Posted on 05/08/2007 6:19:37 PM PDT by Cornpone
London - British newspapers were scathing on Tuesday about US President George W Bush's blundering welcome for Queen Elizabeth II, labelling him "Dumb Dubya" and saying he has the "gift for the gaffe".
Bush messed up at a ceremonial welcome for the queen at the White House Monday when he spoke of a visit paid by Elizabeth to mark the 200th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence from Britain "in 17 - in 1976".
After the queen looked up at him from beneath her wide-brimmed black hat, he winked at her, before turning to the laughing audience and telling them: "She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child."
Britain's media, which has revelled in reporting previous Bush bloopers, claimed that this was among his worst.
The nation's biggest-selling paper, the right-wing tabloid Sun, accused Bush of making "one of his great verbal blunders" while the centre-right broadsheet The Times headlined its piece: "Oops, he did it again."
"On a morning that should by rights have been frozen in time as a moment of pure pageantry, with military marching bands, pipers trucked out in tricorn hats and powdered wigs, and visiting royalty, one can count on George Bush," the centre-left broadsheet The Guardian said.
"The president yesterday once again demonstrated his gift for the gaffe, injecting an unintended sense of levity into the White House welcome for the queen."
'Her majesty's withering look spoke volumes'
This was not Bush's first slip in front of the monarch, the Guardian added.
"When she visited the White House in 1991 during his father's presidency, he said he was the black sheep of the Bush family.
"He then asked: 'Who's yours?' The queen did not reply," it said.
The right-wing tabloid The Daily Mail asked: "Is he winking at One?" and said that Bush could have tried to recover from his initial blunder in several ways.
"But turning to her and giving her a sly wink is probably not included in any book of royal etiquette," it added.
In an editorial, centre-left tabloid The Daily Mirror dubbed Bush "Dumb Dubya," adding: "Her majesty's withering look spoke volumes, giving the watching public and the president a very clear message.
"Which is more than he ever manages."
He's having a great month and probably on the beginning of a rebound.
Misunderestimate him and it's Joshua versus Ai Redux.
It is the job of every red blooded American to when given the chance to show with good taste and proper decorum the view that Americans have to Royalty
well it was the 200th anniversary of 1776.
The real reason he caught it in time is because he totally KNEW it was a Freudian slip and chuckled to himself at it. He found meaning in it and she caught it to. Thus the look. Good ole’ Dubya, he may fumble, but he said what many of us were thinking . . . “dang, she’s one old crumpet.”
I’d say the bigger gaffe is the British people continuing to be taxed to the hilt to support a monarchy that doesn’t do any governmenting that I can see.
“..historians will see him as a visionary..”
Visionaries do not support open borders in time of war and do not offer blanket amnesty to illegal aliens. Visionaries understand the term ILLEGAL. Don’t get me wrong, I voted for him and supported his election campaigns financially. But then again, I am not very bright either - only sorely disappointed.
Oh, you have to remember that is what the British elites were taught when young: London is still the centre of the world. New York is just a provincial town and the ex-colony USA is just another Dominion like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, not equal in ranks to the likes of premier nations like Russia, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
(Yes, I know the Britons reading this will try to argue that they haven’t been taught this worldview for 50 years, but this is plainly a lie as far as colonial Hong Kong education or New Zealand education are concerned. They still use British textbooks on history even today, and British history texts still reflected that worldview as recently as 1989)
I’m with you.
If these press gnats can make this much of nothing at all, imagine the field day they would have if W blew his lunch like his Dad did in Japan.
apparently the Queen has a better sense of humor than the press does in Britain....see the following....
In Virginia, she visited Jamestown, America’s first permanent English settlement, returning to a spot that she had seen as queen in 1957, when Bush was not yet a teenager.
In Kentucky, she attended for the first time America’s most famous derby, after countless scores of equestrian events at home in Britain.
In Maryland, she watched as astronauts told by video-link of their work aboard the International Space Station while she visited NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
In Washington, she honored American soldiers at the National World War II Memorial, visited sick children at a hospital and stood graciously as the president started to suggest she had lived in the 18th century.
And on Tuesday night, before boarding a plane to take her back to England, the queen began a toast carefully crafted in the kind of humor favored by Bush.
“I wondered whether I should start this toast by saying, ‘When I was here in 1776, ‘” she said to laughter.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070509/D8P0NA5O0.html
snickers...........
Alas, that was not HRH in the Naked Gun movie, but rather a British actress whose career consists primarily of impersonating the Queen.
Thanks for taking the time to provide the interesting information.
Her majesty loves a gaffe and repartee. She has a very quick wit.
I admire our president and Elizabeth.
I heard a story about how a petty officer had disconnected the toilet plumbing on the Royal Yacht Briannia , because it had been plugged. Not wanting to inconvenience Her Majesty who was alone in the Royal Stateroom at the time, he simply put a bucket under the toilet outlet, while taking the plugged section of pipe to the ships shop for service.
Upon his return , the petty officer noticed that the bucket contained a rather large, consistant royal turd.This turd was dried , shellacked and mounted on a plaque, and hung on the Petty Officer's mess wall on the Britannia, with a suitable caption.
Months later, the Queen inspected her ship and came upon the worshipful turd, and indicated to her sailors that ocassionally it was necessary for her to take a Royal $hit. This royal remark was greeted by gales of laughter even though the mess staff were at attention.
A woman with that kind of humor inside her military family , would hardly be offended by our presidential gaffe.
Besides I think the Queen likes our Cowboy. God Bless you President Bush.
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I agree with you. She put in an event-filled 6 days here in America - a schedule on camera at every minute - that I know I could not have maintained. She would not have agreed to this schedule if she did not want to do it.
I would bet my pension that she never would have agreed to so many events if the Clintons were in the White House.
Lefties love making a big deal out of nothing. Thats why they say Bush is the worst President when Carter is still way worse.
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