Mandela still alive, despite embarrassing Bush remark

[brettdale]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4210463a12.html

In a speech defending his administration's Iraq policy, Bush said former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's brutality had made it impossible for a unifying leader to emerge and stop the sectarian violence that has engulfed the Middle Eastern nation.

"I heard somebody say, Where's Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas," Bush, who has a reputation for verbal faux pas, said in a press conference in Washington

[robcon]

1. It was an analogy. He didn't say Mandela was dead.

The idiot-in-chief thought he was being an intellectual.

[Delphinus]

2. I guess I don't see it ...

I read the linked article, but don't see where the boy king was using it as an analogy.

[Ravy]

3. He was using "Mandela" as a generic name for unifying individual. nt

[kansasblue]

9. I agree. He may not have been clear but I understood what he met.

I think it's wrong to say Sadam killed them. Sadam wanted and kept peace in his country during his rule.

[tanyev]

4. He can barely say the word analogy, but I do think that was his intention.

Only a few fragments of his twisted thought process managed to audibly escape his mouth.

[Kingshakabobo]

8. You are probably correct.... but why can't we play intentionally obtuse.....

.....like the repigs did with the "Kerry joke"?

[MiniMe]

13. Actually, he did say that. Here is the exact quote

from the Whitehouse.gov website. Now, did he mean that there was nobody like Mandela because Saddam killed them all? Probably. But he did say that Mandela is dead.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/09/20070920-2.html


Part of the reason why there is not this instant democracy in Iraq is because people are still recovering from Saddam Hussein's brutal rule. I thought an interesting comment was made when somebody said to me, I heard somebody say, where's Mandela? Well, Mandela is dead, because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas. He was a brutal tyrant that divided people up and split families, and people are recovering from this. So there's a psychological recovery that is taking place. And it's hard work for them. And I understand it's hard work for them. Having said that, I'm not going the give them a pass when it comes to the central government's reconciliation efforts.

[KG]

5. you know what happened: he was told to use this analogy, they probably rehersed it several

times, and he still fucked it up at the presser, causes he a fuckin idiot.

[valerief]

6. That sounds like the most plausible explanation to me! nt

[valerief]

7. Maybe it's time for "speechifiers" to use the phrase "Bush is dead". Generically, of course.

Over and over and over and over and over and over and over until it couldn't be ignored. It would be interesting to see how that meme would fly.

[democrat in Tallahassee]

10. Al Gore during the debates said he toured the fires in Texas

which he actually did and he was crucified for it. Do you see a double standard here?

[Cha]

11. Verbal faux pas are the least of

this country's fucking problems with fucking bush.

How about lying his way into war with the corporate media whores backing him up? How about that for a major..what are we calling it? Faux Pas?

[WinkyDink]

12. He was making an analogy---to US--but HE probably DOES think NM is dead!

It's a two-fer!