Quotes of the Morning: Making Sense

“I'm also strengthened by history, by my view of history. I realize there's a lot of folks who have written off presidencies early in the presidency or before the presidency is over. And when in fact the long reach of history happens and people take a look back, they realize that the decisions made ended up making sense.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, December 4, 2006

“I look forward to the day that you begin making sense sir.”
-Skippy

“That's one of those hypotheticals that just wasn't it the cards because Don Rumsfeld and I had a very heart-to-heart. By the way, he was signaling throughout the fall that perhaps we needed a fresh approach. He's just as impatient as I am about success in Iraq. One thing about Don Rumsfeld is he understood mistakes.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, December 4, 2006

“Yep. The Don understood mistakes quite well.. He learned first hand while making them. Let’s look in on one of his biggest mistakes, shall we?”
-Skippy

“For example, some would argue that the fact that 90 percent of the country -- let me just say this -- most of the country outside of the Baghdad area, is relatively peaceful, doesn't indicate a civil war as far as they're concerned. And by the way, I get briefings all the time about where the level of violence is and the American people I think would be interested to know, most of it occurs around the Baghdad area. And therefore they don't get to see, kind of the normalcy of life outside of the Baghdad area.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, December 4, 2006

“Yes, most of the country is peaceful. Most of the country is also desert. Baghdad, the capital city, has roughly a fifth of the nation’s population living there, so on a per-square-mile basis Iraq is rather peaceful. So was the United States during our Civil War. Maine and Florida didn’t see a lot of fighting, and California wasn’t involved.”
-Skippy

“I know [Maliki] is prepared to take on the fact that there are murderers inside that society. What I'm looking for is somebody that says, a society in which murder and assassination takes place is not acceptable, regardless of who's doing it. And I absolutely believe that the prime minister and Mr. Hakim are committed to ending murder. The hard work is to get it done, particularly when you have outside influences like al Qaeda stirring up sectarian violence, these suiciders are spectacular death.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, December 4, 2006

“The ‘suiciders’ are spectacular! A must see! Coming to a theatre of operations near you!
I’m sorry.. I make light of a bad situation. Death is never a funny topic.”
-Skippy

“Make no mistake about it, I understand how tough it is, sir. I talk to families who die.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, December 7, 2006

“Is that because you talk to them sir? I guessI was wrong. Sometimes death can be a funny topic. Now let’s briefly look in on a different conflict.”
-Skippy

“Thirdly, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is important to have -- is important to be solved.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, December 7, 2006

“Freud would be proud.”
-Skippy

“I'm committed to a two state solution. I believe it is in Israel's interest and the Palestinian people's interest to have two states living side by side for peace. And the Prime Minister shares that goal. And he is willing to take time to go over and help remove obstacles toward achieving that goal.
And there are two notable obstacles. One, one is the prisoner; and secondly, is for there to be a unity government that recognizes the principles of the Quartet, with which Israel can negotiate. And we want to help.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, December 7, 2006

“Ok.. I actually did read this in full context, and it makes no more sense than what is quoted here.. The prisoner? That was the first time the topic came up in the press conference. I have no idea what he is referring to. Is an old 70s British spy show causing unrest in the Middle East? What can we do to achieve peace despite evil advances of Number 2?”
-Skippy

“And the objective, I repeat, is a government which can sustain, govern, and defend itself -- free government of Iraq that can do that -- and will be an ally in this movement -- against this movement that is threatening peace and stability. And it's real.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, December 7, 2006

“I have never doubted that the objective of a free and independent Iraq was a real goal, sir. What I doubt is that you know how to get us from the current civil war to that objective. You know, more and more this sounds like a bad Monty Python sketch.. So let’s go out with an appropriate Quote (and yes, this was a serious headline).”
-Skippy

“Llamas Enlisted to Thwart Biological Weapons”
-Headline, Livescience.com, December 6, 2006