posted October 19, 2004 11:30 AM            

Leftists have been attempting to trash the President since they lost the last Presidential election in 2000.

You should, however be a little more careful when posting on this site. As I told you, I check.

So, I checked the comment you quote Bush as having said about fooling the people and guess what, you're right.

Now, I'm posting the comment in it's context. I'll let readers decide for themselves if Bush was quoted totally out of context...or not.

President Bush proves an easy target ? for himself
The Associated Press
Monday, March 26, 2001

Washington — President Bush struck back with humor at anybody who might suggest he is dumb, lazy, inarticulate and, worst of all, a puppet president allowing Vice President Dick Cheney to make all the important decisions.

"To those people I say ...," Bush said, casting a deadpan nod in Cheney's direction. "Dick, what do I say?"

His audience roared with laughter, perhaps because it included many of the people who fuel perceptions and misperceptions about the nation's 43rd president. Bush was the featured speaker Saturday night at the spring dinner of the Gridiron Club, a 116-year-old institution that gathers Washington's media and political elite for a night of satire and civility.

The political press corps produced the usual musical parodies poking fun at the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court and itself, drawing tongue-in-cheek "responses" from Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut for the Democrats and Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft for the Republicans.

But the president stole the show with a self-deprecating reply to those who say he is not quite up to the job.

"Those stories about my intellectual capacity do get under my skin. You know for a while I even thought my staff believed it," he said. "There on my schedule first thing every morning it said, 'Intelligence briefing."

Bush claimed it got so bad that he turned to Democratic powerbroker Robert Strauss for advice. "He said, 'Just remember, Mr. President. You can fool some of the people all of the time. Those are the people you need to concentrate on."

The president said he is smart enough to map the human genome, as a habit and an act of practicality. "I hope to eventually clone another Dick Cheney," Bush said. "Then I won't have to do anything!"

And on it went. One after another, Bush mentioned a perceived shortcoming then confronted it with humor.

Recalling his "youthful indiscretions," the president said the straight-laced Ashcroft "is not the kind of guy I hung out with in college."

He admitted to suffering foot-and-mouth disease, quoting Garrison Keillor, who said, "George Bush's lips are where words go to die."

Advisers said the president cut his speech in half because the dinner was running late and he had a Sunday morning church service. One joke eliminated had Bush saying that he is so firm on foreign policy that he recently kicked four Russian diplomats out of the United States for spying and more than 40 others "because they left their cell phones on."

One of Bush's biggest pet peeves is the sound of cell phones ringing in news conferences and meetings.

Lieberman, Democrat Al Gore's running mate, suggested he has not gotten over the loss. Turning to Cheney, Lieberman said, "Mr. vah ... vah ... vah ... vah. For some reason, I'm still having trouble putting that title (of vice president) before Dick Cheney's name."

"Maybe I should just address you the way President Bush does ... 'Good evening, sir."'

Ashcroft is not the kind who would question his boss' smarts ? unless, of course, he was looking for a laugh in the name of civility and satire. Thus, the attorney general let it slip that Bush ordered his Cabinet recently to "travel to all 54 states."