July 21, 2006
NYC Letter: W Swears, The Press Tut-Tuts
Oh, dear, Mr. Bush has been caught out on an open mike. This is the big story the MSM is reporting out of the recent G8 summit.
What the press and the left, I repeat myself, are swooning and fainting away about is Mr. Bush holding forth on Israel taking it to Hizballah.
Mr. Bush to Tony Blair: See the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s over.
We should point out that Mr. Kofi Annan has never been caught swearing in front of an open mike.
And while the press and the left, I repeat myself, pretend shock and snicker up their sleeves, well, we couldn't agree with Mr. Bush more.
The Telegraph first sneers...
GEORGE W SLIPS UP AT G8
ST PETERSBURG July 18, 2006 (Telegraph)
...then takes the high road of the page six tease.
SLIP-UP REVEALS BUSH AND BLAIR'S GOSSIP SECRETS
ST PETERSBURG July 18, 2006 (Telegraph) - A chat between George W Bush and Tony Blair was recorded at yesterday's closing lunch at the G8 summit. As he munches on a bread roll Mr Bush confides:"What they need to do is get Syria to get Hizbollah to stop doing this shit, and it's over." It is unclear who "they" are.
The they seems pretty clear to us. It is the same they that thinks all solutions start with Israel stopping. Murderous adversaries will follow in kind, inspired by Israel's stretching its neck out for peace. That is the they to whom Mr. Bush refers. Happy to clear things up.
Mr Bush also appeared unconvinced by the approach of the UN Secretary General. "What about Kofi Annan? I don't like the sequence of it," the president said. "His attitude is basically ceasefire and everything else happens."
Mr. Annan, the very they we spoke of.
We should also point out that Mr. Annan has never been caught conversing with his mouth full of bread roll.
Posted by Damian at July 21, 2006 09:00 AMPeople's reaction to that slip is just another example of putting form over content. The "image is everything" world.
Pretty silly, really, when you stop and think about it.
Posted by: gp at July 21, 2006 07:43 PMSorry, forgot another point:
Note Blair's reaction: Nothing. Note anyone else in the room, some of whom doubtless could have heard the comment: Again, nothing.
Frankly, it's refreshing to hear one of the world leaders talking in the way that people in general often actually talk. It's a straight ahead conversation between two people discussing an issue. To pretend that the occasionaly profanity doesn't slip into conversations like that from time to time is hypocritical.
Posted by: gp at July 21, 2006 07:49 PMYears ago a blunt, plain speaking man sat in the Oval Office. "Give 'em Hell" Harry Truman of Missouri. The media didn't fall into a swoon over his direct and at times, naughty, turn of phrase.
To borrow from the governor of California, when did the media become a bunch of girly-men?
The last 35-years or so. War correspondences filing their stories from Mahoghony Ridge.
Posted by: interventor at July 23, 2006 09:41 PM
