George W. Bush is a well read man...a quote by Bob Schiffer...

Schiffer said something almost along the lines of Friedman's notorious "Suck on this" a few years back....

I was reading a blog entry on Bob Schiffer, and I recall something outrageous that he said.  It took place on Chicago Tonight, a PBS programme out of Chicago (obviously).  It was broadcast on WTTW, Channel 11, a cornerstone in Chicago television.  This episode aired right before the Iraq war commenced.  He said, and I quote, that "George W. Bush is a well read man".  Verbatim, exact words.  

I would love for someone to track this down.  One of my proudest accomplishments is bringing to Atrios's attention the infamous "suck on this" comment Thomas Friedman made on Charlie Rose.  I was on Atrios's blog one night, rambling on about long films, great music, and the like, and somehow Thomas Friedman came up.  Many were talking about his infamous "Friedman unit" lingo, and I remembered that I heard something even more heinous than that.  Right after the statue of Saddam fell, Thomas was on Rose and said the infamous, disgusting line "Suck on this".  It naturally appalled me, and I told this to Atrios.  He dug it up, posted it, and now it's known througout the bloggosphere.  It's one of my proudest accomplishments.  

Is Schiffer's comment that Bush is a "well read man" as heinous as Friedman's?  In terms of coarseness, no.  In terms of deep embarrassment, yes.  How can anyone with a straight face and soul actually try and pass off Bush as well read?  Wasn't one of his "selling points" that he doesn't read books, newspapers, or watches the news?  That he likes sports and fishing?  That he's willfully ignorant?  Anyone with an ounce of IQ and 2 ounces of intelligence can tell that Bush is not well read, and prides himself on his willful ignorance.  When people in media make such outrageous statements that not only insult the general population but their own intelligences (if they still have one), they need to be called out on it.  I would love if someone tracked down the clip of Schiffer saying "George W. Bush is a well read man".  

•  George W. Bush

  ... is a "well-read man" in the same way that, for some people, Dan Quayle was an intellectual!

  

  by JekyllnHyde on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 09:32:20 PM PDT

  •  Awww

    I was hoping they were pretzels!

    by Snud on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 09:50:43 PM PDT

•  A foolish consistency

     is the hobgoblin of little minds.

  doncha think? Any wonder why we're mired in Iraq.

  by palantir on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 09:32:39 PM PDT

•  Bush insiders pushing well read meme--

  in the context of his attitude towards his legacy.  Because Bush is well read, especially in history, they say, he is confident that, as was the case with Truman, history will come to view him more favorably over time.

  by imperturb on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 09:36:22 PM PDT

  •  Truman had a brain, and morals

    by bglv on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 09:47:01 PM PDT

    •  Truman desegrated the military....

      and fought with Congress every step of the way.  Congress for almost 6 years, gave Bush everything he wanted, including two wars and unlimited spending.  The Bush legacy will be what it is.  23% were satisfied with his performance.

      by murrayewv on Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 05:38:28 AM PDT

  •  The ghost of Warren Harding is now sighing in

    relief that he is no longer going to be listed in the history books as the worst President ever.  Thank you George Bush.

    by MrJersey on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 09:58:37 PM PDT

    •  Warren Harding is so happy...

      Warren Harding is a very happy man.  

      by Janeane The Acerbic Goblin on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:01:59 PM PDT

      •  not to mention

        James Buchanan.

        by nicejoest on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:21:47 PM PDT

        •  Pierce..

          Let's not forget the incomparable Franklin Pierce.  

          by Janeane The Acerbic Goblin on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:50:18 PM PDT

          •  Of course you know, he's an ancestor of

            the present usurper.

            by nicejoest on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 11:20:57 PM PDT

            •  Aha!

              That might explain a few things!

              by Spoc42 on Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 03:03:45 AM PDT

    •  Luckily for Georgie

      he will hardly worry about what`s in the history books.

      by Mariken on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:33:41 PM PDT

•  For laughs read

  this and try to imagine how Bush might perform in a book discussion group.

  by MagisterLudi on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 09:45:48 PM PDT

•  the man held MY PET GOAT upside down

  well read my gramma's patootie

  by KnotIookin on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 09:50:32 PM PDT

  •  I think that got de-bunked

    it was a Photoshop-job and he actually had the book right-side up. I think that's the only thing he's gotten right since, though.

    by Snud on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 09:51:46 PM PDT

    •  Darn! I was so hoping that was true!

      You have shattered my little reverie. Is nothing sacred????????

      by Temmoku on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 09:56:14 PM PDT

      •  Rest assured

        That he could have done it! This is the guy who almost died choking on a pretzel.

        by Snud on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:09:23 PM PDT

    •  though apparently

      his butt was stuck to the chair kinda like David Niven in the "Bishop's Wife".

      by peagreen on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 09:56:33 PM PDT

      •  Well, there is always that...and the expression

        on his face! I wonder if he reads like that often?

        by Temmoku on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:01:11 PM PDT

•  well read is overrated

  A man can read all he wants, but middle age is just too late to cure stupid.

  Question is, was he well read when it could have counted? Probably not, who had the time with all those frat parties?

  by agent on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 09:52:15 PM PDT

  •  Heh.

    middle age is just too late to cure stupid.

    Good.

    by pinhighin2 on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:04:43 PM PDT

•  Hey, he read 3 shakespeares and a camus!

  So he must know sumting!

  I find it hard to believe he went through high school and college and never read 3 shakespeares and a camus before...but then there is:  "The Pet Goat".

  Usually a person will say the name of the book before they recite the author's name....kinda says something about his reading - That the author was more important than what he read.

  by Temmoku on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 09:53:33 PM PDT

  •  name dropping is pretentious and silly

    And that's what people who name the author first are actually doing.

    by agent on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 09:54:36 PM PDT

    •  He also read that book about Franklin....

      I think it interesting that he didn't say McCullough's name at that time.

      by Temmoku on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 09:57:40 PM PDT

  •  Remember that...

    I remember that.  Of course, the MSM never asked what the 3 Shakespeares were.  

    Or the Camus novel.  Bush reading Camus!  Hehehehe...

    by Janeane The Acerbic Goblin on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 09:59:16 PM PDT

    •  Perhaps it was something that he recordificated,

      like the Rovio and Juliet or Twelth Night on Gilligan's Island.

      by MrJersey on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:02:18 PM PDT

      •  I bet it was Fakespeare,

        not Shakespeare.

        Maybe a graphic novel version.

        by nicejoest on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:23:35 PM PDT

        •  HA!

          Even the Cliff's Notes versions of any Shakespeare are too literate for this nincompoop.

          by Lilyvt on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:40:13 PM PDT

    •  It was Jake, Franky, and Slim Shakespeare,

      those three brothers who've cornered the market on cereal box stories.

      by Mother Mags on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:23:07 PM PDT

    •  Camus ?

      It was a book about camels .

      by indycam on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:26:47 PM PDT

      •  Wrong

        He thought it was a book about life on a campus!

        He's trying to recapture the good old days of being a frat boy who was never sober...

        /snark, I hope

        by Spoc42 on Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 03:12:43 AM PDT

        •  It was just

          same same ,
          lost at school , no idea what was going on ,
          lost in the book , no idea what was going on .

          by indycam on Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 07:48:21 AM PDT

    •  He read the comic book versions of all of the

      above, but it took a year or more, but made trips to the toilet a mite bit longer.

      by doinaheckuvanutjob on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 11:18:15 PM PDT

  •  I'll see your 3 Shakespeares and a Camus

    and raise you one Dostoyevsky and two Hesses. Is there a Reader's Digest condensed version of The Stranger because I can't imagine Dubya reading anything else.

    by MagisterLudi on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:59:33 PM PDT

  •  He also read a

    pound and a half of Twain.

    by Olds88 on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 11:32:57 PM PDT

•  Ahem

  That he likes sports and fishing?

  I like to think of myself as well-read. I haven't read a lot of Great Literature but that's because I prefer more policy-relevant stuff for my nonfiction (e.g., The Mismeasure of Man).

  I also like sports and fishing. They're not mutually exclusive, you know.

  /bah humbug

  by Shaviv on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 09:57:27 PM PDT

  •  He said his wife made him read them.

    That has got to be the biggest load of bs ever!  And don't forget the reading contest with Rove! What a joke! Such a phony.

    by Temmoku on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 09:59:47 PM PDT

  •  Shakespeare and trout....

    Nothing wrong with sports and fishing.  You can read Shakespeare while attempting to land that trout.  

    by Janeane The Acerbic Goblin on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:00:17 PM PDT

    •  Shakespeare makes fishing gear .

      I'm sure he read their catalog .

      by indycam on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:30:18 PM PDT

      •  wait, what?

        Is there really a fishing outfitter called Shakespeare?

        by Shaviv on Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 04:28:04 PM PDT

•  Camus's The Stranger....

  Didn't someone say that Bush was reading Camus's The Stranger, when the man kills an Algerian for no apparent reason?  

  Sounds like something he could relate to.  

  by Janeane The Acerbic Goblin on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:03:06 PM PDT

  •  Yes, but the 3 Shakespeares are unknown.

    I doubt any were Macbeth or King Lear....actually, one could probably eliminate most of the tragedies....and he probably wouldn't get the comedies....so what is left?

    by Temmoku on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:05:41 PM PDT

    •  Maybe he read (skimmed) three sonnets?

      by Sagebrush Bob on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:18:45 PM PDT

      •  Good! I think that is the answer!

        His attention span would not survive a whole play, or even Act 1.

        by Temmoku on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:20:15 PM PDT

    •  Midsummer Night's Dream

      must have been one of the Shakespeares because Laura would have suggested it just because it expressed her sentiment, "Behold I am enamoured of an ass."

      by MagisterLudi on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 11:05:15 PM PDT

      •  Funny as Hell

        by skyreader7 on Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 12:53:16 AM PDT

  •  Instead, he ought to read The Plague

    by Sagebrush Bob on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:13:12 PM PDT

    •  Read it? He wrote it.

      by Mother Mags on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:25:12 PM PDT

      •  LOL

        by Sagebrush Bob on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:27:09 PM PDT

•  Someone who can't construct a complex sentence

  on the fly without it sounding like Gibberish is not well read.

  by JML9999 on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:04:44 PM PDT

•  I tried to google this for you but

  all I got was your diary.

  by maggiejean on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:05:27 PM PDT

•  I think Bush has a reading disability

  While I would like my president to be way more knowledgeable and well read than me, his ethics deficit is my much bigger concern.

  by no expert on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:06:04 PM PDT

•  Bush IS well-read...

  ...you left off the part where Shieffer said, "for a retard."

  by dlh77489 on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:09:54 PM PDT

  •  Or...

    Or Bush is a well read man in the genre of Archie comics...

    by Janeane The Acerbic Goblin on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:51:39 PM PDT

•  Schieffer = Bush butt boy

  by lisastar on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:12:48 PM PDT

•  He reads and rereads all his

  comic books .

  by indycam on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:21:48 PM PDT

  •  Bush is actually very well read on the Classics..

    Comic Book Classics that is.

    by Mr SeeMore on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:27:55 PM PDT

    •  I hear that his

      lips almost don't move anymore .

      by indycam on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:34:48 PM PDT

•  The sports page and Family Circus don't count?

  Damn. Guess I'd better stop telling people that I read a lot, too.

  But in me & George's defense, the big ones that are like a map of the neighborhood, with a dotted line showing where Billy went? Those can be hard to follow.

  by grimc on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:23:19 PM PDT

•  He is " "aware of books"

  or so I have heard.

  by Mariken on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:35:15 PM PDT

•  Don't see the any video of it but

  I found this.

  Last Wednesday the British historian Andrew Roberts was a lunch guest at the White House. The President had already read Roberts’s History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900—a chunky volume of over 700 pages—over Christmas, months before it was published in the United States. (It had appeared in Britain last fall.) His first instinct was to arrange to meet the author, a long-standing habit of his.

  According to Roberts, he and his wife Susan "spent 45 minutes alone with the President in the Oval Office" before they were joined at lunch by Vice President Cheney and other senior officials. Then Mr. Bush proudly showed his guests the desk at which Churchill and Roosevelt were sitting when the latter broke the news of the British defeat at Tobruk—the opening scene of Roberts’s next book. In other words, the President had not only read the current book but had taken the trouble to inform himself about Roberts’s next one, too.

  So how does this distinguished historian think President Bush compares to his predecessors? "He’s an amazingly well-read man, contrary to the way he’s portrayed in the media," Roberts told the Daily Telegraph.

  http://www.commentarymagazine.com/...

  by Lauren S on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:37:09 PM PDT

  •  And I'm sure people here know Roberts

    but I didn't know that name until I continued searching.

    Roberts, an avowed Thatcherite who proudly declared himself "extremely right-wing" in a recent Financial Times interview, repeatedly advised the president, according to Irwin Stelzer, one of the neo-conservative attendees, to ignore rising anti-U.S. sentiment abroad and opposition at home in pursuing his war on terrorism -- or what the historian has called "the Manichean world-historical struggle" against fascism, of which "Totalitarian Islamic Terrorist Fascism" is only the latest.

    A major lesson of history, Roberts told Bush, is that "will trumps wealth," according to Stelzer's account of the meeting in the Weekly Standard. He warned that "the steady drumbeat of media pessimism and television coverage are sapping the West's will" to fight and defeat the enemy which, in his view, includes Iran, as well as Sunni radicals, such as al Qaeda.

    http://ipsnews.net/...

    Now his praise of the Great George W. Bush makes complete sense.

    by Lauren S on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:39:40 PM PDT

    •  Another Neocon, another planted story.

      by doinaheckuvanutjob on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 11:20:48 PM PDT

  •  Maybe

    Maybe Bush had his wrinkled shirt on... you know the one I mean!

    by Spoc42 on Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 04:30:27 AM PDT

    •  Huh?

      by Lauren S on Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 05:49:14 AM PDT

      •  Oh dear

        Presidential debates? Hint, hint...

        by Spoc42 on Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 03:11:58 PM PDT

•  Do not click this link...

  http://mediamatters.org/...

  ...if you want to hold onto your lunch.

  The weekend news programs brought even more praise for Bush's performance. On the

  May 4, 2003

  , edition of CBS' Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer and Time columnist Joe Klein had this to say:

     SCHIEFFER: As far as I'm concerned, that was one of the great pictures of all time. And if you're a political consultant, you can just see campaign commercial written all over the pictures of George Bush.

     KLEIN: Well, that was probably the coolest presidential image since Bill Pullman played the jet fighter pilot in the movie Independence Day. That was the first thing that came to mind for me. And it just shows you how high a mountain these Democrats are going to have to climb. You compare that image, which everybody across the world saw, with this debate last night where you have nine people on a stage and it doesn't air until 11:30 at night, up against Saturday Night Live, and you see what a major, major struggle the Democrats are going to have to try and beat a popular incumbent president.

  [bold - in original]
  [italics - mine]

  Man how time flies... just like those pigs over there.

  by Clive all hat no horse Rodeo on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:43:40 PM PDT

•  Wonder what Laura said about him

  Laura Bush has a master's degree in library science, and a bachelor's in education. She worked as both a teacher and a librarian.

  I have no idea if Laura Bush has ever spoken publicly about how well-read, or otherwise, her husband might be. A supportive spouse is more likely to embellish the other's accomplishments than to under-estimate them. If she's never commented on what an avid reader he is, then that tells me a lot.

  Haven't some people said that Bush probably has learning disabilities and that he accordingly has problems with reading?

  by True North on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:45:36 PM PDT

•  Are you sure it was Bob Schieffer?

  The only mention I can find after several different google searches is this diary and a comment you made at Crooks & Liars in January.

  by Lauren S on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:46:30 PM PDT

  •  Definitely...

    Oh, yeah, it was him.  I'm sure of it.  

    Just before the Iraq invasion on Chicago Tonight with Bob Sirott, a WTTW programme.  

    by Janeane The Acerbic Goblin on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:52:36 PM PDT

    •  That seems odd then. The only mention of it

      on the entire internet according to Google is by you.   Maybe it was a different wording rather than "well-read" or "well read"?

      by Lauren S on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 11:13:15 PM PDT

      •  Nah...

        Nah, Schiffer said "well read man".  I almost hurled a chair at the TV set.  I was living in Chicago at the time.  I wonder if they save their old shows.  It's a few years back, but then Atrios found the "suck on this" video of Friedman.  

        by Janeane The Acerbic Goblin on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 11:23:26 PM PDT

        •  The Friedman clip....that was Charlie Rose?

          by Lauren S on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 11:27:47 PM PDT

          •  Yup...

            Yup.  Friedman had repeated the phrase (foolishly) on other shows, but it was on Rose's programme where he said it first.  

            by Janeane The Acerbic Goblin on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 11:28:45 PM PDT

            •  Makes sense why it was easier to find then

              I'm still surprised that there's not even a text mention of it on any page according to google though.  If you're remembering correctly then it had to have been seen and mentioned by somebody besides yourself I would think.   Maybe my Google skills are falling off but I cannot even find a thing about it besides the two times Google shows you mentioning it.

              by Lauren S on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 11:32:32 PM PDT

              •  Here's the clip btw

                by Sagebrush Bob on Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 02:47:33 AM PDT

                •  Glad you posted it for those who haven't

                  seen it.

                  I saw it once and that was enough for me.  

                  Now I have an easy link to find to share his idiocy with others though.

                  by Lauren S on Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 04:21:47 AM PDT

                  •  Yeah.

                    Once is bad enough for anyone.

                    by Sagebrush Bob on Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 07:06:18 AM PDT

•  Let's see....

  How to define praise of a man by a sychophant?
  It's not praise, it's undiluted Bullshit.  Or in this particular case undiluted Bush-it.
  Bush well read?  No Fu**ing Way.

  by Lilyvt on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:50:35 PM PDT

•  He's willifully ignorant like most of the

  American people. That's why they relate so well to him-especially the less than 30 percent still supporting him.  

  by nipit on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:52:13 PM PDT

•  What Bush Should Have Been Reading

  He should have been reading the Greek play with the mythic character who he most resembles -- Oedipus Rex. That says it all about our little killer king.

  by skyreader7 on Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 01:00:59 AM PDT

•  It's all relative

  Compared to Schiffer, maybe he is.

  by Danjuma on Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 02:36:18 AM PDT