bunker is a minutely detailed model of the Oval Office, and if Bush* loses in November, they're just going to whisk him down there and let him pretend he's still preznit until he decides he wants to be something else.

[ThoughtCriminal]

69. The Potemkin Village Idiot

1st Amendment Zones, blocking access to journalists that do their job, clean up by Friends of Poppy...

But what really kills you in a debate is the gap between the real consequences of disastrous policies and propaganda.

[Chicago Democrat]

71. Priceless Truth...

:)

[GoddessOfGuinness]

73. Let's be fair, here...

It's hard. It's so hard. It's very, very harrrrrd!
~whine off~

[truthisfreedom]

74. how f***ing reeee-dickulus can they be about this "bubble?" bush CREATED

the bubble. it has NOTHING to do with terrah, and EVERYTHING to do with bush's inability to deal with reality. why do they pretend like the bubble just "appeared" with this "modern" president? bush isn't a "modern" president. a "modern" president would stay in touch. it's the "modern" thing to do.

[crossroads]

76. Can't he read/see for himself?

Turn on anything cept Faux news that tells him how great he is?
:eyes:

[Polemonium]

79. Myopic? well sure he is, but there are other reasons he stank at debate

First, he's probably one of the dumbest guys to occupy the White House.

Second, he has a failed record that is obvious to anyone who cares to look.

Third, the lies, and the sound bites only get you so far. You can't hide behind them during a 90 minute debate.

Fourth, he has taken more vacation than any US President in history. So not only does he insulate himself from the truth, but he doesn't care.

etc. There clearly are tousands of these www.thousandreasons.org and they will continue to catch up with him the longer he has to answer questions.

[loyalsister]

80. dammit dammit dammit!!

It's not the stupidity- It's the NARCISSISM! It's about his inability to tolerate criticism. He's about to self destruct because he's finally getting criticism face to face- IN FRONT OF CROWDS OF PEOPLE!
He acts like a first class arrogant jerk when he begins to fear the possibility that he is in a room full of people who might not agree with him. Not agreeing with him is a massive insult.
Notice how he frequently mentions "differences of opinion." He has probably been coached to try to downgrade anything that starts to piss him off to that and ignore it as an insignificant factor. But he still gets mad if it feels like criticism. He's a big baby, and he was totally losing it in the debate.
All Kerry has to do is keep baiting him this way, and it throws him way off balance. If Kerry were to twist it just right, he could get him to go into a rage or something.
His handlers knew better than to ever put him in that position. It was unavoidable now. I'm sure they gave him some lessons and coached him and are just hoping for the best. Notice how they aren't even counting on him to perform. They're just using the debates as airtime for repetition\propagandistic purposes. "It's hard work." had a purpose.
I bet there will be a "family values" type of line soon.

[progressivebydesign]

81. Utter Bullshit. Two words: BILL CLINTON!!!

Clinton stayed totally in touch, totally aware, and could speak at length (without earpiece, cue cards, teleprompter) on a variety of international, economic, and social, issues at any time during his presidency.

We MUST fight that excuse Bush's handlers are putting forth. Bush has NO excuse to be so out of touch, incurious, and uninformed.

Bill O'Rielley was trying to push that idea on Daily SHow today, saying that presidents are "just too busy to read", and would "know nothing about outsourcing". Really? Clinton knew about everything.. and he was MUCH MUCH more involved in his job than Bush is.

It's a lameass excuse for Bush's inability to perform his job, and his disinterest in it. Clinton did not have other people read newspapers for him, briefings, and other materials. This excuse needs to be fought.. not accepted.

[moondoggie]

83. I've been looking for a thread to tie this to, this looks good

This is part of a larger collage I call "Stone Soup". Some of you who travel cyber space may have seen this "somewhere else". Anyway, here goes...

President 9 Iron

1. It's gone way beyond politics. Bush's failures are epic in scope and a disaster of historic proportions, likely marking the beginning of the end for this great nation of ours. As for Bush himself, an arrogant boor in perception and fact to his peers in the global community, a mere Stooge, an incompetent, a torturer and a liar, but one who thinks he is Winston Churchill, he is delusional, a dyslexic, ungrammatical, linguistically challenged, inarticulate to incoherent, a shallow, confused and inauthentic in manner (now watch this drive) simpleton whose inadequate schooling in the Gospels has convinced him that the Lord God is guiding his every move, even when those incompetent, lying, torturing "moves" as Warrior Chosen by God to crusade for freedom for Halliburton to reign and his other corporate friends to profiteer from conflict and the limitless sacrifices of the children of the lower middle class and uncounted thousands and thousands of Iraqi collaterally damaged dead break the Lord's own commandments. His failure is measured in the blood and lives of our young people and uncounted billions and billions borrowed from our grandchildren. Bush has lost all moral and political credibility to salvage his disastrous policies and everything Bush and the American right wing does forwards bin Laden's agenda. The rest of the world has argued publicly and privately that the unipolar world order of the last superpower is inherently unstable, unfair and dangerous yet arrogantly and very shortsightedly the US has repeatedly acted with violence to extend and secure its economic and political interests, in Latin America for over a century, and throughout the globe after World War II, and by being more concerned with the projection of American power than with disarmament, democracy or human rights validating that message and getting a bloody nose on the political, moral, military and economic fronts for our effort.

[moondoggie]

84. 2. The irreducible truth is that

the invasion of Iraq, widely understood by informed observers globally as an avaricious, premeditated, preconceived unprovoked , reckless and preposterous “discretionary” aggression against a nation that posed no immediate threat to us whatsoever to set up a client state for US ends, especially oil, is “the supreme international crime containing within itself the accumulated evil of the whole” (Nuremberg Tribunal), the worst blunder, the most staggering miscarriage of judgment, and the most fateful, egregious, deceitful abuse of power in the history of American foreign policy costing untold lives as the sands of Iraq soak up the blood, strengthening al-Qaida and breeding a new generation of terrorists. Bush will aggressively and brazenly assert forever that Saddam was in cahoots with al-Qaida, that there were weapons of mass destruction, and that his war with Iraq is all about doing God's work and spreading freedom. There were no WMDs; Saddam was a minor, local threat at best; and there was no link between Iraq and al-Qaeda.and President 9 Iron and Vice President Halliburton deliberately ignored warnings from international intelligence services, the CIA and the Pentagon before the Iraq war that their claim of a link between al-Qaida and Saddam was false. There can be no recompense for the lives wasted in service to the fantasies of George Bush and his handlers.

[moondoggie]

85. 3. As Bush's actions have clearly weakened America and placed the nation

, and as the U.S. ruling class almost certainly prefers a sane emperor over a ham-handed insane one to help camouflage robbing the world's have-nots under a politically more palatable version, and as the American people have now born witness to the most extreme extra-Constitutional and anti-Constitutional policies in modern history, and as Bush learned from his own legal counsel that the President can cancel any laws he wants, for the sake of the Nation and our posterity Bush & Co. along with the associate toxic combination of God rhetoric, money, cronyism and severe 'moral' hierarchy (how else do you justify being allies with Pakistan without your goddamn head exploding from cognitive dissonance) that poses a real threat of fascism for our nation must be quickly and Constitutionally retired from office before they take the opportunity to suspend the Constitution and cancel the election sine die.

[Kinkistyle]

86. He's been a bubble his whole life.

Thats the problem. Bush was born and raised in a bubble of ignorance and priviledge. Thats why he is unfit to be president. It has nothing to do with the office and everything to do with the man himself.

[Tight_rope]

87. The "bubble" my ass....Bush* is just a dumbass idiot...plain and simple!

[Swamp Rat]

89. Anyone who watches the F9/11 DVD extra footage of Bush's press

conference must conclude that his brain is mush.

[DFWJock]

90. "Bubble"

vodka, dropped as a baby, lack of working brain cells, whatever, the man is a world class idiot.

[robbedvoter]

91. But, but, but....I thought he won - media sez so....confused now

[SayitAintSo]

93. Why the press has continued to protect him is beyond me

The tone of this article is still "Bush Apologist" in nature, making excuses for his poor debating skills. Blows my mind ....

[Barkley]

96. Bubble Trouble?

Nah, its 'stupid white men and other sorry excuses for the state of the nation'.

I don't see the connection between increased security and the ability to answer questions and not repeat the Carl Rove one-liners over and over during the debate

If anything, keeping hecklers and those who disagree away should help your debating skills.

Bush has all the protection in the world; he should feel safer and perform better than average.

Why does the media keep making excuses for his incompetence?