It’s like President Bush isn’t even trying to sound smart anymore:
In a speech defending his administration’s Iraq policy, Bush said former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s brutality had made it impossible for a unifying leader to emerge and stop the sectarian violence that has engulfed the Middle Eastern nation.
“I heard somebody say, Where’s Mandela?’ Well, Mandela’s dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas,” Bush, who has a reputation for verbal faux pas, said in a press conference in Washington on Thursday.
Mandela and his peeps issued a statement asserting the former South African president and liberationist, is in fact, very much alive.
Gregoire
Admittedly, I thought he was dead too. However, I’m not a world leader nor do I have a camera in my face broadcasting my words to millions of people.
EdWoody
It’s a shame, it really is.
EdWoody
^^^ I should clarify – not a shame that Mandela’s alive – it’s a shame that Bush still keeps fucking it up.
Matt
Oh god I never thought it would come to this, but I have to defend the idiot-in-chief. It’s pretty clear from the context of what he said that he was bumbling toward analogy– “Where are all the [Iraqi] Mandelas?” [i.e., Mandela-like unifying, visionary leaders, such as we do not ourselves have in Washington] “All the [Iraqi] Mandelas are dead b/c Sadaam killed them.” Doesn’t make him less of a dumbass, but the statement isn’t all that stupid. And it’s really a stretch to read it as if he’s saying Nelson Mandela himself has cooled. I need to go wash my hands now…
hisurfer
I agree with Matt – the logic is stupid, but he didn’t say that Mandela was dead. He used “Mandela” as an descriptive term … “all the Mandelas are dead” is quite different than “Nelson Mandela is dead.”
Since I prefer to spread dirt than wash my hands, I’ll offer this for my penance for defending the man: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=TLFMDJWVNUJI1QFIQMGCFGGAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2007/09/21/wbush121.xml
abelincoln
Bushie either needs to get some new speech writers or to stop making off-the-cuff remarks.
I noticed in the article that hisurfer made a link to that Bushie says his feelings aren’t hurt that his former aides are saying they don’t like him. The sign of a true sociopath or at the very least a cold hearted imbecile.
afrolito
Bush is not good off the cuff. He needs constant supervision 24/7. The dumbfuck probably needs Laura to hold his peen at the urinal.
Honeymaid
I’m sorry afrolito, did you say “not good off the cuff?” I could have sworn he was NEVER good.
SeaFlood
Matt,
Then the statement becomes *ignorant* and Mandela’s response even more genius. You see, “Mandela” is not a person anymore in this discourse, but an idea, an image of a person who can unite his people and lead them towards another goal. Saddam can’t kill that. Saddam can only kill people, but he cannot kill that spirit of “Mandela”… as Mandela says, “I’m still alive.” (Well… not literally… but… ‘for sake.’)