There are very few things that people in this country can agree on.  One train of thought that does get heads nodding in unison is that things aren’t good and they’re getting worse every day.  Seeing as this is an election year, you’d think we might see hope on the horizon, but I fear that there is little anyone can do to right the listing ship.

People have the tendency to blame the president for all the country’s problems, but we need to remember that the president is not the king and didn’t “cause” all the problems we are currently experiencing – but he certainly had his fingers in the pie.  I try to stay away from politics in these weekly essays, but sometimes you simply can’t avoid it.  With gas prices topping $3.50 per gallon and home heating oil threatening to break $4.00 per gallon, I start getting scared about where this is all leading – and I look for someone to blame.

I voted for Bush in 2000.  After seeing the mess he made in the following years, I figured “he started it, he needs to finish it” in 2004 and gave him a second nod.   I suppose, looking back, I should have shaken my head instead.

Since day one, I didn’t have a strong sense of confidence when I listened to him speak.  Watching him take the stage for his acceptance speech on election night, I saw him walk out with a “cat who ate the canary” look on his pig-eyed face.  I then watched him wink at this person or that as he stood there smiling like an idiot.  When he opened his mouth, it only got worse.  After the 9/11 attacks, his speech changed for the worse.  He started stalling and second-guessing his words before he spoke them.  He tripped over his own tongue more times than I could count and he started using words like “nucular”.  My only hope was that he surrounded himself with smart people.  He did.  Unfortunately, those “smart people” were not exceptionally interested in the fate of US citizens and far too interested in increasing profits for their own companies. 

George W. Bush is not a brilliant man.  He is not a great speaker, a great thinker or a great president.  That says a lot about those of us who voted him into office.  However, what speaks the loudest about his incompetence is Georgie himself.  It started long before the election and it’s not good:

"If the East Timorians decide to revolt, I'm sure I'll have a statement."—Quoted by Maureen Dowd in the New York Times, June 16, 1999

"The important question is, how many hands have I shaked?"—Answering a question about why he hasn't spent more time in New Hampshire, in the New York Times, Oct. 23, 1999

"I read the newspaper."—In answer to a question about his reading habits, New Hampshire Republican Debate, Dec. 2, 1999

"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"—Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000

"I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family."—Greater Nashua, N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan. 27, 2000

"This is Preservation Month. I appreciate preservation. It's what you do when you run for president. You gotta preserve."—Speaking during "Perseverance Month" at Fairgrounds Elementary School in Nashua, N.H. As quoted in the Los Angeles Times, Jan. 28, 2000

"Will the highways on the Internet become more few?"—Concord, N.H., Jan. 29, 2000

"I do not agree with this notion that somehow if I go to try to attract votes and to lead people toward a better tomorrow somehow I get subscribed to some—some doctrine gets subscribed to me."—Meet The Press, Feb. 13, 2000

"How do you know if you don't measure if you have a system that simply suckles kids through?"—Explaining the need for educational accountability in Beaufort, S.C., Feb. 16, 2000

"The senator has got to understand if he's going to have—he can't have it both ways. He can't take the high horse and then claim the low road."—To reporters in Florence, S.C., Feb. 17, 2000

"I understand small business growth. I was one."—New York Daily News, Feb. 19, 2000

"It is not Reaganesque to support a tax plan that is Clinton in nature.''—Los Angeles, Feb. 23, 2000

"Reading is the basics for all learning."—Announcing his "Reading First" initiative in Reston, Va., March 28, 2000

"I was raised in the West. The west of Texas. It's pretty close to California. In more ways than Washington, D.C., is close to California."—In Los Angeles as quoted by the Los Angeles Times, April 8, 2000

"Laura and I really don't realize how bright our children is sometimes until we get an objective analysis."—CNBC, April 15, 2000

"I hope we get to the bottom of the answer. It's what I'm interested to know."—On what happened in negotiations between the Justice Department and Elián González's Miami relatives, as quoted by the Associated Press, April 26, 2000

"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."--Reuters, May 5, 2000

"I think anybody who doesn't think I'm smart enough to handle the job is underestimating."—U.S. News & World Report, April 3, 2000

"States should have the right to enact reasonable laws and restrictions particularly to end the inhumane practice of ending a life that otherwise could live."—Cleveland, June 29, 2000

"This case has had full analyzation and has been looked at a lot. I understand the emotionality of death penalty cases."--Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 23, 2000

"I want you to know that farmers are not going to be secondary thoughts to a Bush administration. They will be in the forethought of our thinking."—Salinas, Calif., Aug. 10, 2000

Unfortunately, due to space constraints, I am forced to stop here and I haven’t even reached the day of his election.  I didn’t include all the idiotic quotes I could find, either – again, lack of space for such a vast collection of stupidity.  Fear not, faithful reader, I will continue my list at a later time – and as long as “W” is in office and in the public eye, he will continue to provide me with plenty of his verbally and conceptually brilliant moments.