Quotes of the Morning: Brand America

“This May, as the situation in Iraq drastically worsened, Rice directed the senior [State Department] staff that she wants no more reporting from U.S. embassies. She announced in the meeting, according to one participant, that people write memos only for each other and that no one else reads them. She said she didn't and wouldn't read them. Instead of writing reports, the diplomats should ‘sell America,’ she insisted. ‘We are salesmen for America!’"
-Sid Blumenthal, Slate Magazine, September 7, 2006

“And Condi knows all about not reading memos..”
-Skippy

“Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the US”
-Presidential Daily Briefing, August 6, 2001

“Welcome to the CEO presidency, where selling the American brand is job #1. Sometimes that isn’t easy. Sometimes you have to go the extra mile.”
-Skippy

“You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, September 6, 2006

“And why would that be so difficult?”
-Skippy

“Dubya: You know, I've heard this theory about everything was just fine until we arrived, and kind of ‘we're going to stir up the hornet's nest’ theory. It just doesn't hold water, as far as I'm concerned. The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East.
Q What did Iraq have to do with that?
Dubya: What did Iraq have to do with what?
Q The attack on the World Trade Center?
Dubya: Nothing, except for it's part of -- and nobody has ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack. Iraq was a -- the lesson of September the 11th is, take threats before they fully materialize, Ken. Nobody has ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th were ordered by Iraq. I have suggested, however, that resentment and the lack of hope create the breeding grounds for terrorists who are willing to use suiciders to kill to achieve an objective. I have made that case.”
-Press Conference with George ‘Dubya’ Bush, August 21, 2006

“Oh yeah! The reason that it is so difficult is because Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11. I guess that the roughly 2,700 American soldiers and 40,000+ Iraqi civilians that have died because of the war there are part of the problem. Man, it would be so much easier to sell this stupid war and Brand America if all these dead people didn’t keep showing up. Well, you know what they say.. Marketing is Hell.”
-Skippy

“I meet with a lot of the families. And I do the best I can to cry with them or, you know, laugh with them if they wanna laugh and hug them.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, September 6, 2006

“I’m assuming that not a lot of the families of the dead soldiers want to laugh. Still, at least Dubya promises to do the best he can to cry with them.”
-Skippy

“Joining us today is a man I got to know quite well under trying circumstances, and that would be Lieutenant General Russ Honoré of the United States Army. Honoré. He issued one of the great lines I've ever heard, and you're welcome to use it – ‘Don't get stuck on stupid.’ It's good advice for people in Washington, D.C.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, September 7, 2006

“Sir, you live in Washington, D.C.”
-Skippy