Apparently, the leader of the free world is as clueless about living in the "real world" as was his father. The ghost of President George W. Bush's father's failed presidency came to visit him at a White House press conference today, not once, but twice. And it wasn't pretty.
First, Bush was asked if he felt that the current bad economy would doom his party's 2008 presidential candidate, as the bad economy under his father led in great part to the election of President Bill Clinton. Bush's answer was scattered and hesitant; he did say that the US economy, though, is not in a recession, it's just "slow".
But when asked about the many predictions of economic analysts, widely covered in the media, that gasoline would be at $4 a gallon later this year caught the current Bush completely unawares. Bush stated that he had not heard these predictions, and reiterated that more than once in his answer.
"That's interesting, I hadn't heard that," Bush said after a reporter asked about the prospect. "I know it's high now." (Photo - His overseer seems to approve of how well his protege is doing).
Bush's father, George HW Bush, was widely derided as being removed from the "real world" when he was
caught on-camera expressing his wonder, during a visit to a National Grocers Association meeting in Orlando, FL in 1988, at a laser bar code reader at a check-out stand, which had been in wide use since at least 1980, Bush's first year as president.
Maura Reynolds wrote the following for the Los Angeles Times: In the news conference, Bush said, however, that a tax increase by a new Congress and president is as troubling as a prediction of the price of gas.
"If you're out there wondering ... what your life is going to be like, and you're looking at $4 a gallon, that's uncertain," Bush said. "And when you couple that with the idea that ... taxes may be going up in a couple years, that's double uncertainty."
Bush again touted the benefits of alternative fuels and conservation. But he chastised Congress for talking about an $18-billion tax increase for large oil companies.
"All that's going to do is make the price even higher," he said. -30- (end of LA TIMES story)
Bush also made it clear that, in spite of record 2007 profits reported by several oil companies last month, the need for "more research", such as opening up the protected area of Alaska known as "ANWAR", was more important than taxing those oil companies.
Bush also said that "making the tax cuts (on the richest Americans) permanent" was the most important factor in helping the economy, as will be the public spending the "rebate" money they'll be receiving as part of a federal stimulus package, he said, sometime in May.
But the oil companies sure got what they paid for in both Bush presidencies; stalwart protectors, to the last moment, of their employers.
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