‘You look mighty comfortable’

May 10, 2006

The AP ran a report last night on [tag]Bush[/tag] visiting [tag]Florida[/tag] to tout his Medicare prescription drug plan. It was mostly boilerplate stuff, with one exception.

He stopped by Broward Community College, where government officials set up tents and tables with laptops to help dozens of seniors there choose among the myriad plan options available.

Bush visited with some waiting in a courtyard where Frank Sinatra’s “Young At Heart” played on the loudspeakers, then he went indoors where people were looking over the laptops. He walked around giving handshakes and hugs to those who rose for his entrance, and greeted a man who remained sitting in a [tag]wheelchair[/tag] with, “You look mighty [tag]comfortable[/tag].” (emphasis added)

Now, I realize the president was probably kidding. For all I know, the senior citizen laughed.

But I have to wonder what on earth Bush was thinking. Maybe the president has never had a friend or family member confined to a wheelchair, but as a rule, noting how “comfortable” they look is rarely a friendly way to start a conversation.

Bush can be a mean-spirited, snide SOB, and I think that is what’s happening here. Here’s how I read it: Most able-bodied people rose to greet him with respect and he responded warmly. Bush sees a guy who can’t stand (or wouldn’t, who knows?) and takes it as an insult. So he responds with a bitchy, small-minded comment.

What a f***ing jerk.

  • Does anyone ever wonder if there is more to his inappropriate comments than just stupidity/insensitivity? Some of what he does/says just seems bizzare.

    from Wikipedia:
    People with Asperger syndrome lack the natural ability to see the subtexts of social interaction (sometimes resulting in well-meaning remarks that may offend and so on, finding it hard to know what is “acceptable”) and also tend to lack the ability to broadcast their own emotional state.Non-autistics, often called neurotypicals, are able to gather a host of information about other people’s cognitive and emotional states based on clues gleaned from the environment and the other person’s facial expression and body language, but people with Asperger syndrome have an impairment in this ability, sometimes called mind-blindness. To be mind-blind is to find it difficult or even impossible to figure out things a person implies but does not say directly (more colloquially, to “read between the lines”). This is not because they cannot imagine the answer but because they cannot choose between the possibilities; the mind-blind person cannot reliably gather enough information to do so or does not know how to interpret the information that they do gather.

    Along with this difficulty in reading the nonverbal communication of others, most people with Asperger’s have difficulty expressing their own emotional state via body language, facial expression, and nuances as most people do. ome such people have emotional responses as strong as, or perhaps stronger than, those of most people, although what generates an emotional response might not always be the same; the difficulty is in expressing these feelings, although it sometimes comes across as lacking them. Some make very little eye contact because they find it overwhelming, whereas others have unmodulated, staring eye contact that can cause discomfort to other people. Similarly, the use of gestures may be almost nonexistent or may seem exaggerated and differ from what would normally be considered appropriate for a situation.

  • NOW they decide to help senior citizens with their drug plans? Couldn’t have done this, oh, a YEAR ago?

  • This reminded me of a story that came out prior to the 2004 election. Bush had a woman onstage during a campaign appearance and the woman said she was working 3 jobs to make ends meet, Bush responded with “how uniquely American.”

    Bush displays a complete lack of empathy, that borders on contempt, for other human beings.

  • First of all, the line about “seniors at a community college” threw me.

    Second, I agree with prm (#1): Bush really is “a mean-spirited, snide SOB” and may well have been rebuking the “lazy slob” for “being comfortable” in His august presence.

    Third, I’m truly amazed that He didn’t call the on Praetorian Guard, er Secret Service, to perp-march the obviously protesting wheelchaired citizen out of the tent. Maybe his sedative drugs interfered with his usual instinct for vengence toward ingrates.

  • I’m sure Bush just thought his presence would, through his divinity, heal all of their ailments and they would swear fealty to him and kneel at his feet.

    Sometimes I think that’s how his mind works becuase his socially inept upbringing has left him so out of touch with modern America.

    It’s sad really. His behavior obviously illustrates a child who was left behind.

  • “You look mighty comfortable.”

    I have a feeling W. heard that an awful lot himself over the years as he sat serenely watching those around him do the heavy lifting.

  • I do this all the time. It shows people who don’t know me that I am “folksie.” I like to walk into AA meetings and start off by picking someone out and saying “You look like you could use a drink.” I go up to strangers at the all you can eat buffet, and ask the fattest person at the table if they would like to “suck the remaining meat off the rib bones on my plate.” I just don’t see what all the hubbub is about.

  • Even more interesting news coming out of Florida::

    President Bush suggested Wednesday that he’d like to see his family’s White House legacy continue, perhaps with his younger brother Jeb as the chief executive.

    The president said Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is well-suited for another office and would make ”a great president.”

    ”I would like to see Jeb run at some point in time, but I have no idea if that’s his intention or not,” Bush said in an interview with Florida reporters, according to an account on the St. Petersburg Times Web site.

    The president said he had ”pushed him fairly hard about what he intends to do,” but Jeb has not said.

    Given Bush’s approval ratings I don’t think there is a snowballs chance in hell that Jeb could win the White House. However I think W. is concerned that the next President could shine a some light on his misdeeds.

  • Carpetbagger, the reference is obvious. NOBODY sits in the presence of a King…

  • Shrub was probably just being the asshole he is, but he also may have been attempting Noblesse Oblige, in his own ham-handed way. The quote says that everyone else was standing up to shake his hand. Obviously, the guy in the wheelchair can’t do that. Being and old-timer and very likely a southerner too, he’s going to feel a bit self-conscious about not “properly” greeting Shrubbie– politeness counts ina large part of the country and in the older demographics. So this may have been Shrubbie’s attempted humorous way of acknowledging that the old guy is “excused” from his social obligation to stand up.

    Still, Shrub has inherited his “mother’s tongue”– a reflexive habit of nasty wisecracks and smartassed comments. “Babs” is well-known to be a complete bitch. Shrub is her natural successor. He has used this technique his whole life to get “one-up” on people– to immediately set them on their heels and establish himself as the dominant player. He makes up insulting names for them, calls them by their first names without first asking their permission, immediately and instinctively zooms in on whatever weakness he sees in people, and calls attention to it in order to subtly humiliate them. Like his habit of patting the head of bald guys, pointing out he’s richer and more powerful than Ph.D’s, etc. It’s a habit, a tic, to poke at everyone’s weaknesses and thus set himself up as the dominant ape. Of course the first thing he noticed about the guy was that he was disabled– and instinctively a joke about it.

    I used to work with a guy who just couldn’t control himself and did this all the time; he had been a frat boy and his sharp-tongued habit served him well in holding his own in a world of rich, competitive assholes– much like the world Shrub dominates.

  • Mr. Furious, marcus a a, and goatchowder have articulated my thoughts about this little annecdote. Gary Trudeau was at Yale with W. He once said in an interview that the Bush family was always deep into the “noblesse oblige” narrative. However, by the time the generations reached W, it was pretty much “all noblesse and no oblige.” The President is a toad of the first order, and, although I don’t like to do it, I blame his mother. After all, the free transportation to Houston and the posh accommodations at the shelters “worked out well” for all those Katrina victims.

  • Well as someone who spent two months in a wheelchair last year after a pelvic fracture, I know how I’d respond to such nonsense: “You ought to try it sometime.” I wouldn’t wish being wheelchair bound on my worst enemy, but this sort of stupidity cannot go unanswered.

    Our poor spoiled child/President doesn’t have the slightest appreciation for something as little as being able to walk. I sure have learned to appreciate being able to walk normally and without pain today after a spending several months experiencing some alternatives. Fifty years ago I probably would never have walked again.

  • “Bush sees a guy who can’t stand (or wouldn’t, who knows?) and takes it as an insult. So he responds with a bitchy, small-minded comment.” – prm

    Reminds me of an episode of the West Wing where Bartlett walks into a room, notices a noted conservative columnist sitting and eating, and starts to engage her in a conversation about the sinfulness of homosexuality. She of course quotes Leviticus, and they are off to the races as Bartlett throws quote after quote at her about slavery (he asks how much he could get for selling Zoe into slavery, as allowed in Leviticus), working on the Sabbath, wearing fabric of two different materials, and planting mixed crops. Finally having the woman totally stunned, he explains that when the president walks into the room, everybody stands up.

    I suppose this is Boy George II’s best attempt to be clever like Jeb Bartlett. Kind of falls flat. Maybe at some time in the past someone arthritic stood up from their wheelchair, so Boy George II thinks all wheelchair bound can get up if they want to.

  • Perhaps it is not so easily described as mean spirited, but is moreso an example of one who lacks the ability to express social graciousness when experiencing stress. I doubt the president intended anything hurtful or intentionally insensitive. I think he just gets uncomfortable in some situations, and in such contexts he fumbles in his ability to be socially gracious. All though it would be wonderful for a president not to have such a problem, one also does well to ask the question: “what if you or I had said the same thing–even with malice intended–would it make for news, or even be commented on by anyone other than perhaps those people immediately involved. Gosh, who of us do not have snippets in our life experience that if revealed and commented upon would make us look and seem something other than moronic? Do not get me wrong. I am not a Republican or a fan of President Bush. Yet, I cannot stand in judgment regarding him or things he might do. I am more concerned that he has not found the humbleness to admit that the Iraq situation was/is a mistake, publicly seeking forgiveness and the assistance of the United Nations, and becoming part of the re-solution. In all fairness, one cannot know a person by news clips and media revealations. I do not think that President Bush is a mean or intentionally immoral person. I do think, however, that it is very difficult to be in his position and have the ability to take a higher road. After all, whom in such a position, role, or public office has truly confessed their faults and errors and sought to make outward and visible re-solution for what they have done? Oh, yes, now I remember, President Jimmy Carter did. And, oh, they never let him forget it. Who would want to be president of the American people. We are the most difficult people to please, the most harsh of critics, and perhaps the most out of touch with our own flaws (or may it be “so in touch with our own shortcomings”?) that we need to get down on someone else to make ourselves feel better….more powerful….more in control. Let’s face it, the gentleman in the wheelchair, the press agent with the visual challenge, the president mixing with the public, you and I…..we all breath the same air, live under the same sun, come from dust and return to dust. Why not spend each day helping someone to make the world a better place, rather than extoling the energy to criticize and speculate?

    –a minority report, I would think….but then that is ok too!

  • A comment like this reflects his inflated sense of self-importance. He has been told by his “handlers” how poweful and important he is, so he expects every one to react to him as “President” (King). I, for one, who am not in a wheelchair, would not stand for this man, or show any sign of respect normally accorded our Chief Executive. For me it would be a perfect demonstration of the disdain and contempt I have for this man.

  • GDylan speaks eloquently (especially at 1:48am). I agree. Naval gazing at da’boy will cause anyone to lose their lunch (if not their eyesight). We knew what a socially inept guy we were getting when he made that “fat #@*” reporter remark to Dick Cheney during the 2000 election campaign. Only thing is George and his band of “yes” men openly and frequently criticizes their opponents. By being hyper critical of those who disagree with them, they make themselves “fair game” for consistent criticism. To not point out the foibles of the most influential man on Earth is to allow him to criticize with impunity.

  • George was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and it is still there. If he were to live just one day like the rest of us, he would go mad. His compassion is a level 000 and never having done a day of work until he became governor (and that still wasn’t “hard work”) he does not understand the American (merican) people. I hope someone will save us from this maniac who has put us on the road to having a king not a president

  • Read Justin Frank’s book “Bush on the Couch.” Fascinating and a must-read for Shrub-watchers. According to Frank, our prez is, among other things, a sadist, which would not only explain this incident, but others. For example, he has made fun of prisoners on death row asking for clemency: “Oh please don’t kill me,” said in a whiny voice. I am soooo proud to be an American right now.

  • Our president is still an alcoholic, one who may or may not drink, but has the same atributes of an untreated alcoholic and drug addict. He actually thinks that the world revolves around him and has delusions of grandeur. He feels that God speaks to him and directs him and that he is God’s messenger. He is a narcissist and no one can disagree with him or discuss a different opinion with him without incurring his wrath. What a sad state of affairs for this country. I truly wish that this entire administration could be impeached and tried for war crimes.

  • Let’s keep this simple and to the point:

    IF YOU SHAVED GEORGE W. BUSH’S HEAD

    AND DIDN’T FIND

    666,

    YOU WOULD

    AT LEAST

    FIND

    665 and 3/4s

  • What can you expect from W Bush and his worshipers ??They only reveil even more ??????? WHAT THEY ARE !…… war lovers pure evil war mongerers who like to see blood and violence dominating like the bully at school because of the big muscles but mostly took on the weeker ones so he could feel so powerfull.
    They remind me of this .
    Lets put it simple ” crazy enough to set a fire but not intelligent enough to extinguish it ”

    How is it possible that some humans are capable of so much hate and lack compassion for the human race as they do?

    Maybe it is true the world is about to end, the world that we have lived to see and beleive is reality ??? Maybe there is going to be a cleaning up period to get rid of evil from this planet, and maybe we or most of us on earth will end(die) from this desinfection of evil beings ? Because letting the evil ones rule like criminals with no respect to life is being complicent by not standing up for what is right because of fear.

    Maybe as a species, we do not deserve to go any further ? I can understand the rest of the Universe seing the threat we are to other civilisations in the cosmic realm.
    They know that humanity is good in nature but week when it comes time to stand agains’t evil.

    Peace is not acheived with war and violence it thrives in PEACE and respect to every living being in a sharing would not in world of greed and selfishness worshiping a paper God called money and the power that is missused because of evil minds that prefer abuse others.

    May consciousness open your hearts and true nature and let the light of Peace and Love enlighten humans of the planet earth.

    Peace to all good humans.
    Vic

  • I would like to make a correction to my article concerning a line that I did not express the way I needed to do:

    About humanity not deserving” what I mean by that is until humanity realises that each being must mutate make an about turn of 180 degrees this planet will be held under tirany and evil for duality is within all of us and our wrong choices over the last 2,000 years have led to what reality is now affecting this planet with Evil doing, genocides, criminal behaviors, wars, violence. but then every religion speaks of heaven of a loving God who is forgiving?????? THere must be something wrong in the equation??

    THats the point I need to make about humanity not deserving.

    I beleive we all are from a devine source we are one in oneness but too many ignore the meaning so since we are one and that evil seems to be valued by what we are witnessing I guess we have not yet understood the meaning of transcending to heaven which awaits us. Maybe we still need to suffer more in oneness before the mutation can begin?

    Peace is in your DNA remember who we all are!!!!!
    He created us to his devine image Goodness, loving and peacefull and sharing in respect to all.

    THat is the correction I needed to explain

    Thank you

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