Presidenting is haaarrrrdd!
Do you remember that Saturday Night Live
sketch from shortly after Bush was appointed by the Supreme
Court? Bush was having a hard time nailing down the hard
complexities of the hard job before him.
And he cried, “Presidenting is haaaaarrrrrrrddddd!”
Well, this came in from Andrew Smith, Democratic candidate for Iowa House in District 40 (Tama and Grundy counties).
Andrew writes: It’s
kind of a cheap shot to poke fun at Bush’s vocabulary, or lack thereof,
but I took the debate transcript and cut and pasted each sentence where
Bush said some variation of the word “Hard” Thursday night and put it
into one paragraph. I count 20 times Bush used some variation of the
word “Hard.”
Well, it
may be a cheap shot, Andrew, but Blog for Iowa has never had any qualms
about taking cheap shots. Especially when it's so much fun.
See below.
BUSH: It's hard work. It's incredibly hard. It's the hardest decision a president makes. There's a lot of good people working hard. There's a lot of really good people working hard to do so. It's hard work. And it's hard work. I understand how hard it is. I see on the TV screens how hard it is. The plan says we'll train Iraqi soldiers so they can do the hard work, and we are. It is hard work. It is hard work to go from a tyranny to a democracy.
[Cough, cough. Sorry. Had
to take a break there when Bush said it is hard work to go from “a
tyranny to a democracy.” BFIA]
BUSH: It's hard work to go from a place where people get…executed, to a place where people are free. You know, my hardest — the hardest
part of the job is to know that I committed the troops in harm's way
and then do the best I can to provide comfort for the loved ones who
lost a son or a daughter or a husband or wife. You know, it's hard
work to try to love her as best as I can, knowing full well that the
decision I made caused her loved one to be in harm's way. It's hard work. Everybody knows it's hard work, because there's a determined enemy that's trying to defeat us. I understand how hard it is to commit troops. Vladimir is going to have to make some hard choices.
20 times.
['Member the time 4 years ago when Bush called the President of Mexico “a man that I know?” That was awesome.]
And just a few more zingers from the Woodbury County Dems website:
“The
first presidential debate is Thursday in Florida. I think it’s Bush’s
way of saying thank-you for that last crooked election.”
–David Letterman
“Everyone
is talking about the ground rules. Kerry wants his podium to be tall
enough so he can rest his hands. And Bush wants it to be wide
enough to hide Dick Cheney.”
–Conan O’Brien
“I tell you, Bush is working very hard getting prepared for these debates. He got one of those ‘Hooked on Phonics’ tapes.”
–Jay Leno
Blog For Iowa 