Is this for real? Thinking back —- yep! It is! LMAO

Good-bye George W. Bush, you’ve been a great source of entertainment for years!

Poor George W. Bush (I’m kidding), as his days in office dwindle, here’s yet another poke at his, um….stupidity, brought to you by BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7809160.stm.  It’s a collection of President Bush’s hilarious “Bushisms” during his reign.  It does bring up a few really important issues for media interviews.  More on that further down…but first let’s review some of the goodies….

 This is the most famous one (I think)

“There’s an old saying in Tennessee – I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee – that says, fool me once, shame on… shame on you. Fool me – you can’t get fooled again.”
Nashville, Tennessee, 17 September, 2002

And this one takes the cake, “I’ll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office.” Washington DC, 12 May, 2008

After I picked myself up off the floor from laughter, I was a bit reflective.  Has any other president in history been so laughed at?  So reviled? So incredibly easy to make fun of? OMG, I feel sorry for his PR people!  But they’ve had the experience of a lifetime!   

 Okay seriously though, yes stupid people say stupid things….and so do smart people. 

 We all get nervous and tongue-tied in certain situations, especially when talking to the media.  Sometimes, fear overtakes our mouths and we say stupid things.  Or some people, possibly because of insecurity, come across as arrogant by:

• not completing their thoughts

or

• trying to be humorous.

Incomplete thoughts.  Some people babble out key phrases, but no other words to support the thought or to provide the context.  I think, (repeat, “I think”) we can accuse President Bush of this.   Clearly he has no filter (or no filler) and we are left to back-fill what he really meant.  Either way, it’s a dangerous game and it’s easy to come off as stupid.  People (besides Bush) who do this are probably not intending to offend – they just can’t collect their thoughts well enough to communicate properly.  If you are one of these people – find a way to calm down; rehearse, plan and prepare before a media interview.  Figure out your key message (or top three messages) and stick to it. 

Humor.  While humor can work, choose it wisely.  Some use it to ingratiate themselves, but it can backfire if you’re not careful.  Long ago, I had a client that tried to be glib with a newspaper journalist, and laced the conversation with some VERY choice words.  It was a disaster.  It was so bad (or so good, as it were) that my client was quoted verbatim – F-bombs and all!!!  The client asked me to get a retraction printed.  Um…that would be a great big “no”.   It’s in print – it’s too late – besides the people that saw the offensive article may not see the retraction tomorrow.       

Look I dislike George W. Bush as much as the next guy, and I’ve heard (as I’m sure you have) the “Bushisms” as they are leaving his mouth live on TV.   I’ve thought, “is this for real? Or did I tune into a Michael Moore movie?” 

Nevertheless, the BBC article does do something other than make my ribs hurt from laughing.  It’s a spin on an old ditty that comes from the annals of “my mama always said”:  If you can’t say something right, don’t say it at all.   Here’s one from the Boy Scouts: Be prepared.