Think Progress

Bush: ‘I Don’t Give A Darn’ What Americans Think Of Me

The Bush administration has acquired a well-deserved reputation for ignoring the public’s will. Last March, for example, Vice President Cheney famously told ABC’s Martha Raddatz that he doesn’t care about the public’s views on the Iraq war.

In part because of this disregard for the public, President Bush leaves office with the lowest approval ratings in modern history — 34 percent. In an exit interview yesterday with Larry King, Bush made clear that he is quite happy ignoring the public, saying that he doesn’t “give a darn” that Americans simply disdain him:

KING: How do you feel personally when you — you see the ratings and the polls that — and have you at 25, 30 percent…

BUSH: I don’t give a darn. I feel the same way as when they had me at 90 plus.

KING: The same?

BUSH: Yes, look it — these opinion polls are nothing but a, you know, a shot of yesterday’s news.

Watch it:

Yesterday, in an interview with Bloomberg, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went a step further, arguing that the she doesn’t “care about perceptions” of the U.S. abroad:

Q: Why do you think we don’t get enough credit – you don’t get enough, he doesn’t get enough credit then? Because the perception is is that the U.S. has not smartly exercised its power around the world.

RICE: Oh, I don’t care about perceptions, Mike. I’ve learned in –

Q: But can you not (inaudible)?

RICE: No, of course, you can – you don’t – you shouldn’t.

According to Pew, “positive views of the United States declined in 26 of the 33 countries where the question was posed in both 2002 and 2007.” Curiously, in his recent press conference, Bush remarked, “I strongly disagree with the assessment that our moral standing has been damaged.”

Larry King asked Bush, “Don’t you want to be liked?” “Kind of,” admitted Bush, adding that “you really want to be liked on the day that really matters, when you are running for president, election day.” Apparently, on the other days, Bush can be as reckless as he wants.

Update Matt Yglesias observes, "Bush has remained seriously jerky to the end."


69 Responses to “Bush: ‘I Don’t Give A Darn’ What Americans Think Of Me”

  1. LibertyLover says:

    Doesn’t give a darn about the American Public. Never did. Never will.

    Why did he want to become President again?


  2. Leftside Annie says:

    Jebus, Chimpy – that was obvious from day 1, ya low class trailer trash limpdicked drunken fratboy moron.


  3. raynman says:

    Interesting how someone who says he’s so dedicated to democracy really doesn’t care what the majority of people think.


  4. ElBruce says:

    Isn’t concern for what the populace thinks kind of the whole point of having a democracy in the first place?


  5. roscoe says:

    Yes, Chimpy we know you don’t give a darn. That is why we were attacked on 9/11. You were to busy on vacation, not giving a darn, to use your intel reports. I hope you rot in hell.


  6. Buckie Boy says:

    Sociopaths generally really do not care what anyone thinks of them….

    …hence, Bush.


  7. rocks911 says:

    LibertyLover,

    To do for his, which is not most of us.


  8. gummitch says:

    BUSH: Yes, look it — these opinion polls are nothing but a, you know, a shot of yesterday’s news.

    George, you’re yesterday’s news. Thank God.


  9. Nevar says:

    This is what happens when you’re right, and the whole rest of the world is wrong, George.
    sarc/off


  10. LibertyLover says:

    Guido the Loving OBGYN –

    I never liked him. Not even during 9/11. But it gives me no pleasure whatsoever to have been right.


  11. Keith says:

    Right, raynman, we are supposed to be living in a democracy. When 73% say they disapprove of the president for such a long time (two years?), then the president should change the policies and the way he is governing accordingly.


  12. Leftside Annie says:

    10 – Dr. Matt: I’ve always believed that Osama bin Laden is home in Saudi Arabia, tucked away in the bosom of his family, with the full knowledge of the Bush adminstration…


  13. Hoodathunk says:

    Then he shouldn’t mind when said American public goes after his ass next week. May he say So? when the charges pile.


  14. tomcat27834 says:

    Seriously…looking back can anyone imagine that this guy could be elected to any office – let alone the highest in the land ???

    Congrats Karl for getting a “dry drunk” elected.

    Now Joe Public has to pay the price for decades to come.


  15. impeachcheneythenbush says:

    The man is now in complete and utter denial. Pretty sure he’ll eventually crack, and when he does, we will hear about his suffering a major depression (perhaps even a psychotic break) and at least one suicide attempt.


  16. Roket says:

    Bush, the ’so what’ president.


  17. Anonymouse says:

    He’s lying. I’m quite certain that this man has cried himself to sleep more than once.

    “B-but why don’t they like me? I’m a Bush!”


  18. Chris L says:

    I know Bush doesn’t give a darn, but I bet the republican party will begin wishing he would have – as they lose election after election.


  19. Keith says:

    tomcat, with our current batch of politicians, it will be decades of tough policies to clean up this $12 Trillion mess. If we had a majority of politicians like Kucinich and Nader, then it could be cleaned up a lot quicker and without the burden on the back of the average American.


  20. ljm says:

    Where’s David Frost? Frost/Bush sounds fine to me. He has to have a conscience, or at least some feeling that he has been REALLY THAT BAD! People who lost much of what they had hate you Bush!


  21. green says:

    And we don’t give a darn about you either Georgie! Get lost already!


  22. liberalinaredstate says:

    Of course he didn’t give a “darn”. He ran this country as if it were one of the other private corporate enterprises he failed so miserably. He likes to talk about democratic ideals/principles but implementing them is whole other story. He was CEO in Chief and a poor one at that. He’s a self serving narcissitic Bastard


  23. Keith says:

    ljm Says:
    Where’s David Frost?

    Bush knows that Larry King in the “Softball King”.


  24. Shayne says:

    Oh you’ll care what we think. Just you wait until all the cameras are off and you have all the time in the world to think about us. Better keep a bottle close by.


  25. Fred says:

    Leftside Annie Says:
    10 – Dr. Matt: I’ve always believed that Osama bin Laden is home in Saudi Arabia, tucked away in the bosom of his family, with the full knowledge of the Bush adminstration…

    I figured he was working at a quick trip in New Jersey…..


  26. Fred says:

    Shayne Says:
    Oh you’ll care what we think. Just you wait until all the cameras are off and you have all the time in the world to think about us. Better keep a bottle close by.

    He cares and you’re right, this ain’t going to be fun for the bastard.

    Why else would he have gotten so irate at the press conference the other day….looked like the madman that he is.


  27. AmandaBlow says:

    They never did care! Why should they care now? You don’t care when you rob a bank. You don’t care when you hijack a plane. All you care about is committing the crime. Getting it done. Once it is done, it is a done deal!


  28. Nevar says:

    If Dufous truly didn’t care about what Americans thought, he wouldn’t be out pounding the pavement every day and every night trying to tell us how wonderfully successful his presiduncy was.


  29. Bozo The Neoclown says:

    “Bush: ‘I Don’t Give A Darn’ What Americans Think Of Me”

    so sayeth the whiny-assed lifetime loser who’s about to become unemployed and be forever known as THE-WORST-PRESIDENT-EVER!


  30. krystalviews says:

    impeachcheneythenbush

    I hope its a successful suicide attempt. But I doubt it. There is not one ounce of feeling inside this man. He’s completely self-absorbed and narcissistic. That is why a long time in a jail cell for him would be so wonderful for Humanity !


  31. ljm says:

    I remember when my former “Most Hated President” Richard Nixon left with a sick kind of look on his face, fingers raised, and with at least the knowledge that he was done. He wasn’t a hero to anyone at that moment and W isn’t now. Most people are so numb with Bush’s 8 years that we just want it to end. Your number one now Mr. Ex.


  32. stateofthedivision says:

    Bush fails on servant leadership, where the public is the President’s customer.



  33. Ape-Man says:

    Republicans don’t give a darn what Americans think, period.


  34. Uncle Ho says:

    Gee, does that mean I can send him a biiiiigggg box of dog shit?


  35. mary says:

    I think he’s convinced himself that he did it all for our own good and we’re all too stupid to know that now.

    But, when we’re all dead, we’re all gonna love him you see!


  36. krystalviews says:

    Hey Bush! What did America do to you ? Why do you hate Americans?


  37. Hoodathunk says:

    George, I have a really big surprise for you. There are a hell of a lot of Americans who are not in the least surprised by this ’stunning’ revelation. A President who doesn’t give a rat’s ass what his people think of him.

    I don’t think you could pass the first week of American Idol.


  38. Mathazar says:

    After that news conference, I thought he was all out of stupid. Incredible! He’s in the deepest hole, and he’s digging faster and faster.

    Oh man, it’s going to so so nice to have a SOS that actaully CARES about our perceptions abroad.


  39. celtic cynic says:

    …”Larry King asked Bush, “Don’t you want to be liked?” “Kind of,” admitted Bush, adding that “you really want to be liked on the day that really matters,…”

    History tells a very different story about George wanting to be liked. When he graduated from Yale, his father, George H.W., was a very busy man, and only spent a few hours with his son on that day instead of two full days hoped for. Kitty Kelley writes in her book The Family, chapter thirteen, that young George bawled after his father left.


  40. Bob says:

    I don’t give a darn. I feel the same way as when they had me at 90 plus.

    BULSHIT!


  41. StratRat says:

    Bush has always been a petulant little boy. It seems he stopped maturing about age 13. He may have gone on to college, but emotionaly he is stuck on stoopid.

    BTW: Anytime someone says they don’t care about perceptions, you can bet your last dollar they are hanging on every poll, hoping for something to feel good about.


  42. shoeless says:

    LibertyLover Says:
    ——————————————————————————–

    Doesn’t give a darn about the American Public. Never did. Never will.

    Why did he want to become President again?

    What better way to f uck over the people you hate?


  43. shoeless says:

    krystalviews Says:
    ——————————————————————————–

    Hey Bush! What did America do to you ? Why do you hate Americans?

    Well, first we wouldn’t let him take our Social Security away. Then, we told him to stop ignoring those poor black people who were dying in New Orleans after Katrina. Finally, we got sick of his endless war, and stopped pissing our pants every time he said the terrorists were going to get us.


  44. Jackie says:

    That should tell Americans who voted for Bush just what he really thought of them. He admitted he really don’t think much of God or the Bible and his last press conference showed he is a true lunatic, drunk and drug user. This is who represented all Americans and the US image showed we allowed the bottom of the barrel as President and a true Satan follower as Vice President.

    I’ll let God handle Bush. I’ll be working for the Obama/Biden Team and do as much as I can to help the USA recover from this mess.


  45. nanlichi says:

    The man is now in complete and utter denial. Pretty sure he’ll eventually crack, and when he does, we will hear about his suffering a major depression (perhaps even a psychotic break) and at least one suicide attempt.

    The bad news is that with his track record, he will probably fck that up too.


  46. ralph the wonder llama says:

    Like Stephen Colbert observed, Bush believes the same thing on Wednesday that he believed on Monday, regardless of what happened on Tuesday.

    I like the Frost/Bush idea. There’s only one snag; Nixon was acutely aware of being disliked and it drove him to accomplish the things he did and to commit the crimes that disgraced him.

    Bush is just a sociopath.


  47. realpatriot says:

    should have known as soon as he muttered (about the constitution) “It’s just a piece of paper”….
    No more Texans or Bushes in any political forum…..


  48. Hoodathunk says:

    Guys, quit picking on Nixon. At least he had the decency to pretend remorse over what he did.


  49. Winski says:

    Great, then he won’t care if I call him the worst, racist asshat ever to darken my skies and hope he chokes on a chicken bone!

    See, that was easy….


  50. MapleStreet says:

    He’s right – 34% was yesterday’s news. and the day before that it was 33% and a few days before that it was 20%……


  51. T R L says:

    Bush really doesnt listen to polls because he doesnt want his fragile ego bruised…………..he bush its not your ego we want to bruise more like the rest of ya


  52. dbearton says:

    Throw the war criminal Bush in jail; then ask him what he thinks.


  53. ElBruce says:

    Other things Bush doesn’t give include: a hoot, a damn, the posterior of the rattus norvegicus, and a Cheney.


  54. Gregor Samsa says:

    I don’t give a darn.

    This is what the Bush cultists call leadership.

    Most of us call it Stockholm Syndrome.


  55. FunMe says:

    Seriously jerk?
    Sounds like he added back the cocaine to this alcohol.

    Don’t worry, he will get his karma. It never fails.


  56. EugeneDebs says:

    It is not breaking news that Gump is a LIAR. He is lying. The FACT Americans despise him overall is an attack on his immense ego. The man is an ignorant arrogant petulant child. He reminds me of the idiot trolls who come in here simultaneously spouting their stupidity AND condescension. He is so FULL of himself its amazing he doesnt explode at the same time he disses us like the spoiled brat he is. WWWWAAHHHHH I dont care beans if you dont like me. The implication being he is so much better than us our opinion doesnt matter. Except it DOES matter. This is America the CITIZENS are the top layer of government and he has been judged and found wanting by the only audience that matters the CITIZENS. Try to remember you MORON while you are President YOU WORK FOR US. WE OUTRANK YOU PUTZ


  57. EugeneDebs says:

    It is YOUR BOSSES telling you that you SUCK AT YOUR JOB you worthless loaf


  58. tombaker says:

    textbook sociopath

    Charles Manson with a pedigree.


  59. shoeless says:

    ‘I Don’t Give A Darn’ What Americans Think Of Me

    This should be the inscription beneath his statue at the Bush library.


  60. sectionop92 says:

    It would be appropriate if Bush got on his helicopter and did a double middle finger salute, since that would sum up the last eight years of this utter madness and rampant corruption he’s called a presidency.

    Let us not put another special needs/brain damaged adult who got into Yale on daddies legacy money into the Oval Office again!

    It’s obvious all the man did at Yale was what 2/5’s of college students do everywhere else from Thursday night until early Sunday morning, but the Dummy never thought that the party would stop.


  61. motorfingaz says:

    From day one I knew Bush was a sickening pig. He hasn’t proved me wrong.

    I back in Jan 20 2001 that America will regret giving the keys to the White House to suck a dumb freak.


  62. Wang111 says:

    The American people think Bush is mentally ill—and Bush cares about this.

    Psychiatrist Dr. Justin Frank, author of “Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President,” would agree that George W. Bush’s mental illness, for example, narcissistic personality disorder, contributes immensely to Bush’s destructive behavioral problems while president of the United States.

    Please see http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4750011&mesg_id=4750011 “A discussion at DEMOCRATICUNDERGROUND.COM about George W. Bush’s narcissistic personality disorder (discussion thread started by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang).”

    Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang
    B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
    Messiah College, Grantham, PA
    Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993

    “GEORGE W. BUSH IS THE WORST PRESIDENT IN U.S. HISTORY” BLOG OF ANDREW YU-JEN WANG

    ONLINE ANTI-BUSH SCHOLASTIC RESEARCH: LISTING OF MAJOR ISSUES

    http://andrewyu-jenwang.blogspot.com/2008/10/bush-is-worst-president-in-american.html


  63. telestai2 says:

    Is it Dr. Phil who says that the past is the best predictor of the future? In the past, almost NONE of BushCo have evinced even the slightest concern for what “people” [as in the majority of Americans and now the world] thought/think of them. BushCo cared/cares about the opinions of ONLY a select group: corporate America, high rollers, Halliburton et al, oil-rich nations, yes men, hawks, the military-industrial complex, plutocrats, “barons of industry,” and others of that ilk.


  64. Patriot46 says:

    And now his lame dick father wants us, the American public to believe his other Son has what it takes to be POTUS. What’s he smokin?


  65. telestai2 says:

    In post 49, Wang111 says:

    The American people think Bush is mentally ill—and Bush cares about this.

    Psychiatrist Dr. Justin Frank, author of “Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President,” would agree that George W. Bush’s mental illness, for example, narcissistic personality disorder, contributes immensely to Bush’s destructive behavioral problems while president of the United States.

    The site to which Wang111 directs us contains absolute on-target evaluations of how closely the Prexy fits the DSM-IV diagnosis of narcissistic behavior disorder. What it does NOT mention is that a frightening percentage of California’s sexually violent predators SUFFER FROM THE SAME THING. It makes them nearly impossible to rehabilitate, because they cannot see their actions, thoughts, desires, ideas, and/or attitudes to be wrong. NO, I am not saying that Bush has a sex problem! I’m saying [after several years of transcribing for various forensic psychologists] that what’s referred to as an “Axis II diagnosis” is a MAJOR component of the pathologies associated with truly vile, completely amoral behavior–and he does seem to merit an Axis II diagnosis.


  66. LibertyLover says:

    glezzery…

    Have a nice day, sweetie.

    Peace.


  67. youtube says:

    This is who represented all Americans and the US
    sohbet image showed we allowed the bottom of the barrel as President and a true Satan follower as Viccete President.
    Bbedava mp3 indirUSH: I don’t give a darn. I feel the same way as when they had me at 90 plus.




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