Are you proud of Bush's
Posted By: HaHaHa on 2008-10-23
In Reply to: I disagree to the point that we - Chele
"accomplishments?" You keep defending him. If he hadn't given those big tax cuts to the wealthy in the first place and hadn't started an unnecessary war in Iraq, we wouldn't be in this big financial mess. You don't cut taxes in a time of war...oh...unless you're a pub. They always seem to have it backwards. Everything they do is the opposite of what should be done. I'm sick of it and can't wait for a fresh start. It'll take time, but after Obama gets elected, he'll turn this country around.
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I'm not proud of it
just trying to use your formulas for determining aid to people which translates into dollar signs. You really can't have a beef with Bush, because he's throwing as much or more. I don't think throwing more and more money is going to solve the poverty woes of this country which are mostly rooted in moral deprivation. Money will never be able to fix moral deprivation.
I never said I was proud.
Bush has made mistakes. I will not disagree with that at all. However, you cannot solely blame him for this economic crisis when there are so many things that factor into this and it includes many other people besides G.W. Bush and I'm frankly more concerned about the solution to these problems and not who to point to for blame because I don't have that many fingers to point blame to all who were involved in this.
Very proud indeed!
Yes, I'm proud to have roots in Israel.
Whoopdie-doo if your heart bleeds for Palestinians. They brought it all on themselves, and they're still bringing it on.
You have a very short-sighted view of history. My history goes back thousands and thousands of years.
Your seems to begin whenever it suits your purpose.
Palestinians are SQUATTERS! Just because you only recognize history after the Muslim INVASION does not give your Palestian pals claim to the land. This isn't a matter of 'finders keepers.'
And, who blasted the first rockets after the cease fire, braniac? They came from Hamas! From Palestians! So if you want that river to stop running red, maybe you should work on knocking some sense into the Hamas terrorist leaders.
You have every right to be proud of your son.......sm
It is very apparent he is proud of his country.
All I can say is Hollywood would be proud...
Quite an acting job. I call it *cheerleading.* Trying to push people into an emotional frenzy. There are many that think pushing someone into an emotional frenzy will get them to make a decision for the Lord. Trouble is, that just confuses people and when the emotion wears off the *cheerleaders* are gone, the person who has made the *decision* is confused, does not know why all the emotion left and begin to question, and have no place to turn. I personally believe the choice for God is not made in the heat of an emotional moment but in a moment of quiet, clear clarity built on a solid base of faith. I do not mean to cast aspersions on anyone's choice of faith. It is just easier to get through the every day if you have that quiet, strong knowledge of faith and not expect to slide through life on an emotional freight train. That does not mean I do not have my emotional moments, because I do; usually associated with music because that is one of the ways God speaks to my heart. However, those who make an emotional decision not based on faith and knowledge of God's word get disenchanted when the *cheerleaders* are gone. That is why counselors are present at the Grahams' gatherings, so that people can talk quietly with someone and understand their decision before it is made. That way they have something concrete to hold onto when the emotion goes away. Just my two cents worth.
God bless!
Proud to be an American
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BJjKCBbI2s  Cat
Nasty and proud of it.....obviously. And...
definitely not someone who should be calling someone else ignorant. But, since your opinion means les than nothing to me...knock yourself out.
You seemed pretty proud yourself
Like the other poster said, own up or take cover. Defend your candidate's views and positions or bash, slam ad slur to an audience of 1.
I bet you have. Your mother must be so proud. nm
nm
Great. Be proud. I'm not saying...sm
Not to be, and I'm not saying she hasn't accomplished anything. But that doesn't make her qualified to be the VP. Her resume is tissue-paper thin, and the McCain camp trying to inflate it is starting to backfire. The whole thing is just ill-advised. Pure pandering on McCain's part.
That's what I meant above when I said some women are taking her nomination too personally, like this is our one and only chance to ever have a woman in the White House, and there will never be another! LOL
It will happen, and when it does, I want a woman who is qualified, not a woman who, IMO, is blinded by ambition and is being *used* as a shill by right wing MEN. This is no great thing to be proud of for woman. Don't fall for it.
Did she not say she was not proud to be American...
until now with her husband running for president. I think that says a lot. And since you don't know one thing about me either, do not go making assumptions my race, nationality, religion, my political affiliation, my attitudes, intelligence or anything else
I'm proud of Arkansas s/m
Arkansans, typically Republicans, kicked Mike Huckabee to the curb and elected a Democrat, Mike Beebe. He's straightened out the mess.
http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article.aspx?aID=109551.54928.121696
I am proud that RW is being allowed to
been convicted and knows in HIS heart to be right without fear. I hope there has been no compromise or deal in the background made and I do not believe RW is of this character. I am afraid that you are right, the people who elected Obama will not be listening to what RW will have to say because they do not know who he will be talking to. I know this is just something for you and a lot of others to just laugh off, but one of the saddest days of this election was the day the Billy Graham Ministry resigned as as pastor/counselor to the the president since serving in that capacity since Eisenhower. They resigned just a few days after Nov 4.
So right, I am not proud of our country either but
nothing to do with O.
Proud to be an American again
Hooray for Obama. He has given America back its hopes and dreams...
why in the WORLD are you proud of this???
you are PROUD of this spending bill? you are PROUD that your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren are going to bear the burden of this disgusting act of social programs that are thrown in to further the dems agenda? i dont know how they have a conscience passing such a thing. During the election campaign didn't Obama speak in disgust about Bush's spending?? and he turns around and whips out the BIGGEST SPENDING BILL EVER!!!
i feel sorry for you for backing your party just because you belong to it.
If this was truly to help the economy this much money wouldn't be needed.
our country is in BIG trouble but wants a quick fix. something needs to be done, but THIS?
this is too much
and it is very scary
wake up!!!
You must be so proud of your research
I'll stick by my kool-aid comment, however, that was not in this post and I'm sick of people calling me ignorant because I believed both countries were in the middle east. These wars have been going on for so long I'm sick of it all.
As for reality I have a pretty good grip on it. You know for a fact there are people who voted for Obama just because he's black! That's reality sista. I know because my brother and his friends boasted on how they didn't know his policies and they didn't care. He's black, we're black so therefore we have to vote for him because he's black. Sorry you don't like to face reality. How about the people interviewed that said that if Obama was president they wouldn't mind Sarah Palin as VP. Oh yeah, those people really understand Obama's policies. How about the people who were told McCains plan and they said yeah, that's why I'm voting for Obama, those plans there you just said. How about the thousands and thousands of people who kept boasting about if Obama gets in office that our troops will be coming home from the middle east.
I'm in touch with reality here, you are not!
And for your information. I did not attack anyone who replied to my post here but plenty attacked me for my beliefs and questions.
WEll then, be proud of your friend's son! nm
When you say Wounded Knee is nothing to be proud of....
You primarily mean the original Wounded Knee, right?
Ignorant and proud of it. Loser.
0
What amazes me is you are proud of this behavior.
Which is another huge reason not to put one of you in the white house.
I agree completely. He should be proud of his...
accomplishments. However, that being said...I most assuredly do NOT think he is the right man for the Presidency.
Becuase he's proud to be black
He always talks about being biracial. Loves his grandparents and mother (white) and is proud of his heritage even though he never talks about the black side of his family. I wonder why that is?
another gracious winner....you should be so proud....
start clawing upward right now and you should reach the bottom of the barrel in a light year or two.
You almost sound proud of your ignorance.
You have not got the slightest idea what you are talking about. Not surprising, given the pervasive lies and distortion in US mainstream media. This is not a right of a left affliction, it's across the board. All you have to do is read coverage of the situation from outside the US to find out just how much propaganda has been shoved down your throat all you life on this issue.
Do you know anything at all about how the state Israel came into being? It's a new kid on the block, having been there a mere 60 years. Look at this map.
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/ww2timeline/palestine2.html
Do you see anything on it that says Israel anywhere? Do you know how long the Palestinians lived there before the creation of Israel? Have any idea what the British Mandate did? How about the UN Partition Plan? Ever hear of it? Know anything about occupation? Historical interference from Western powers?
Palestine (Gaza, West Bank, Golan) is an occupied territory. They are not allowed to control their own destiny. People who have been living in these kinds of conditions tend to rebel and reject their oppressors. That would be Israel, bankrolled by the US.
It would be a waste of time to try to discuss this issue with someone who has clearly stated they have no capacity to conceive of the human suffering which has been imposed by our support of Israel and could care less about wholesale murder.
I would, however, like to pass a few links along regarding your question about the tax dollars (truly laughable you seem to be unaware of this).
http://www.rense.com/general41/trill.htm
Study in 2003 estimates cost to US since 1949 of $3 trillion.
http://www.wrmea.com/archives/November_2008/0811010.html
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Nifty little table of accountable direct aid. Please notice language under the table indicating the additional costs not included in the table.
That should keep you pretty busy. After all, I wouldn't want to overwhelm you with too much reality all at once.
Wait. Here's one more.
http://forums.hannity.com/showthread.php?t=1222181
Seems that some folks in the US DO care about the humanitarian crisis. December 30, US pledges $85 million in aid to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria...a drop in the bucket.
You almost sound proud of your ignorance.
You have not got the slightest idea what you are talking about. Not surprising, given the pervasive lies and distortion in US mainstream media. This is not a right of a left affliction, it's across the board. All you have to do is read coverage of the situation from outside the US to find out just how much propaganda has been shoved down your throat all you life on this issue.
Do you know anything at all about how the state Israel came into being? It's a new kid on the block, having been there a mere 60 years. Look at this map.
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/ww2timeline/palestine2.html
Do you see anything on it that says Israel anywhere? Do you know how long the Palestinians lived there before the creation of Israel? Have any idea what the British Mandate did? How about the UN Partition Plan? Ever hear of it? Know anything about occupation? Historical interference from Western powers?
Palestine (Gaza, West Bank, Golan) is an occupied territory. They are not allowed to control their own destiny. People who have been living in these kinds of conditions tend to rebel and reject their oppressors. That would be Israel, bankrolled by the US.
It would be a waste of time to try to discuss this issue with someone who has clearly stated they have no capacity to conceive of the human suffering which has been imposed by our support of Israel and could care less about wholesale murder.
I would, however, like to pass a few links along regarding your question about the tax dollars (truly laughable you seem to be unaware of this).
http://www.rense.com/general41/trill.htm
Study in 2003 estimates cost to US since 1949 of $3 trillion.
http://www.wrmea.com/archives/November_2008/0811010.html
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Nifty little table of accountable direct aid. Please notice language under the table indicating the additional costs not included in the table.
That should keep you pretty busy. After all, I wouldn't want to overwhelm you with too much reality all at once.
Wait. Here's one more.
http://forums.hannity.com/showthread.php?t=1222181
Seems that some folks in the US DO care about the humanitarian crisis. December 30, US pledges $85 million in aid to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria...a drop in the bucket.
So NOT proud of the country. O's "change" just
nm
I was never so proud to be an American as I was today when I saw that on TV.
And then I came here. 
That was eloquent and I am also PROUD !!! Gobama!
everyone else is sour grapes!
I would not be so proud of the other side. Obama
nm
WOW! Proud of Intel and hope other
Just watched Lou Dobbs. Intel CEO is closing down manufacturing jobs overseas and bringing all the manufacturing jobs back to the United States and CEO is "pressuring" other companies to do the same. This was just announced today.
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousivMolt/idUSTRE51942N20090210
Intel to invest $7 billion in U.S. plants
Tue Feb 10, 2009 10:39am EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Intel Corp (INTC.O) plans to invest $7 billion over the next two years to build advanced manufacturing facilities in the United States that make faster, smaller chips that consume less energy.
The announcement comes less than a month after the world's largest maker of microprocessors used in personal computers said it would close plants in Southeast Asia and scale back U.S. operations under a restructuring that affects as many as 6,000 employees.
The investment funds deployment of Intel's 32 nanometer manufacturing technology, the company said.
Intel's investment will be made at existing manufacturing sites in Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico and will support some 7,000 jobs at those locations. The company said its total workforce in the U.S. is about 45,000.
In a speech before the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., Otellini also underscored the need for tech companies to invest in the United States. He quoted former Intel CEO Andy Grove who said, "bad companies are destroyed by crisis. Good companies survive them. Great companies are improved by them."
Otellini called the current crisis the worst he has seen since he began at Intel about 35 years ago, adding, "For nations like the U.S., absolutely nothing about the future is inevitable or guaranteed -- not jobs, not leadership, not our standard of living."
Piccioni said the Intel announcement also boosts its public image as a major U.S. corporation, especially at a time of massive job cuts.
Gosh, I've always been quite proud
of my hazel eyes. Sure, I was born with that color, can't take credit for them, but still I think they're much nicer than, say, blue or brown eyes. I'm also pretty pumped about my great vision and hearing.
PASS. I like it where i am...also great....I am so proud of McCain...
this morning. He chose well. Good for him! It is a GOOD day in America!
They were all so perfect. Warm, beautiful, proud.
nm
I am proud of strong, intelligent women... sm
Expressing their opinion and speaking out. Just because they're not infatuated with SP and disagree with her idealogy doesn't mean what they're saying is hateful. I've seen much more hateful things here on this board than on that blog.
You (and a lot of people) seem to be taking any negative comments about SP very personally. Is there no critism of her you'll stand? Come on. McCain wants her to be the VP and no one who thinks otherwise can say anything about her w/o it being "hateful" ? How ridiculous.
I don't agree with her views on the issues. It's not personal. I'm sure she's a lovely person, I'm just not convinced she's the best person for the job. In a nutshell, that is my problem with McCain's choice of her for his VP.
As a woman, I am proud of Sarah Palin's
nm
Figures. Eventually, there's name calling from you. Twice. You must be proud. nm
I am proud to be a gun-toting, religious redneck
and from PA, but we are not any more racist than any other state or person.
The O thinks we are, so why does he keep coming into the state to compaign? You would think he would fear us. His buddy Murtha really blundered on his comment. If the O gets in, he will take our guns away and we will have no protection at all from criminals. It's our constitutional right to own guns.
He's a glib talker but what is he really saying? He definitely can't smile or debate his way through the terrorists.
Rendel-D, our precious governor, ran our state into the ground with giving money away to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh mostly for convention centers and sports centers and now for casinos. Why? He loves sports and gambling. When Rendel was mayor of Philadelphia, he almost bankrupt that city with his shenanigans. I'm so glad his term will be over soon. Maybe then Pennsylvanians will be able to get back to work. Our roads are back to being #1 on the Worst Roads in the U.S. He made sure there would be no money for road construction.
He promised all kinds of tax cuts, property taxes mostly, if the bill passed for the casinos. That was a few years ago. Where's the cut? Our property taxes went up, not down! No rebates as he promised, but we have 20,000 (exaggeration) different ways to play the lotteries between instant tickets and 3 digit, 4 digit, 5 digit, 6 digits, power ball, etc.
Casey-D didn't do a good job for us, either. He made everyone who owned a service business (that was me back then) pay 6% sales tax on our earnings EXCEPT lawyers and doctors. I'm confused. Don't they provide a service? Sure they do. He also upped our taxes.
Sorry, I don't buy the dems making a better life for us. They make it worse.
I will get off my soapbox now. 
I agree - parents are always proud of their children
And I guess if all the Billy Boy Clinton fans think its okay for Billy to say the things he is about his daughter (who has never been involved in politics herself) then I think Bush Sr. can think highly of his sons too.
I find the fact that you are proud to admit . . .
you're a Manatee fan very frightening! 
Only hateful liars would be proud it wasn't a failure.
You're right - due to the slimy, lying, underhanded tactics of the administration and your boy, Bush, the Swift Boat fiasco with Kerry may have had an impact on the election. You sound like you're proud of that. Figures.
Why can't you folks just leave Sheehan alone. Why can't someone be anti-war and speak their mind without you guys going nuts?
oops - meant "not" proud of the way our politics is run
x
I hope that comment made you real proud. nm
nm
Yeah, my proud nephew soldier cannot stand
nm
Here is a link. Proud to own american made cars.
http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2008/11/05/auto-makers-look-good-for-bigger-govt-bailout/
Yes - "outrage without rage". I was proud of all these great Americans. NM
x
And what facts to post....I hope you are really proud of your fellow posters...
right now.
I like Palin and am proud to share her genitals...er...wait...that didn't come out quite right, d
hahahahaha
Bush aides challenge Biden's boasts of Bush slapdowns.
Aides to former President George W. Bush are challenging the veracity of Vice President Joe Biden's claim this week of having privately castigated Bush, who does not remember the incident or an earlier episode in which Biden claims to have similarly rebuked Bush.
Biden spokesman Jay Carney declined to specify the dates of his boss's purported Oval Office scoldings of Bush. Nor would he provide witnesses or notes to corroborate the episodes.
"The vice president stands by his remarks," Carney told FOX News without elaboration.
Those remarks include a shot that Biden took at Bush on Tuesday.
"I remember President Bush saying to me one time in the Oval Office," Biden told CNN, "'Well, Joe,' he said, 'I'm a leader.' And I said: 'Mr. President, turn and around look behind you. No one is following.'"
That exchange never took place, according to numerous Bush aides who also dispute a similar assertion by Biden in 2004, when the former senator from Delaware told scores of Democratic colleagues that he had challenged Bush's moral certitude about the Iraq war during a private meeting in the Oval Office. Two years later, Biden repeated his story about dressing down the president.
"When I speak to the president - and I have had plenty of opportunity to be with the president, at least prior to the last election, a lot of hours alone with him. I mean, meaning me and his staff," Biden said on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" in April 2006. "And the president will say things to me, and I'll literally turn to the president, say: 'Mr. President, how can you say that, knowing you don't know the facts?' And he'll look at me and he'll say - my word - he'll look at me and he'll say: 'My instincts.' He said: 'I have good instincts.' I said: 'Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough.'"
Bush aides now dispute the veracity of both assertions by Biden.
"I never recall Biden saying any of that," former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said after reviewing detailed notes of Bush's White House meetings with Biden, which include numerous direct quotes from Biden. "I find it odd that he said he met with him alone all the time. I don't think that's true."
Fleischer said that whenever Bush met with Sen. Biden, the meeting also included a congressional counterpart so as to not "antagonize" the House.
Karl Rove, former White House political adviser, also was skeptical of Biden's claim to have spent "a lot of hours alone" with Bush.
"I remember checking on such a Biden exaggeration while at the White House and no one witnessed the meeting and his comments in remotely the same way," Rove said.
Candida P. Wolff, Bush's White House liaison to Capitol Hill, said the only meetings she remembered between Bush and Biden also included other lawmakers. She said such meetings were held in the Cabinet Room or the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, not the Oval Office, and certainly did not last for "hours."
"The president would never sit through two hours of Joe Biden," Wolff said. "I don't ever remember Biden being in the Oval. He was such a blowhard on all that stuff - there wasn't a reason to bring him in."
Andy Card, former White House chief of staff, reviewed the two Biden claims and said: "This does not ring true to me. I doubt that it happened."
A spokesman for Bush declined comment, although a person close to the former president said Bush does not remember either episode.
This is not the first time the veracity of Biden's assertions has been challenged. In 1988, he dropped out of the presidential race after being accused of plagiarizing British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock. The Washington Post also cited "the senator's boastful exaggerations of his academic record."
Last year, liberal Slate magazine recalled that "Biden's misdeeds encompassed numerous self-aggrandizing thefts, misstatements, and exaggerations that seemed to point to a serious character defect."
Also last year, Biden came under fire for telling a questionable story about being "shot at" in Iraq.
"Let's start telling the truth," Biden said during a presidential primary debate sponsored by YouTube in July. "Number one, you take all the troops out -- you better have helicopters ready to take those 3,000 civilians inside the Green Zone, where I have been seven times and shot at. You better make sure you have protection for them, or let them die."
But when questioned about the episode afterward by the Hill newspaper, Biden backpedaled from his claim of being "shot at" and instead allowed: "I was near where a shot landed."
Biden went on to say that some sort of projectile "landed" outside a building in the Green Zone where he and another senator had spent the night during a visit in December 2005. The lawmakers were shaving in the morning when they felt the building shake, Biden said.
"No one got up and ran from the room-it wasn't that kind of thing," he told the Hill. "It's not like I had someone holding a gun to my head."
Seven weeks after claiming to have been "shot at" in Iraq, Biden again raised eyebrows with another story about his exploits in war zones -- this time on "the superhighway of terror between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where my helicopter was forced down."
"If you want to know where AL Qaeda lives, you want to know where bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me," Biden bragged to the National Guard Association. "Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down, with a three-star general and three senators at 10,500 feet in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are."
But it turns out that inclement weather, not terrorists, prompted the chopper to land in an open field during Biden's visit to Afghanistan in February 2008. Fighter jets kept watch overhead while a convoy of security vehicles was dispatched to retrieve Biden and fellow Sens. Chuck Hagel and John Kerry.
"We were going to send Biden out to fight the Taliban with snowballs, but we didn't have to," joked Kerry, a Democrat, to the AP. "Other than getting a little cold, it was fine."
Bush aides challenge Biden's boasts of Bush slapdowns.
Aides to former President George W. Bush are challenging the veracity of Vice President Joe Biden's claim this week of having privately castigated Bush, who does not remember the incident or an earlier episode in which Biden claims to have similarly rebuked Bush.
Biden spokesman Jay Carney declined to specify the dates of his boss's purported Oval Office scoldings of Bush. Nor would he provide witnesses or notes to corroborate the episodes.
"The vice president stands by his remarks," Carney told FOX News without elaboration.
Those remarks include a shot that Biden took at Bush on Tuesday.
"I remember President Bush saying to me one time in the Oval Office," Biden told CNN, "'Well, Joe,' he said, 'I'm a leader.' And I said: 'Mr. President, turn and around look behind you. No one is following.'"
That exchange never took place, according to numerous Bush aides who also dispute a similar assertion by Biden in 2004, when the former senator from Delaware told scores of Democratic colleagues that he had challenged Bush's moral certitude about the Iraq war during a private meeting in the Oval Office. Two years later, Biden repeated his story about dressing down the president.
"When I speak to the president - and I have had plenty of opportunity to be with the president, at least prior to the last election, a lot of hours alone with him. I mean, meaning me and his staff," Biden said on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" in April 2006. "And the president will say things to me, and I'll literally turn to the president, say: 'Mr. President, how can you say that, knowing you don't know the facts?' And he'll look at me and he'll say - my word - he'll look at me and he'll say: 'My instincts.' He said: 'I have good instincts.' I said: 'Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough.'"
Bush aides now dispute the veracity of both assertions by Biden.
"I never recall Biden saying any of that," former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said after reviewing detailed notes of Bush's White House meetings with Biden, which include numerous direct quotes from Biden. "I find it odd that he said he met with him alone all the time. I don't think that's true."
Fleischer said that whenever Bush met with Sen. Biden, the meeting also included a congressional counterpart so as to not "antagonize" the House.
Karl Rove, former White House political adviser, also was skeptical of Biden's claim to have spent "a lot of hours alone" with Bush.
"I remember checking on such a Biden exaggeration while at the White House and no one witnessed the meeting and his comments in remotely the same way," Rove said.
Candida P. Wolff, Bush's White House liaison to Capitol Hill, said the only meetings she remembered between Bush and Biden also included other lawmakers. She said such meetings were held in the Cabinet Room or the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, not the Oval Office, and certainly did not last for "hours."
"The president would never sit through two hours of Joe Biden," Wolff said. "I don't ever remember Biden being in the Oval. He was such a blowhard on all that stuff - there wasn't a reason to bring him in."
Andy Card, former White House chief of staff, reviewed the two Biden claims and said: "This does not ring true to me. I doubt that it happened."
A spokesman for Bush declined comment, although a person close to the former president said Bush does not remember either episode.
This is not the first time the veracity of Biden's assertions has been challenged. In 1988, he dropped out of the presidential race after being accused of plagiarizing British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock. The Washington Post also cited "the senator's boastful exaggerations of his academic record."
Last year, liberal Slate magazine recalled that "Biden's misdeeds encompassed numerous self-aggrandizing thefts, misstatements, and exaggerations that seemed to point to a serious character defect."
Also last year, Biden came under fire for telling a questionable story about being "shot at" in Iraq.
"Let's start telling the truth," Biden said during a presidential primary debate sponsored by YouTube in July. "Number one, you take all the troops out -- you better have helicopters ready to take those 3,000 civilians inside the Green Zone, where I have been seven times and shot at. You better make sure you have protection for them, or let them die."
But when questioned about the episode afterward by the Hill newspaper, Biden backpedaled from his claim of being "shot at" and instead allowed: "I was near where a shot landed."
Biden went on to say that some sort of projectile "landed" outside a building in the Green Zone where he and another senator had spent the night during a visit in December 2005. The lawmakers were shaving in the morning when they felt the building shake, Biden said.
"No one got up and ran from the room-it wasn't that kind of thing," he told the Hill. "It's not like I had someone holding a gun to my head."
Seven weeks after claiming to have been "shot at" in Iraq, Biden again raised eyebrows with another story about his exploits in war zones -- this time on "the superhighway of terror between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where my helicopter was forced down."
"If you want to know where AL Qaeda lives, you want to know where bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me," Biden bragged to the National Guard Association. "Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down, with a three-star general and three senators at 10,500 feet in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are."
But it turns out that inclement weather, not terrorists, prompted the chopper to land in an open field during Biden's visit to Afghanistan in February 2008. Fighter jets kept watch overhead while a convoy of security vehicles was dispatched to retrieve Biden and fellow Sens. Chuck Hagel and John Kerry.
"We were going to send Biden out to fight the Taliban with snowballs, but we didn't have to," joked Kerry, a Democrat, to the AP. "Other than getting a little cold, it was fine."
Bush aides challenge Biden's boasts of Bush slapdowns.
Aides to former President George W. Bush are challenging the veracity of Vice President Joe Biden's claim this week of having privately castigated Bush, who does not remember the incident or an earlier episode in which Biden claims to have similarly rebuked Bush.
Biden spokesman Jay Carney declined to specify the dates of his boss's purported Oval Office scoldings of Bush. Nor would he provide witnesses or notes to corroborate the episodes.
"The vice president stands by his remarks," Carney told FOX News without elaboration.
Those remarks include a shot that Biden took at Bush on Tuesday.
"I remember President Bush saying to me one time in the Oval Office," Biden told CNN, "'Well, Joe,' he said, 'I'm a leader.' And I said: 'Mr. President, turn and around look behind you. No one is following.'"
That exchange never took place, according to numerous Bush aides who also dispute a similar assertion by Biden in 2004, when the former senator from Delaware told scores of Democratic colleagues that he had challenged Bush's moral certitude about the Iraq war during a private meeting in the Oval Office. Two years later, Biden repeated his story about dressing down the president.
"When I speak to the president - and I have had plenty of opportunity to be with the president, at least prior to the last election, a lot of hours alone with him. I mean, meaning me and his staff," Biden said on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" in April 2006. "And the president will say things to me, and I'll literally turn to the president, say: 'Mr. President, how can you say that, knowing you don't know the facts?' And he'll look at me and he'll say - my word - he'll look at me and he'll say: 'My instincts.' He said: 'I have good instincts.' I said: 'Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough.'"
Bush aides now dispute the veracity of both assertions by Biden.
"I never recall Biden saying any of that," former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said after reviewing detailed notes of Bush's White House meetings with Biden, which include numerous direct quotes from Biden. "I find it odd that he said he met with him alone all the time. I don't think that's true."
Fleischer said that whenever Bush met with Sen. Biden, the meeting also included a congressional counterpart so as to not "antagonize" the House.
Karl Rove, former White House political adviser, also was skeptical of Biden's claim to have spent "a lot of hours alone" with Bush.
"I remember checking on such a Biden exaggeration while at the White House and no one witnessed the meeting and his comments in remotely the same way," Rove said.
Candida P. Wolff, Bush's White House liaison to Capitol Hill, said the only meetings she remembered between Bush and Biden also included other lawmakers. She said such meetings were held in the Cabinet Room or the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, not the Oval Office, and certainly did not last for "hours."
"The president would never sit through two hours of Joe Biden," Wolff said. "I don't ever remember Biden being in the Oval. He was such a blowhard on all that stuff - there wasn't a reason to bring him in."
Andy Card, former White House chief of staff, reviewed the two Biden claims and said: "This does not ring true to me. I doubt that it happened."
A spokesman for Bush declined comment, although a person close to the former president said Bush does not remember either episode.
This is not the first time the veracity of Biden's assertions has been challenged. In 1988, he dropped out of the presidential race after being accused of plagiarizing British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock. The Washington Post also cited "the senator's boastful exaggerations of his academic record."
Last year, liberal Slate magazine recalled that "Biden's misdeeds encompassed numerous self-aggrandizing thefts, misstatements, and exaggerations that seemed to point to a serious character defect."
Also last year, Biden came under fire for telling a questionable story about being "shot at" in Iraq.
"Let's start telling the truth," Biden said during a presidential primary debate sponsored by YouTube in July. "Number one, you take all the troops out -- you better have helicopters ready to take those 3,000 civilians inside the Green Zone, where I have been seven times and shot at. You better make sure you have protection for them, or let them die."
But when questioned about the episode afterward by the Hill newspaper, Biden backpedaled from his claim of being "shot at" and instead allowed: "I was near where a shot landed."
Biden went on to say that some sort of projectile "landed" outside a building in the Green Zone where he and another senator had spent the night during a visit in December 2005. The lawmakers were shaving in the morning when they felt the building shake, Biden said.
"No one got up and ran from the room-it wasn't that kind of thing," he told the Hill. "It's not like I had someone holding a gun to my head."
Seven weeks after claiming to have been "shot at" in Iraq, Biden again raised eyebrows with another story about his exploits in war zones -- this time on "the superhighway of terror between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where my helicopter was forced down."
"If you want to know where AL Qaeda lives, you want to know where bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me," Biden bragged to the National Guard Association. "Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down, with a three-star general and three senators at 10,500 feet in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are."
But it turns out that inclement weather, not terrorists, prompted the chopper to land in an open field during Biden's visit to Afghanistan in February 2008. Fighter jets kept watch overhead while a convoy of security vehicles was dispatched to retrieve Biden and fellow Sens. Chuck Hagel and John Kerry.
"We were going to send Biden out to fight the Taliban with snowballs, but we didn't have to," joked Kerry, a Democrat, to the AP. "Other than getting a little cold, it was fine."
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