I've been trying to figure it out, but I have to ask...

[Goldom]

Being rather new around here, I've been trying to figure for a while now, but I'm gonna just have to give up and ask-

Why does everyone ammend/replace Bush's name with an *? Is it supposed to mean something? *confused*

[HereSince1628]

1. in the record books Bush's presidency will be noted with a *

an indication that he was appointed rather than elected.

[madmax]

2. Welcome to DU Goldom

:hi:

[Stephanie]

3. also, it somehow relates to baseball.

:shrug:

[proud patriot]

4. Welcome Underground

Also Doonesbury replaced bush with * in his cartoons

"All hat and no cattle"

[bobthedrummer]

5. Alternative explanation

* is a literary device to signify an asshole, an anus, where the sun doesn't shine etc. which was used by Kurt Vonnegut or Philip K. Dick.
BTW, welcome to DU:hi:

[lcordero]

6. the baseball connection was that when Roger Maris

broke Babe Ruth's homerun record an asterisk was attached to his record because of the longer season.

[ochazuke]

7. The question has been asked several times,

And there are basically two answers:

• One is that it's like a sports statistic that is in dispute

• The other is that it stems from the dissenting opinion in Bush v. Gore, in which one of the justices said that Bush would have an asterisk next to his name in the history book because the validity of his election was questionable.

I think the second explanation is correct. Try googling "Bush asterisk".

[BeFree]

8. And it''s better by far

To just hit shift+8 instead of typing the sob's name.

Plus.. there are a few of us who just hate to see his name