Obama: "The Bush family, I love personally, they are good people."

[wyldwolf]

Jeb's presidential stock just plummeted in conservative circles.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obama-jeb-bush-run-president-2016/story?id=27693992

[Fred Sanders]

1. Obama can torpedo any con nominee just by saying he loves them personally. The awesome power

of love.

[Cali_Democrat]

5. hahaha!

Awesomeness!

[Cha]

25. too true! Like that christie hug? Wonder if any primary repub brings that up? Rofl

[sabrina 1]

86. So you think Republicans will turn against the Bushes because Obama says he

admires them? Did he consider what might happen with Liberals?

I haven't noticed any torpedo effect regarding Reagan, who he said, he admired more than any other president.

Here's what the Far Right does with this kind of statement from a Democratic President, I know, I have been told directly by many of them. 'Why wouldn't even a Dem acknowledge the greatness of our Republican leaders? YOU need to get on board and admit it yourself'!

They simply take it as a capitulation to their own 'team'. It torpedos nothing, except maybe Liberals trying to erase the image that their 'team' is weak.

[Fred Sanders]

88. Obama said what he said which is not what you said he said so your whole comment is deflective.

Would you please care to read it again and also the context of the comments?

The actual words one says, the exact words in the exact order.....matter. Interpretation is in the ear of the listener.

[CJCRANE]

2. The Bushes and the Clintons consider each other family too.

It's all a big love-in.

It's beautiful to watch.

[madinmaryland]

19. The Clintons are white. nt

[wildbilln864]

20. and the Bin Ladens and the Sauds also! n/t

[Dont call me Shirley]

28. ...

http://m.

[nichomachus]

3. It doesn't do much for Obama's reputation either

The Bushes are not good people. They are a horrible, horrible family.

[grasswire]

4. gotta wonder about Obama's powers of discernment

Ghouls, with a history that's black and bitter. And he doesn't know this and repudiate it?

[Fred Sanders]

6. Do not take his comments out of context, which I think you are, with respect.

[markpkessinger]

7. Perhaps, but the question of Obama's discernment is a bigger one . . .

. . . I mean, Obama was a great defender of Larry Summers -- the guy who told Elizabeth Warren over dinner in 2009, "You have two choices. You can be an insider, and everybody will listen to you. Or you can be an outsider, and nobody will pay any attention to you. But there's one rule if you're an insider: insiders never criticize other insiders."

How utterly venal can a person be? But he was one of Obama's top economic advisers.

[Fred Sanders]

8. Whatever his discernment abilities, making twice elected President would require some, no?

[TheKentuckian]

12. No, not at all. What even indicates such?

[Doctor_J]

35. Like W?

[msanthrope]

76. W was elected in 2000? nt

[PoliticAverse]

53. "insiders never criticize other insiders." - They're all 'good people' you see... n/t

[Jesus Malverde]

55. great quote

aristocracy as it were.

[Doctor_J]

57. He has discerned who's going to butter his bread beginning in Jan 2017

so there's that

[Fred Sanders]

59. Nonsense. He has enough butter already, some folk prefer burgers and fries, like Obama.

[grasswire]

13. here is the context

"The Bush family, I love personally,” Obama told ABC “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir in an exclusive interview. “They are good people. Jeb's father, George H.W. has been here many times, in some cases with Jeb. And they are a great family, wonderful people. Obviously I have a lot of disagreements with Jeb and his brother on policy. But I think they have every right to do what they think is best"

So it's worse in the context. Not only are they "good people" that he loves, but they are a "great family, wonderful people."

I cannot understand or respect someone who considers the war criminals and torturers and profiteers and traitors "good people." His sentiments are unfathomable and there is no way to spin this with generosity.

[wildbilln864]

21. He probably thinks the dick Cheney is a real patriot also! n/t

[grasswire]

22. oh god

a disturbing thought

[Cha]

26. Obviously I have a lot of disagreements with Jeb and his brother on policy. But I think they have

every right to do what they think is best.”

That's the context.

[grasswire]

29. ridiculous parsing.

And no, I'm not going to get drawn into one of those diversions built on nitpicking words that some people like to deploy here.

[Cha]

31. I don't care what you don't get drawn into.. that's the context.

[choie]

49. That's crap

The fact is that he said he "loves" the Bush family....what the fuck is there to love? They are goddamn war criminals -- his statement shows a lack of integrity that is disturbing, and no amount of excuses that you make can turn what he said to something innocuous.

[WhiteTara]

77. Isn't that a Jesus thing? Loving your enemy?

[SammyWinstonJack]

66. ...

[LanternWaste]

112. I don't think quoting the relevant part of a statement to allow full context is parsing.

I don't think quoting the relevant part of a statement to allow full context is parsing; but I can certainly understand how a personal bias may compel one to believe it as such...

[NewDeal_Dem]

34. In that context, he loves them personally and thinks they are great people.

gag.

[sabrina 1]

89. His brother lied this country into a disastrous war and is viewed by people

around the world as a War Criminal.

In my wildest dreams I cannot imagine any context in which I could give that person any kind of respect whatsoever.

Unless of course, you agreed with his disastrous policies.

[SomethingFishy]

106. So when we invade a sovereign nation because of falsified intelligence

that's ok.
When we torture prisoners, that's ok.
When we ignore terrorist threats and thousands of American die, it's ok.
When the economy collapses it's ok.
When we arm the police with military grade hardware that's ok.
When we pulled out of Kyoto that was ok.
When a CIA operative was exposed that was ok.
When we spent a trillion dollars on theIraq war but didn't give soldiers decent body armor that was ok.

I could list this shit all day, and that is just one Bush family member. Remember Neil and the S&L scandal? Poppy and the CIA? Grandpa and the NAzi's?

Yeah I like the Bush's because they have every right to do what they think is best.

You know Obama could have just not said anything. Why would anyone in their right mind discuss the Bush family like they aren't every fucking thing that is wrong with this country.

[immoderate]

61. What I would call "faint praise."

So they are loved by their family and fellow presidents.

--imm

[SammyWinstonJack]

65. ...

[Scuba]

74. Worse in context. Yep.

[shanti]

10. Obama knows what side his bread is buttered

He's part of the 1% too.

[Cha]

27. Obviously I have a lot of disagreements with Jeb and his brother on policy. But I think they have

every right to do what they think is best.”

[theaocp]

30. Does every right

include torture? I imagine W thought it was "best".

[Cha]

32. The President is against torture so No.

[theaocp]

84. So, they don't have every right, then?

Your quote indicates they have the right to do what they think is best. W did just that. What am I missing here?

[1StrongBlackMan]

44. lol...

Don't you know ... The seating POTUS is supposed to call everything bush all kinds of vile names because that is what statesmen do!



The comments here have me wondering if most of the folks commenting on the thread have lived a day in real life.

[choie]

51. more excuses

n/t

[1StrongBlackMan]

94. I don't need an "excuse" for President Obama to NOT act as an a$$hole ...

Many of us have learned, in real life, we do not have to say what we might be thinking.

[choie]

104. Right

Right - it takes such integrity to say that you love a war criminal.

[1StrongBlackMan]

108. Okay ... Have a happy life! n/t

[choie]

111. I will,

Thanks!

[loyalsister]

60. + 1

I blame the broadcast news for that. People have gotten the impression that in order to be a President with a spine, Obama should act like a liberal shout em down, name calling, new personality. He's classy and when he uses the word love, he is using it in the way Martin Luther King Jr. used it when he talked about not hating one's adversary.

[MADem]

72. It's something that used to dumbfound me....

That so many people commenting on a political board seem to be so unaware of the nature of that which is politics!

[grasswire]

90. your assessment is ridiculous.

He could have chosen his words differently, but apparently he really DOES love war criminal family.

[1StrongBlackMan]

97. Okay ...

keep your day job, whatever it is, because being a political figure (inside politics or not), as President Obama is, wouldn't suit you well.

[grasswire]

98. ridiculous again nt

[1StrongBlackMan]

99. Okay. n/t

[choie]

105. I wonder what you would have said

If Bush said he loved Pinochet..as usual it's always different for Obama...

[1StrongBlackMan]

109. I wou8ldn't have given it a second thought ...

because I live in the real world where people, particularly, politicians say sh!t to the media.

[choie]

110. Uh huh

That doesn't pass the smell test. And the "real world" as you call it, must be a place where morality means nothing. Real politique, just like Henry Kissinger, eh?

[bhikkhu]

42. The best sort of people are always able to see the good in others

People are basically good, and families are basically good. That doesn't mean every person is suited to the presidency, or plenty of other jobs that involve heavy responsibilities.

[grasswire]

43. I wonder how many war criminals are said to come from "good families"

"Wonderful people."

[bhikkhu]

46. Probably plenty of criminals of all sorts come from good families

I've known a lot of people who were in and out of prison; it doesn't really tell you much about the person. Of course, "war criminals" is a different thing, but my point is that every person has a good side. Some people have smaller good sides than others, but its always there. And the best sort of people will see that good side, and consider a person's good points more worth noting and talking about than their bad points. That doesn't mean being gullible or naive, its just a way of relating to people.

[Kali]

54. But he seemed like such a NICE boy!

- said of many horrible criminals.

[alarimer]

81. That's pretty naive.

We know what the Bush family has actually done. They are NOT good people or a good family. They suck as human beings, like all Republicans.

[uponit7771]

114. No that's pretty practical, no use in living like everyone is satan

[bhikkhu]

115. I agree, but a little naivete is a virtue, and makes life much richer

As long as you can hang on to a bit of the innocence you were born with, all the wrongs and hard things of life haven't defeated you. A little naivete might cost you now and then but it gives back regularly; while an excess of cynicism will whittle you down to a dull nub predictably.

On the political side, I've always held that the fundamental basis of a Liberal philosophy is the belief that people are basically good; all else follows from that.

[uponit7771]

113. Yeap

[kaiden]

79. I work sometimes with Joe Ellis, a Bush first cousin.

He is very polite, respectful, and kind to me, a lowly bottom feeder.

[grasswire]

92. How does he feel about war crimes and torture? nt

[hifiguy]

17. They are monsters going back to their war-profiteering days

in the Civil War. They're not called the BFEE for nothing. It is a family that should be extirpated root and branch from America.

And as for Obama's comments:









He will doubtless join The Club in a couple of years and be even more handsomely rewarded for services rendered to TPTB than the Clintons were. They will even teach him the Secret Handshake.

[NewDeal_Dem]

36. who was a war profiteer in the civil war?

[NewDeal_Dem]

38. What did the bushes do in the civil war? I thought they were abolitionists back then?

[hifiguy]

58. Proto-Bushes or maybe Walkers

made a fortune in manufacturing war materiel. Mostly selling to the Union. It was the basis of the family fortune.

[840high]

52. Of course he will

join the Club. Those people will be his best friends.

[Bandit]

9. Good people that "torture some folks"

[prayin4rain]

100. +1

[Mike Nelson]

11. Keep making Conservative heads spin!

"Jeb is a lovely man."

[WorseBeforeBetter]

14. Further rehabilitation of the Bush brand.

Awesome.

[bigwillq]

15. Yuck.

Didn't read the whole article, but that sentence makes me

[spanone]

16. bet he has his fingers crossed.

[Octafish]

18. Good people who profit off war and their positions in government.

Other than that, they cut their cronies in on the deal.

[adirondacker]

23. Any reports on the profits from the School of America/Blackwater/Xe contracts during this

Administration? I recall reading Halliburton and Parsons did well.

[Octafish]

41. Carlyle Group owns Booze Allen, NSA-CIA supercontractor.

North of $2 Billion.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2013/06/10/the-carlyle-group-has-made-2-billion-off-of-booz-allen/

[Cha]

24. Obviously I have a lot of disagreements with Jeb and his brother on policy. But I think they have

every right to do what they think is best.”

[bighart]

33. From your quote

"But I think they have every right to do what they think is best.”

[Doctor_J]

37. Wow. He's driven enough voters away from the party passively. Now he's ramped it up

What a disappointment

[Thinkingabout]

39. It never ceases to amaze me how tortured a statement can become, why does it

Have to be torn to shreds before it can be a statement by anyone and interrupted by so much spin. Even John McCain corrected a statement made to him while running for president against Obama. Get over the spin, we don't have to RW spin everything.

[Jesus Malverde]

40. He's been promoting Jeb and giving him gravitas for a while.

Unbeknownst to the press, President Obama met Friday evening with former president George H.W. Bush and his son, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, in the Oval Office.

White House officials did not list the meeting on the president's schedule but released a photo on Flickr. According to the photo's time stamp, the meeting occurred shortly after 5 p.m., about the time the president returned to the White House from a fundraiser.

When asked what the men discussed and why it wasn't on the schedule, the White House released a statement saying, “The three men enjoyed a personal visit in the Oval Office – as they have done on previous occasions when President Bush is Washington.”

http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/01/obama-hosts-george-hw-and-jeb-bush-at-white-house-112638.html

Obama could have "hung out" with a lot of people on the left and give them press instead he chose BUSH.

[msanthrope]

80. You really think that picture plays well with the Teaparty types? nt

[Jamaal510]

45. Now, watch as a portion

of DUers get his words twisted.

[stevenleser]

87. Exactly. If you are going to be around RW types, i.e., if you are in government or media...

... going around with a chip on your shoulder hating on them doesn't affect them as much as it affects YOU.

You can severely dislike what their policies are while focusing on non-political stuff in your private interactions with them. It really is the only reasonable choice in a Democracy/Republic.

I really wonder what fellow DUers are thinking sometimes. Do any of them go off hating and ranting at every Republican they know in real life whenever they see or interact with them? Is that how they spend their lives? What kind of life would that be for anyone.

[grasswire]

93. not every Republican is a torturer or war criminal. nt

[SamKnause]

47. The Bush family are not good people. (Prescott to the present)

Facts matter.

The Republican party is know for lying, cheating, redistricting, suppressing, supporting torture, protecting torturers, starting illegal wars, supporting those who start illegal wars, stealing tax dollars, suppressing social services, etc.

The Bush family are not good people.

The Republican party can not be allowed to hide behind their ignorance.

Republicans are either on a whole not good people or ignorant of Republican policies.

Why would President Obama think they are a good family ???

Does he think the family improved this country ?

Does he think the family improved the lives of its citizens ?

Does he think they should be forgiven for illegal wars ?

Does he think they should be forgiven for allowing the U.S. to torture ?

Is President Obama helping the Bush family rewrite history ??

The schmoozing is nauseating.

[RiverLover]

48. ...

[Jesus Malverde]

56. .

[Cali_Democrat]

71. These pictures are definitely proof of...

[Jamastiene]

50. NO words.

Just

[MrMickeysMom]

62. Yes, this pretty much guarantees the Bush's are UNTOUCHABLE...

It isn't just that George W. Bush is an idiot… or that the brothers have been getting away with crimes since the savings and loans debacle…. or what Prescott Bush did with promoting fascism…

No, it's none of these things that make me sick to think about that statement… It's what it says about the law, and how some animals are more equal than others when they keep breaking it over and over again… the whole LOT of them.

The only thing worse than a family of psychopaths are people who enable them.

[SamKnause]

69. Agree !!!

How can you respect or admire a person who loves the Bush family.

It makes absolutely no sense.

The facade is nauseating.

The 1% just do not care anymore.

They have made it perfectly that they law does not apply them.

They have each others back.

It is basically a big Fuck You to the citizens of this country.

There are going to be rough times ahead.

[Calista241]

63. So what's he supposed to say?

"They're all a bunch of good for nothing jackasses!"

That would go over well with the media. We have 2 more years of the Obama Presidency, and he probably wants to do something more than be peppered by questions by the media about his relationship with the Bush's.

Can you imagine MTP with Chuck Todd after Obama went of on the Bush's? I think i'd kill myself by trying to set my TV on fire.

[grasswire]

95. here is what he could have said

"If Jeb Bush chooses to run for president, he will run a vigorous campaign, and he has every right to run."

He didn't have to endorse the family.

[olddots]

64. this isn't like Springsteen doing a record wirh Nugent

Is it ? I would be pissed off if the Bushes raved about thier love and admiration for Obama...oh please don't let that happen .

[ucrdem]

67. Good thing he never voted for 'em!

[TheNutcracker]

68. gads....

[MADem]

70. Kill 'em with kindness...makes 'em wonder what you're up to!

Between that, and Cuba, Jeb might as well just go back to Barclay's!!!

[gollygee]

73. Yes, Obama was diplomatic again.

News at 11.

[m-lekktor]

91. ha, declaring he loves them personally

is a tad beyond and above just being diplomatic!

[Vinca]

75. Jeb has officially caught the "Obama cooties." Buh-bye, Jebbie.

[Feral Child]

78. Did milk shoot out his nose

Immediately after that joke?

[ann---]

82. That's because

Obama is republican lite

[Sunlei]

83. Our President is a very gracious and lovable person

[grasswire]

96. a chameleon, apparently nt

[L0oniX]

85. Time to throw Obama under the bus?

[Agnosticsherbet]

101. Except for Jimmy Carter, it has been the norm that former Presidents get along well.

At least from my experience.

[on point]

102. I mean its not like they are corrupt or torture people or anything...

[ladjf]

103. That along with Obama's assertion the Reagan was his hero make me wonder about his

judgment. nt

[Brigid]

107. So was the French monarchy.

Let him try peddling that nonsense to people who have been hurt or even killed by the Bush's policies.