Culture

George Bush: One Word, Gets a Thousand Looks.

by Barry Artiste | September 8, 2007 at 03:14 am

664 views | 7 Recommendations | 4 comments

You know, sometimes this stuff just writes itself.

Perhaps proof Politicians Open Mouth, before engaging Brain.

I think Bush should have just stated "Look, how about we start all over again okay"? Hi, I'm Quagmire!

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA -- President George W. Bush had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at the Sydney Opera House.

He'd only reached the third sentence of yesterday's speech to business leaders, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC), when he committed his first gaffe.

"Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit," Bush said to Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

Oops. That would be APEC, the annual meeting of leaders from 21 Pacific Rim nations, not OPEC, the cartel of 12 major oil producers.

Bush quickly corrected himself. "APEC summit," he said forcefully, joking that Howard had invited him to the OPEC summit next year (for the record, an impossibility, since neither Australia nor the U.S. are OPEC members).

The president's next goof went uncorrected -- by him anyway. Talking about Howard's visit to Iraq last year to thank his country's soldiers serving there, Bush called them "Austrian troops."

That one was fixed for him. The official text released by the White House switched "Austrian" to "Australian."

Speech done, Bush confidently headed out the wrong way. He strode away on a path that would have sent him over a steep drop. Howard and others redirected the president.

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Barry Artiste

at 09:45 on September 8th, 2007

Thnks Moonwolf, you know for all his faults, it is suprising how many gaffes he can make in one speech. These no word whether his remarks were off the cuff or in a prepared speech. If it was a prepared speech then somebody will be coming home on another plane and looking for a job.

Of course Bush is not alone, do you all remeber Prime Minister Chretiens trip to visit the troops in Bosnia a decade ago. I Remember laughing hysterically when he was giving a speech to the troops dressed in military combats, while wearing his Combat helmet on backwards, I think his bodyguard the JT-2 did iot to him as a Joke, they must have peed their drawers laughing when standing beside him. The troops thought it was hilarious at the Prime Ministers expense.

matte

at 17:38 on September 8th, 2007

just shows what a joke Bush is.

Interestingly, he has been making all sorts of supportive comments of John Howard - like calling him a "man of steel" because there is a n election coming up.. Given the almost universal dislike of Bush and everything he stands for I reckon Howard would have been muttering under his breath "Shut up GW, shut up!" - nothing like putting the nail in the electoral coffin like having someone like Bush at your side!!