One word to describe Bush

February 17, 2007

For the last few years, the Pew Research Center has included an interesting question in its national political surveys: “Please tell me what one word best describes your impression of George W. Bush. Tell me just the one best word that describes him.” Those conducting the poll did not offer choices for respondents to choose from; it was open-ended.

In February 2004, the responses were generally very positive. The top three were “honest,” “fair,” and “leader.” In fact, of the top 10 most common responses, eight were complementary, including “strong,” “excellent,” and “integrity.”

A year later, in February 2005, the responses weren’t quite as good. “Honest” and “good” were still on top, but now words like “arrogant,” “incompetent,” and “idiot” were all in the top eight.

In its latest survey (.pdf), the Pew Research Center found less encouraging words rising to the top.

1. Incompetent
2. Arrogant
2. (tie) Honest
4. Good
5. Idiot
6. Integrity
6. (tie) Leader
8. Strong
9. Stupid
10. Ignorant

I thought I’d add that “ass” wasn’t too far behind, at #13.

Pew researchers said this is consistent with the broader trend.

George W. Bush’s job approval rating stands at 33% in the current survey, virtually unchanged from a month ago. The general dissatisfaction with the president also is reflected in the single-word descriptions that people use to describe their impression of the president. While the public has consistently offered a mix of positive and negative terms to describe Bush, the tone of the words used turned more negative in early 2006 and remains the case today. In the current survey, nearly half (47%) describe Bush in negative terms, such as “arrogant,” “idiot,” and “ignorant.” Just 27% use words that are clearly positive, such as “honest,” “good,” “integrity,” and “leader.”

As was the case a year ago, the word mentioned more frequently than any other is “incompetent.” By comparison, from 2000 through 2005 “honest” was the word most frequently volunteered description of the president. Even among the positive words used there has been a decided change in tone over the years. Superlatives such as “excellent” or “great” were relatively frequent in the early years of Bush’s presidency, but are offered less frequently today.

I’m kind of glad the Pew Center didn’t call me to participate in the poll. I would have found it difficult to pick just one word.

You might want to check your list again. “Arrogant” is listed twice, though that might be intentional. 😉

  • Honest is tied for #2? Is there any way that we can get the addresses of the people who responded with “honest”? I’d love to try to sell my 2001 Chevy Impala to them.

  • I can understand Morbo’s typographical slip here. After all, Bush’s arrogance is rooted in his ignorance. Or maybe it’s the other way around.

    There’s a real chicken-and-egg debate there, huh?

  • I would go with incompetent since it hovers over everything the administration does, but frankly I don’t consider it a negative. Considering all of the evil goals they try to accomplish, their incompetence is probably the only thing saving us all from serfdom.

  • Perhaps some of you are familiar with the Washington Post’s Style Invitational of a few years ago, in which they asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting or changing one letter, and then supply a new definition. My favorite newly-coined word was “ignoranus,” a person who is both stupid AND an asshole.

    And there you have George W. Bush in one word. It’s quite pefect, except that the arrogance factor can’t be included as well. But hey, we’re talking one word, not a paragraph . . .

  • Here’s a list from Merriam-Webster’s Thesaurus entry for “arrogant”. They really do describe the son of a bitch.

    Synonyms – cavalier, haughty, highfalutin, high-handed, high-hat, imperious, important, lofty, lordly, masterful, overweening, peremptory, pompous, presumptuous, pretentious, supercilious, superior, uppish, uppity

    Related Words – authoritarian, bossy, dominant, dominating, domineering, magisterial, pontificating; condescending, disdainful, patronizing; impertinent, impudent, saucy; snobbish, snobby, snooty; boastful, bombastic, braggart, bragging, cocky, swaggering, vain, vainglorious; complacent, conceited, egocentric, egoistic, egotistic (or egotistical), prideful, proud, self-centered, self-conceited, self-satisfied, smug, stuck-up

  • I’m disappointed that “disingenuous” and “untrustworthy” didn’t make the list or, if they did, they didn’t crack the top ten. Here’s a few others:

    Supercilious
    Middlebrow (from the German, mittelbrau)
    Incurious
    Mendacious (as in, he lies every time he opens his fucking cakehole)
    Coxcomb ( a good one for most Republicans, it means “shallow showoff”)
    Narcissistic
    Dullard

    *sigh* so many words, so little time…..

  • It is interesting that half of the top ten one-word descriptors for the Disaster in Chief are positive while only 27% of respondents offered clearly positive words. It reinforces the notion that das base chooses its descriptions of its hero from a menu of highly scripted talking points. Those of us who see him in his bumbling glory have the virtual banquet of adjectives to choose from to most colorfully and adequately describe our disdain.

    Before the 2004 election I was telling my fence-sitting pals that Bush was an incompetent, arrogant, incurious, venal, and mendacious man. [ I still pretty much would use those words – although I acknowledge that the first is the product of the four that follow. ] They laughed off my description as the ravings of an avowed Bush Hater. I think they are coming around now.

  • This is a trick question. You can’t describe such a deeply flawed man with one word. I doesn’t do him justice.

  • “Tell me just the one best word that describes him.”

    “Mother… no, that’s two words.”

  • Well, Grumpy (post #24), muther-f**ker is hyphenated, so it counts as one word. At least it was the last time I watched “Foul Play”.

  • I’d be curious if a change in phrasing would alter the response. The question in the survey according to the pdf at the Pew site is “Please tell me what one word best describes your impression of George W. Bush. Tell me just the ONE best word that describes him.” To my way of reading it, the “ONE best word” in the second sentence might be interpreted by the survey taker that the questioner is looking for a positive response. “Best” should precede “describes” like it does in the first sentence of the survey question.

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