From an article in today’s Guardian:
[...]
Meanwhile Mr Bush, already under pressure for the impression that he has been unable to empathise with the poor, mainly black victims of the disaster, was not helped by remarks made by his mother, Barbara, after touring a relief centre in Texas.
“What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality,” Mrs Bush told the Public Broadcasting Service. “And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.”
Nice one Marie-Therese!
September 7th, 2005 at 8:56 am
It was Marie-Antoinette who allegedly made the “let them eat pie” statement and it is not clear that she really ever made such a remark.
Even so there were no blogs at her time, there was still political bias …
September 7th, 2005 at 8:57 am
Yes, she is definitely an insensitive idiot.
How many people in texas and elsewhere feel the same way she does? Thats the real problem..
September 7th, 2005 at 9:27 am
> Yes, she is definitely an insensitive idiot.
Definitely ?
The way I read Mark’s post one should first check the source and context of her statement; Like the “let them eat pie” statement of Marie-Antoinette.
It does not take a blogoshpere to twist words, change meaning and add political bias …
(But wait a second, I really don’t care about Barbara Bush’s opinions so why would I waste any time on this ?)
September 7th, 2005 at 9:32 am
Well, this is a related article from New York Times, which has also an audio file attached:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/07/national/nationalspecial/07barbara.html
and
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/audio/national/barbara_bush.mp3
September 7th, 2005 at 9:40 am
Even more, the source of this all:
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2005/09/05/PM200509051.html
September 7th, 2005 at 10:19 am
iso – click on my Marie-Therese link. That’s why I didn’t write Marie Antoinette.
September 7th, 2005 at 10:55 am
Mark,
thank you for the suggestion. I did click on the link when reading your post and thus my remarks. (But I would not trust about.com and instead refer to the biography written by Stefan Zweig).
The “let them eat pie” stories were used to discredit Marie-Antoinette and circulated by her political enemies. Meanwhile it is clear that she probably never made such a statement.
In the case of Barabara Bush my main question would be why I should care about her opinions in the first place.
Will we investigate the parents and grandparents of politicians from now on (while
Republicans investigate their sex life) ?
September 7th, 2005 at 11:25 am
Will we investigate the parents and grandparents of politicians from now on (while Republicans investigate their sex life) ?
Quoting her is not investigating her. She said something incredibly stupid, and it’s been reported. Make of it what you will. (Personally, I think it explains W., since Bush-41 was never obviously an imbecile.)
Bear in mind also that she is the former First Lady. She’s not just the President’s mother.
September 7th, 2005 at 11:59 am
It’s just a dumb comment by someone in the public eye and also one that casts some light on why our current President shows such a disconnect fom the experiences of the people most affected in New Orleans.
September 7th, 2005 at 12:14 pm
Am I the only one to notice that Barbara Bush is an exceptionally ugly woman?
And she’s not particularly good looking either.
September 7th, 2005 at 8:32 pm
I think it was pretty funny really. Like all those people who said: “It’s terrible! Louisiana looks like a 3rd world country!” Thing is, it looked like a 3rd world country even before the hurricane!
September 7th, 2005 at 9:40 pm
“Am I the only one to notice that Barbara Bush is an exceptionally ugly woman?”
I don’t see what her looks have to do with anything, as much as I dislike the Bushies and find her comments reprehensible.