Bush "knew how to make money"????

[Schema Thing]

On another discussion board, I'm in a conversation with someone who called Bush a "good businessman", and said the above.

I was about to fire of the following reply:

"Yeah... were did that idea come from? Bush knew how to make money? His only real homerun success was as a figurehead for a deal that was put together by a few guys who really do know how to make money (the Texas Ranger deal)."

....but I thought I'd drop it here in DU first, and some of you might have more specifics on his abilities as a businessman (and also the accuracy of my reply above)?

[wtmusic]

1. Well, he ran Spectrum 7 and Harken Energy into the ground

after defrauding his investors.

Maybe some consider that being a good businessman.

[NewJeffCT]

2. Hmm, where to start...

Many on DU can tell you more than me... but, he couldn't even find oil in Texas! His first company (Arbusto? Harken? I forget the name) went belly-up despite being financed by the bin Ladens.

The sweetheart deal for the Texas Rangers involved them using the government's eminent domain to take over some land & they also did something to screw the local taxpayers, too. A true conservative like Barry Goldwater probably turns over in his grave when he sees things like that happening.

[rfranklin]

4. They stole people's land to line their pockets....

without using eminent domain (for a freakin' basball stadium) they would have gone bust on that deal too.

[blm]

3. Yeah. James Bath sold Bush's Harken shares to Salem Bin Laden and

Bush made about a million. Of course, that was all part of the sleazy dealings of Bush, Bath, BCCI and Bin Laden. Tell him to google it.

Also interesting to note that while Bush was making a million off the sleazy BCCI deals, John Kerry was investigating the bank for its funding of international terrorists and had it closed down and Salem Bin Laden was put under arrest.

Funny thing....Salem Bin Laden was killed in a plane crash in Texas not too long after.

[TlalocW]

His my reply

He couldn't even keep two oil companies afloat in Texas of all places with help from his powerful daddy and his rich Saudi oil friends. That's like faililng an algebra test with Stephen Hawking doing all the hard work for you.

TlalocW

[Roland99]

5. By hiring degenerates to run his campaigns he's raised MILLIONS

[freedom_to_read]

6. Well he does have 1 thing you need to be a "good businessman" in the US

wealthy parents.

[unblock]

7. and the rangers profit was due to the dubious use of eminent domain

true conservatives despise the governmental seizing of private land, which is exactly what the texas rangers did to build their arlington stadium. they condemned perfectly liveable housing in order to kick people out, and they paid a so-called market price that was so low it enabled the texas rangers, and hence shrub, to make millions and millions.

furthermore, shrub's initial "investment" of 1% of the club was with borrowed funds, and most of his profit was due to a further grant bringing his stake up to 10% as a "performance bonus". this performance bonus most likely should have been taxes as ordinary income, but shrub only paid capital gains taxes on it, so in all likelihood, he's a tax cheat.

[Cleita]

8. Get Kitty Kelly's book, "The Family".

She explains how they make money. Mostly it's reaching into someone else's wallet and putting it into theirs. It's called consulting fees. They get paid for doing nothing and when they bankrupt or run a company to the ground, they walk off richer than ever.

This to me is not good business skills, but legalized thievery that they have gotten away with for generations, now.

[wallwriter]

9. He's been a great businessman as POTUS

From record surpluses to record debts in four short years. We're only a few trillion dollars short...

[TreasonousBastard]

10. Of course he knew how to make money...

he just had all of his rich friends cash checks for him.

Simple, really.

The Texas Rangers was a deal set up by others with him as a figurehead, and he got bailed out in both of his failed oil ventures.

And, he never had operational or financial control over any of the ventures he was involved in. Good thing, too, or he could have been indicted. Or even <gasp> lost money.

Oh, yeah, there was that Texas pension fund that he gave to one of his buddies to manage in a hedge fund. Amazingly enough, the pension fund LOST money in a boom market. The trustees only found out about it after the damage was done, and were they ever pissed at the good Governor.

[sinkingfeeling]

11. And of course, if his name was Martha Stewart, he would have done

time for insider trading!!

[arikara]

12. I guess he does if you equate "making" with stealing...

n/t

[democracyindanger]

13. Yeah, he's such a good businessman he got kicked out of the Carlyle Group

His DAD'S COMPANY:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3994.htm

In a column posted yesterday on Salon.com, Joe Conason writes: "Preferring to avoid public scrutiny for obvious reasons, executives at the Carlyle Group usually say nothing about their firm's connections with the Bush dynasty. But last April 23, Carlyle managing director David Rubenstein spoke quite frankly about the comfy sinecure he provided to George W. Bush more than a decade ago -- and how useless Bush turned out to be. Whether he knew it or not, Rubenstein's remarks to the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association were recorded."
Rubenstein said, "We put (Bush) on the board and (he) spent three years. Came to all the meetings. Told a lot of jokes. Not that many clean ones. And after a while I kind of said to him, after about three years - you know, I'm not sure this is really for you. Maybe you should do something else. Because I don't think you're adding that much value to the board. You don't know that much about the company."

There's a recording of it at the link.

[Book Lover]

17. Oh my god, this is better than the best wine

Kicked out of Carlyle! ROTFLMSWGAO! Man, I almost feel bad for the tool.... Oh, must get cold water... pardon me. Ha!

[Athame]

25. Don't laugh too hard

He'll still inherit some of the Carlyle booty.

[Book Lover]

27. I know what you're saying

And I agree. But being told to go away in a world where doing something worthwhile is looked up with suspicion... priceless.

[PurityOfEssence]

14. the only time he wasn't a colossal failure was when he used government to

bully people out of their private possessions. (He and his partners in the Texas Rangers used the City of Arlington to force people by eminent domain to sell their property for less than a tenth of its value. That wasn't enough to slake their greed, though, they weaseled MUCH more land than they needed, so they could sell the rest as valuable business property after the stadium was built.)

This is the ONLY business venture of George W. Bush's that wasn't a horrible failure. He used family connections to get started in business, to continue in business, and to call off the dogs when he broke the law to make profits before Saddam invaded Kuwait. He is the Midas of business, the veritable Nimrod of enterprise, the King of Schwing, the clod of all hoppers, the Prince of Weevils, the biggest loser and the punch line of all tasteless jokes. Anyone who claims he's financially adept should be called to explain ANY venture other than the ham-fisted greedfest of the Texas Rangers, and in light of the right's hatred of government, they need to explain the ugly use of corrupt governmental power to fuck individuals for the benefit of the already disgustingly rich.

This man is proof of Hemingway's line about the "inherent uselessness of the children of wealth".

Worse, he's so narcissistic that he demands his actions to be above reproach or even mere review.

[many a good man]

15. Traded Sammy Sosa!!!

He's nuthin' but a "glad-handler."

He started and failed two oil businesses. Both were started with $$$ from his father's friends. And both failed in spite of infusions of $$$ from more of his old man's oil buddies.

He was later given a plush seat on the Board of Directors of some corporations when his old man became VP and later Prez. The other co-owners included him only because of his political connections and PR value. He was the front man for group of Texas businessmen only because he appeared less oily than the rest of them. The value of his share of the team skyrocketed when they got the city to build a new ball park and let the team keep all the receipts.

He traded a young Sammy Sosa for a couple of bench warmers. Some businessman!!!

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. It's like the old joke --

Q: How do you make a million dollars in the oil business?

A: Start with 5 million dollars...

[triguy46]

18. he never earned a buck

In west texas, was bailed out by daddy's friends. His "oil company" never poked a hole in the ground. As Molly Ivans has said,
"All hat, no cattle."

[stray cat]

19. His dad always found someone to fill his empty oil wells with money.

Bush thinks he did it himself when everything he ever got was due to his daddys money or perceived influence. Bush never left home plate and thinks he hit a home run.

[bridgit]

20. sure, he just spun his daddies rolodex...

[blm]

21. These are all great replies and I wonder how the OP used them in debate.

.

[leftofthedial]

22. to a repuke, he is a good "businessman"

he ran every business into bankruptcy, but he always walked with loads of dough

[Elwood P Dowd]

23. Read Molly's article in Mother Jones

Jim Hightower's great line about Bush, "Born on third and thinks he hit a triple," is still painfully true. Bush has simply never acknowledged that not only was he born with a silver spoon in his mouth -- he's been eating off it ever since. The reason there is no noblesse oblige about Dubya is because he doesn't admit to himself or anyone else that he owes his entire life to being named George W. Bush. He didn't just get a head start by being his father's son -- it remained the single most salient fact about him for most of his life. He got into Andover as a legacy. He got into Yale as a legacy. He got into Harvard Business School as a courtesy (he was turned down by the University of Texas Law School). He got into the Texas Air National Guard -- and sat out Vietnam -- through Daddy's influence. (I would like to point out that that particular unit of FANGers, as regular Air Force referred to the "Fucking Air National Guard," included not only the sons of Governor John Connally and Senator Lloyd Bentsen, but some actual black members as well -- they just happened to play football for the Dallas Cowboys.) Bush was set up in the oil business by friends of his father. He went broke and was bailed out by friends of his father. He went broke again and was bailed out again by friends of his father; he went broke yet again and was bailed out by some fellow Yalies.

<more>

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2003/11/ma_559_01.html

[Lisa]

24. I wouldn't trust him with investment money ...

... or charitable donations, for that matter.


He's got "don't know how to handle money" written all over him. I don't think he appreciates how much the rest of us have to work, to get something that he thinks is being constantly shoved at us by our parents' friends (and overseas investors!). Not to say that all wealthy people (or those born into rich families) are that irresponsible, of course. But in his case I doubt he ever learned how to do basic accounting -- his track record for studying things he didn't think would be relevant to him isn't particularly good.

Check out this comment from his younger days:

"I've got the greatest idea of how to raise money for the campaign. Have your mother send a letter to your family's Christmas-card list. I just did, and I got $350,000!"

Meanwhile the campaign I'm working on has about a twentieth of that, it took us weeks and months of begging and scraping, and we have to watch every damned penny.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

26. George W. Bush asked to resign from Carlyle Group Board Of Directors

David Rubenstein, CEO of Carlyle Group gave a speech in which he described George Bush's lack of business acumen:

"Somebody came to me and said: 'Look there is a guy who would like to be on the board. He's kind of down on his luck a bit. Needs a job… could you put him on the board? Pay him a salary and he'll be a good board member and be a loyal vote for the management and so forth."

"He … came to all the meetings. Told a lot of jokes. Not that many clean ones. And after a while I said to him, after about three years: 'You know, I'm not sure this is really for you… because I don't think you're adding that much value. You don't know that much about the company.'"

Rubenstein was also asked for his reaction to Bush's election to the Presidency:

"If you said to me, name 25m people who would maybe be president of the United States, he wouldn't have been in that category. So you never know. Anyway, I haven't been invited to the White House for any things."

http://money.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml%3B?xml=/money/2003/07/09/cnbush09.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2003/07/09/ixcity.html