George W. Bush: “8 Years Was Awesome and I Was Famous and I Was Powerful”

From an interview late last week, allow us to present the Bushiest Bush quote that has ever been Bushed (see the 4-minute mark below): 

Eight years was awesome and I was famous and I was powerful.

One more time:

Eight years was awesome and I was famous and I was powerful.

Just to recap, George W. Bush is saying that his 96 months as chief executive of America—endorsing torture, launching war on convoluted make-believe, jumping the gun, decimating a record budget surplus, politicizing NASA and the DOJ, wiretapping, ditching Kyoto, bungling Katrina, restricting stem-cell research, fighting AIDS in Africa, pushing reasonable immigration reform, and getting pissed at the South Park creators—were straight awesome.

Will Ferrell is officially allowed to retire; George Walker Bush now ad-libs self-caricature at a level of sharpened, terse, crystallized wit that even the most practiced comic or impersonator could only hope to channel. (The only thing that was perhaps missing from this impressively formulated one-liner was Bush labeling his presidency as “extreeeeemme.”)

The quote was practically made for reverse-caption contests:

1)

"Eight years was awesome and I was famous and I was powerful." Joyce Boghosian/The White House“Eight years was awesome and I was famous and I was powerful.”Joyce Boghosian/The White House

2)

"Eight years was awesome and I was famous and I was powerful."“Eight years was awesome and I was famous and I was powerful.” Wikia

3)

"Eight years was awesome and I was famous and I was powerful."“Eight years was awesome and I was famous and I was powerful.” Crawford-Texas.org

4)

"Eight years was awesome and I was famous and I was powerful." Joyce Boghosian/The White House“Eight years was awesome and I was famous and I was powerful.” Joyce Boghosian/The White House

5)

"Eight years was awesome and I was famous and I was powerful." Paul Morse/The White House.“Eight years was awesome and I was famous and I was powerful.” Paul Morse/The White House

As Andrea Higbie explained in Salon in 2008, “awesome” is one of Bush’s go-to adjectives, used to “describe everything from dead soldiers to the pope.” This latest “awesome” quote comes from an interview last week with Peter Robinson, the man who wrote “tear down this wall.” During their hour-long conversation, the ex-POTUS talked baseball, family, and politics and the economic landscape today. (Bush was presumably there to push his just-released book of economic prescriptions, The 4% Solution.) As for other stuff that the former president is up to: The George W. Bush Presidential Center will open in a little over a year, and will become the second largest presidential library in the country.

It’s gonna be powerfully awesome. 

 

Here’s the hour-long interview with Robinson:

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate