295 days to go

Bush: "Peter. Are you going to ask that question with shades on?"
Wallsten: "I can take them off."
Bush: "I'm interested in the shade look, seriously."
Wallsten: "All right, I'll keep it, then."
Bush: "For the viewers, there's no sun."
Wallsten: "I guess it depends on your perspective."
Bush: "Touché."

     —Exchange with the legally blind Los Angeles Times reporter Peter Wallsten, to whom Bush later apologized; Washington, D.C.; June 14, 2006

I'm sure Bush only apologized at the urging of his staff...what an ass.

296 days to go

"Free societies are hopeful societies. And free societies will be allies against these hateful few who have now conscience, who kill at the whim of a hat."
     —Washington, D.C.; September 17, 2004

297 days to go

"I do not agree with this notion that somehow if I go to try to attract votes and to lead people toward a better tomorrow somehow I get subscribed to some—some doctrine gets subscribed to me."
     —Appearing on Meet the Press; February 13, 2000

298 days to go

"It is not Reaganesque to support a tax plan that is Clinton in nature."
     —Los Angeles, CA; February 23, 2000

299 days to go

"It's one thing about insurance, that's a Washington term."
     —St. Louis, MO; October 18, 2000

300 days to go

"I know something about being a government. And you've got a good one."
     —Stumping for Governor Mike Huckabee; Bentonville; AR; November 4, 2002

Da guv'ment.

301 days to go

"This has been tough weeks in that country."
     —Washington, D.C.; April 13, 2004

302 days to go

"He has certainly earned a reputation as a fantastic mayor, because the results speak for themselves. I mean, New York's a safer place for him to be."
     —Discussing Rudy Giuliani on The Edge with Paula Zahn; May 18, 2000

303 days to go

"I'm hoeful. I know there is a lot of ambition in Washington, obviously. But I hope the ambitious realize that they are more likely to succeed with success as opposed to failure."
     —Interview with The Associated Press; January 18, 2001

I'm trying to succeed in life built on various small-scale failures.

304 days to go

"I think we need not only to eliminate the tollbooth to the middle class, I think we should knock down the tollbooth."
     —Nashua, NH; as quoted by Gail Collins in The New York Times; February 1, 2000

I'm all for knockin' shit down...

305 days to go

"The Senate needs to leave enough money in the proposed budget to not only reduce all marginal rates, but to eliminate the death tax, so that people who build up assets are able to transfer them from one generation to the next, regardless of a person's race."
     —Washington, D.C.; April 5, 2001

Rates, not race.

306 days to go

"I didn't join the International Criminal Court because I don't want to put our troops in the hands of prosecutors from other nations. Look, if somebody has done some wrong in our military, we'll take care of it. We got plenty of capability of dealing with justice."
     —Niceville, FL; August 10, 2004

I think the proper term is "We gots justice."

307 days to go

"Well, we've made the decision to defeat the terrorists abroad so we don't have to face them here at home. And when you engage the terrorists abroad, it causes activity and action."
     —Washington, D.C.; April 28, 2005

308 days to go

"I think we ought to raise the age at which juveniles can have a gun."
     —St. Louis, MO; October 18, 2000

He said should, not will.

309 days to go

"See, without the tax relief package, there would have been a deficit, but there wouldn't have been the commiserate—not 'commiserate'—the kick to our economy that occurred as a result of the tax relief."
     —Washington, D.C.; December 15, 2003

310 days to go

"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."
     —Greece, NY; May 24, 2005

Repetition is the key to re-education.

311 days to go

"This is Preservation Month. I appreciate preservation. It's what you do when you run for president. you gotta preserve."
     —Speaking during "Perseverance Month" at Fairgrounds Elementary School in Nashua, NH; as quoted in the Los Angeles Times; January 28, 2000

You gotsta preserve—uh, I mean, persevere!

312 days to go

"I think we're making progress. We understand where the power of this country lay. It lays in the hearts and souls of Americans. It must lay in our pocketbooks. It lays in the willingness for people to work hard. But as importantly, it lays in the fact that we've got citizens from all walks of life, all political parties, that are willing to say, I want to love my neighbor. I want to make somebody's life just a little bit better."
     —Concord Middle School; Concord, NC; April 11, 2001

313 days to go

"One of the most meaningful things that's happened to me since I've been the governor—the president—governor—president. Oops. Ex-governor. I went to Bethesda Naval Hospital to give a fellow a Purple Heart, and at the same moment I watched him—get a Purple Heart for action in Iraq—and at that same—right after I gave him the Purple Heart, he was sworn in as a citizen of the United States—a Mexican citizen, now a United States citizen."
     —Washington, D.C.; January 9, 2004

No, those aren't typos.

314 days to go

"I suspect that had my dad not been president, he'd be asking the same questions: How'd your meeting go with so-and-so?...How did you feel when you stodd up in front of the people for the State of the Union Address—state of the budget address, whatever you call it?"
     —Interview with The Washington Post; March 9, 2001

315 days to go

"Any time we've got any kind of inkling that somebody is thinking about doing something to an American and something to our homelandl you've got to know we've moving on it, to protect the United Nations Constitution, and at the same time, we're protecting you."
     —Aberdeen, SD; October 31, 2002

Here he goes again with that damn United Nations Constitution...

316 days to go

"My plan plays down an unprecedented amount of our national debt."
     —Budget address to Congress; February 27, 2001

317 days to go

"See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction."
     —Milwaukee, WI; October 3, 2003

Except, of course, for the United States and every other "free" country with nuclear weapons...

318 days to go

"What I am against is quotas. I am against hard quotas, quotas they basically delineate based upon whatever. However they delineate, quotas, I think vulcanize society. So I don't know how that fits into what everybody else is saying, their relative positions, but that's my position."
     —As quoted by Molly Ivins in the San Francisco Chronicle; January 21, 2000

This is a great example of President Bush using big words :)

319 days to go

"He was a state sponsor of terror. In other words, the government had declared, 'You are a state sponsor of terror.'"
     —On Saddam Hussein; Manhattan, KS; January 23, 2006

320 days to go

"Do you have blacks, too?"
     —To Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso; Washington, D.C.; November 8, 2001

321 days to go

"He understands the need for a timely write of the constitution."
     —Our interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi of Iraq; Washington, D.C.; April 28, 2005

322 days to go

"Well, it's an unimaginable honor to be the president during the Fourth of July of this country. It means what these words say, for starters. The great inalienable rights of our country. We've blessed with such values in America. And I—it's—I'm a proud man to be the nation based upon such wonderful values."
     —Visiting the Jefferson Memorial; Washington D.C.; July 2, 2001

323 days to go

"After standing on the stage, after the debates, I made it very plain, we will not have an all-volunteer army. And yet, this week—we will have an all-volunteer army. Let me restate that."
     —Daytona Beach, FL; October 16, 2004

324 days to go

"I was raised in the West. The west of Texas. It's pretty close to California. In more ways than Washington, D.C., is close to California."
     —As quoted by the Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles, CA; April 8, 2000

Well, 550 miles close.

325 days to go

"When I was coming up, it was a dangerous world, and you knew exactly who they were. It was us versus them, and it was clear who them was. Today, we are not so sure who the they are, but we know they're there."
     —Speaking at Iowa Western Community College; Council Bluffs, IA; January 21, 2000

And they know that we're here even though they might think we don't know who they are...