On Being Presidential

0 Comments:

So I'm sitting in Starbucks this morning, sipping my daily venti caramel macchiato while perusing today's Washington Post, when I read something that made coffee go down the wrong pipe.

…from "Blair Declined Offer for Noncombat Role for British"…

After the meeting, Bush walked into the conference room where Alastair Campbell, the prime minister's communications director, and several other Blair aides were waiting."

Your man has got cojones," the president said, using a colloquial Spanish term for courage.

The President recalled, "And of course these Brits don’t know what cojones are." He said he would call the Camp David session with Blair "the cojones meeting."

Um. There's so many things that are wrong with this that I hardly know where to begin. At the very least...

1. That's a very delicate translation of "cojones";
2. The Brits definitely know what they are because they have a better educational system and it's a common slang term; and finally
3. What was he thinking when he dubbed a high level meeting something akin to the "twig and berries" convention?

How does one simultaneously insult our oldest allies' intelligence and military prowess? Aaargh! So we should add another quote to the Dubya collection, which already includes such dazzling insights as:

"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?" (01/11/00)

"Will the highways on the Internet become more few?" (01/29/00)

 

Show all posts