Bush’s ‘magic wand’ and its legacy of low expectations.
Bush’s ‘magic wand’ and its legacy of low expectations.
In his press conference yesterday, a reporter asked President Bush about the rising price of gasoline, now at roughly $3.60 per gallon. In response, Bush was helpless, repeatedly saying he wishes he could just “wave a magic wand” to lower prices:
[Y]ou know, if there was a magic wand to wave, I’d be waving it, of course. I strongly believe it’s in our interest that we reduce gas prices, gasoline prices. … No, I think that if there was a magic wand, and say, okay, drop price, I’d do that. … But there is no magic wand to wave right now.
Watch it:
This is an old line. Bush and his appointees have repeatedly invoked the supernatural to express their frustrations with gas prices, as Dan Froomkin notes. Some lowlights:
– “I wish I could simply wave a magic wand and lower gas prices tomorrow; I’d do that.” — Bush, 4/20/05
– “I wish I could just wave a magic wand and lower the price at the pump; I’d do that.” — Bush, 5/16/05
– “[L]et me assure you that if the President had a magic wand that could lower prices, he would do it!” — Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, 8/08/05
– “I wish there was a magic wand that I could wave that would lower gas prices. But I can’t.” — Bodman, 4/25/06
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Too bad he can’t wave a magic wand and make the last eight years disappear.
April 30th, 2008 at 7:14 pmThis incompetent, lying bastard could have waved his “magic wand” years ago and averted this crisis. He chose not to. As a result, many of us will suffer. Welcome to the land of the free.
April 30th, 2008 at 7:16 pmThe only thing he has done for the last 7 1/2 years is wave his wand at the American people. He could say “Please, Daddy and Uncle Dick, they are saying bad things about me, can’t you go just a little slower. I know you can only steal for six months but you should have enough?” It wouldn’t do any good but at least he would have an excuse and could say he tried then go back and play with his wand some more.
April 30th, 2008 at 7:21 pmWe just can’t wait to be waving so long and good riddance to you.
April 30th, 2008 at 7:24 pmI WONDER WHAT THE EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN FUNDIES WOULD HAVE TO SAY ABOUT BUSH WISHING HE WAS A PAGAN MAGICIAN OCCULTIST?
April 30th, 2008 at 7:27 pmWhere the hell’s the magic TABLE!
April 30th, 2008 at 7:29 pmHis fairy godmother must have abandoned poor widdle Georgie.
April 30th, 2008 at 7:29 pmI guess the higher father doesn’t talk to him anymore either.
He could always try waving Saddam’s pistol around…
April 30th, 2008 at 7:30 pmPerhaps he’s been waving his wand all this time, thinking it was magic, cause Jeffy said it was???
April 30th, 2008 at 7:31 pmPerhaps some faith in the power of the magic wand would do it, just as his faith the Faith Based Inititives program has lowered teen pregnancies and STDs….
April 30th, 2008 at 7:33 pmI wonder if they had magic wands at Cheney’s Secret Energy Policy Meetings.
Abracadabra! $$$ Triple the price of gasoline!
Presto! Multi-BBbillion dollar quarterly profits! $$$
Why doesn’t anyone in the press (or the government) have the balls to call bullshit on these blatant criminals?
April 30th, 2008 at 7:33 pmIn his press conference yesterday…
– - I would think Bush would want to come up with something a little more clever, but I guess he knows his audience.
April 30th, 2008 at 7:34 pmWell, I do have a magic wand and let me tell you where I’d like to shove it.
April 30th, 2008 at 7:37 pm– “I wish I could simply wave a magic wand and lower gas prices tomorrow; I’d do that.” — Bush, 4/20/05
– “I wish I could just wave a magic wand and lower the price at the pump; I’d do that.” — Bush, 5/16/05
– “[L]et me assure you that if the President had a magic wand that could lower prices, he would do it!” — Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, 8/08/05
– “I wish there was a magic wand that I could wave that would lower gas prices. But I can’t.” — Bodman, 4/25/06
- “[Y]ou know, if there was a magic wand to wave, I’d be waving it, of course. I strongly believe it’s in our interest that we reduce gas prices, gasoline prices. … No, I think that if there was a magic wand, and say, okay, drop price, I’d do that. … But there is no magic wand to wave right now.” – 4/29/08
Do they have to keep bringing Bill Clinton into this?
April 30th, 2008 at 7:37 pmMy goodness. The president must be clean out of clear leadership initiatives, those presidential policy things like engaging fixed markets like OPEC, reigning in corporate oil subsidies, diplomacy … like that. Well, we voted in this idiot enabler. He’s doing just fine for his real constituency. So much so that now he’s showing magical frustration because he CAN’T convince his citizenry that he CAN’T pull a rabbit out of a hat. Oy.
April 30th, 2008 at 7:40 pmDufous can’t do anything about gas prices because the oil companies won’t let him.
April 30th, 2008 at 7:42 pmLooking for the missing wand, Mr. LameAssDuck?
April 30th, 2008 at 7:42 pmcheck up your ass.
Hey Ya, satirev! Low, as in Hades, Gehenna???
April 30th, 2008 at 7:46 pmTP be touchy, of late, satirev. Certain phrases or keywords put your comment in the dustbin, never to see the light of blog again. Rephrase and resubmit, rinse and repeat.
April 30th, 2008 at 7:47 pmMagic wands again.
Well… I heard that the President talks to God.
Hmmmm….
I’m fairly sure its obvious to most with a brain, he seems to be worshiping the wrong God.
April 30th, 2008 at 7:48 pmThere’s that stearn Republican leadership! The president of the executive branch tells his constituents there’s nothing to
execute. His corporate CEO boilerplate speak is a play on the Reagan conservative line, “Government is the problem.”
Neocons infiltrating our government make it the problem. They claim it’s impossible to fix the problems they cause, that a government in shambles is running it’s natural course because it’s…well, big guvmint!
April 30th, 2008 at 7:52 pmI wish I had a magic wand that would make Bush go ‘poof’.
April 30th, 2008 at 7:52 pmI’ll bet his wand isn’t lignum vitae
April 30th, 2008 at 7:54 pm..there is no magic wand to wave right now.
Then take it out of Gannon’s mouth and get back to us.
April 30th, 2008 at 7:56 pmAND SOME OF THESE BITTER PEOPLE, WHEN TIMES GET TOUGH, INSTEAD OF TURNING TO GOD AND GUNS, TURN TO THEIR WANDS.
April 30th, 2008 at 8:00 pmI don’t believe anyone has asked a magic trick be performed to improve the health of the economy, just a little competence in the job.
Apparently competence = magic in Pres Bush’s mind, a la Harry Potter. There is no way competence can be displayed through work and sound planning. No way.
April 30th, 2008 at 8:05 pmPresident Carter said this almost 30 YEARS AGO!!!. Real leadership does not rely on Magic Wands!
“Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you about a problem unprecedented in our history. With the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetimes. The energy crisis has not yet overwhelmed us, but it will if we do not act quickly.
It is a problem we will not solve in the next few years, and it is likely to get progressively worse through the rest of this century.
We must not be selfish or timid if we hope to have a decent world for our children and grandchildren.
We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources. By acting now, we can control our future instead of letting the future control us.
Two days from now, I will present my energy proposals to the Congress. Its members will be my partners and they have already given me a great deal of valuable advice. Many of these proposals will be unpopular. Some will cause you to put up with inconveniences and to make sacrifices.
The most important thing about these proposals is that the alternative may be a national catastrophe. Further delay can affect our strength and our power as a nation.
Our decision about energy will test the character of the American people and the ability of the President and the Congress to govern. This difficult effort will be the “moral equivalent of war” —except that we will be uniting our efforts to build and not destroy.
April 30th, 2008 at 8:19 pmSince he lies everytime he opens his mouth, maybe he really DOES have magic wand (as in: he COULD do something if he WANTED to), but then his friends and family might have to suffer, so…you know, he just keeps saying there’s nothing he can do.
April 30th, 2008 at 8:25 pmWell you guys can be all cynical and negative about the President’s impotence; I choose to see the glass as half-full. If a simple, painless, magical solution to a problem existed, Bush would employ it. THAT’S what I call leadership, don’t you?
April 30th, 2008 at 8:25 pmWe should hang every idiot who voted for a guy that thought he was unable to accomplish anything as president because he doesn’t have a magic wand. How about voting for a president with half a brain next time rethugs. Oh, and McCain is a quarter short.
April 30th, 2008 at 8:26 pmOh and somebody tell the idiot that’s not a wand and it’s not magic.
April 30th, 2008 at 8:36 pmFrom the mouth of the good buddy of “kenny Boy” Lay of Enron who engineered that fake energy shortage used to screw the citizens of California.
April 30th, 2008 at 8:38 pmBush is a traitor who can’t be trusted.
My bad, I didn’t mean to say “traitor” in the previous post. I meant to say; traitor AND cheap two-bit lying conman.
April 30th, 2008 at 8:40 pmMcWars Says:
..there is no magic wand to wave right now.
Then take it out of Gannon’s mouth and get back to us.
Why won’t the Bush Administration release the White House visitor logs?
April 30th, 2008 at 8:45 pmThe white House belongs to the American people and those in it are our employees. Those logs belong to us not to Bush and I want to know why Jeff Gannon made so many visits to the White House and who he was there to “see”.
Too funny!! My grandmother regularly used the expression, “If I could wave my magic wand….” (wand rhymed with “band” for her—) to describe every “fantasy” she envisioned. Guess Bush is the same. A dementia-laden, out-of-touch whacko. The difference — I loved my grandmother, because I saw all her years of being smart, politically astute, involved in the economy, etc. Bush has never shown any of that, except his incompetence in all those areas. Grandma = yes; Bush = no way whatsoever. Sorry, Mr. Bush– she had insights, you have no smarts at all. You are a dolt. She was a competent.
April 30th, 2008 at 8:46 pmGood to hear little Georgie has finished his first book My Pet Goat. Now Connie is reading to him the Harry Potter books. Yes Bush might say he’s going to visit Hogwarts before his term is over. He might be having nightmares as Dick Cheney is really Lord Volemort. It’s so sad when the United States President doesn’t understand Harry Potter is not real. I know the World Leaders and PM Brown are getting a good laugh at that comment. At lease Bush got to endorse his Wife/Daughter’s book as ask people to buy it. Now no one brought Jenna’s first book that someone else wrote while using her name. This Bush Family is really sad and something is really wrong with them I wonder are Daddy Bush and Barbara related?
April 30th, 2008 at 9:15 pmYou Librals are missing the point. You are expecting Bush to be judged according to his effectiveness, similar to No Child Left Behind.
But it isn’t his fault that he doesn’t have a magic wand ! How can he be responsible for what he doesn’t have ?
April 30th, 2008 at 9:21 pmWait until this administration is gone and the people who attended Cheney’s big oil meeting start to blab.
Do you think that people who are being screwed by the high gas prices will be pissed?
April 30th, 2008 at 10:18 pmMapleStreet Says:
“But it isn’t his fault that he doesn’t have a magic wand ! How can he be responsible for what he doesn’t have ?”
I seem to be hearing that a lot from the supporters of this incompetent and corrupt administration. “It’s not his fault, it’s not Wolfowitz’s fault, it’s not dumsfelds fault, it’s not Bertito’s fault, it’s not Yoo’s fault”, and on ad infinitum. And then MapleStreet goes on about another Rethuglican value, responsiblity. Only those that are poor or have not health care or can’t feed their kids are to take “Responsibility” for their lot in life, but if you start a stupid war for oil and increase the cost 5X to the average working American, run the country into a ditch, spy on the American people, and corrupt the Justice Department for political reasons, will there’s no responsible person for the wreak this country is in, because “it’s not their fault.”
“Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.” – Mark Twain
April 30th, 2008 at 11:38 pmMaybe Jeff Gannon has the White House magic wand.
April 30th, 2008 at 11:42 pmI’m going to have to disagree.
President Bush DOES HAVE a magic wand!
Unfortunately, everything he waves it over turns to $hit.
April 30th, 2008 at 11:54 pmThe idiot doesn’t have the magic wand to lower the price of gas. However, he’s been waving a machete chopping the middle class and the economy to a pulp!
May 1st, 2008 at 12:11 amIt’s not a magic wand we need you to wave, Bushy.
People that know the first thing about economics call them ‘government-imposed maximum prices’ and it seems you lack the ‘political will’ to take ‘action’, Resident Sir.
At least that’s what my magic wand is telling me.
May 1st, 2008 at 6:12 amAll this talk of wand waving is sacriligious, coming from such a supposedly devout Christian. A true Christian would say he’s been praying for guidance, to solve the issue.
May 1st, 2008 at 8:07 amExcept then he’d have to admit that God’s not talked to him lately, on this, or any other issue.
May 1st, 2008 at 8:10 amNo magic wand needed.
What we need is a POTUS who knows how to preside, how to unite, and how to accomplish great things for his/her people.
What we got is a drunk, loser frat-boy, who treats this job like every other hand-me-down CEO position his daddy ever gave him.
FCUK BUSH, TRAITOR TO AMERICA.
May 1st, 2008 at 9:47 amThey don’t have a magic wand to LOWER prices now that they’re at $120 a barrel.
But way back when oil was a hundred or so dollars a barrel less they certainly had a “magic” meeting behind closed doors….
May 1st, 2008 at 12:35 pm