George W. Bush on David Letterman's Show, October 19, 2000

The high point of George W. Bush's return to David Letterman's show was when they put the Late Show Bear away. He looked pretty mean and upset as the guy pushed him behind that heavy door.

Gov. Bush's actual appearance then had its moments, but we'd like to see more of the bear!

Of course it's a comedy show, so Bush was in witty form. When he first came out and sat down, it seemed like he wanted to be funny right off the bat, which wasn't funny. Dave said something about how busy the governor had been, and Bush was laughing about that. Dave says, "What? What?" Like 'what's the joke there?' It was just that as a candidate he is VERY busy, so the humor had to do with Dave's comment being an understatement!

Gov. Bush did a whole lot of laughing. In a way his laughter seemed quite fake. Lots of very shallow kind of "ha ha ha" with an exaggerated moving up and down of this shoulders. We were thinking it'd make a great animated gif, the way George W. laughs, but these days just making the effort takes a second thought. If we thought it'd bring his poll numbers down 10 points of course we'd go for it, but there's no way we can be sure.

The funny parts of the show, especially what came from Dave (of course), were pretty funny. The Top 10 list we saw was criticized somewhere (Bushwatch) as not being so good, but we thought it was pretty funny. Number 2 should have been Number 1, in our opinion. Number 2 had to do with scrubbing the heck out of the Oval Office as something a President Bush would do. Number 1 escapes us now as to what it was, but it seems like it referred back to Letterman somehow.

The funniest moment of the funny stuff was when Dave brought up the subject of mechanical bulls in Texas. "Do they still have mechanical bulls in Texas?" And Gov. Bush said they did. Then Dave said that was probably a form of capital punishment there. That was a surprising joke, very funny. And Gov. Bush was definitely caught by surprise and laughed. Mentioned here because whenever it comes to the death penalty, he's trying his hardest to not look like it gives him any joy or that there's any humor in the subject. During the second debate he had that terribly happy and peaceful look on his face when he said "Guess what?"...those men are going to be put to death. Then in the third debate, of course by now he was going to be on his best behavior, and "Leo" asked him about being overjoyed with Texas' record on the death penalty. Then the governor went all somber.

Many of Gov. Bush's funny lines on the Dave Letterman show this night were not really very funny. Just run-of-the-mill quips. There was one section on Adam Clymer in which Bush restated his feeling that he shouldn't apologize for anything. He didn't really have any quips in here, just reacted with laughter to some of Dave's lines. Saying he was against Clymer because "He picked on my friend - Dick Cheney" seemed quite lame (it wasn't a quip but a serious statement). Maybe the guy IS just what Bush called him, but that doesn't seem like much of a reason. Isn't poor pathetic Cheney used to ups and downs in political life? Maybe get out of the kitchen if you can't stand the heat.

There was a whole section of the show that was basically serious. This seemed to catch Gov. Bush by surprise. Dave questioned him on the death penalty. Bush allowed that he might have second thoughts about the death penalty if it was shown to be unfair, if innocent people were being executed, and if it didn't "save lives" by being a deterrent to crime. Dave's way of phrasing the question seemed like it could really hit a Bush nerve. Dave asked if Bush could ever have a "change of heart" about the death penalty. Since "heart" is one of Bush's key words and guiding concepts, we thought this could make it more interesting. Also, Dave brought up about the environment, seeming to be incredulous that Bush might drill in the Alaskan wilderness area for natural gas. A few times Bush used the phrase "alternative uses of energy" when he meant something like "alternative SOURCES of energy," minor thing. The governor wasn't specific in terms of policy, but he remained serious throughout this part and didn't hurt himself any. But it was clearly the case that he wanted the show to remain lighthearted and not to have to go back-and-forth with Dave Letterman on serious issues! Since you never can tell what Letterman is going to say, this could be a place actually where it'd be easy to stumble and say the wrong thing. We were thinking he probably wished he could claim a violation of the rules so he wouldn't have to answer the question, like he did in the debates.

At one point when Dave said "listen to me," Gov. Bush said something like "I have no choice but to listen to you" (not exact quote). He was uncomfortable, and especially with the discussion of the death penalty, asking if they could go on to something "more pleasant."

With his humor, Bush usually does fairly well, even though a lot of his quips are very garden variety things. His timing could use a few tweaks, and some of his mannerisms are a little unnerving. For one, he shouldn't try to match Letterman. Mainly he should sit back and respond rather than initiating the humor or trying to go one better. One of the more unnerving mannerisms Bush has is to make the witty remark and then move-in closer to the person. The moving-in is a way of engaging the other person to agree that the line is funny. But Letterman's sense of humor is so beyond most other people's, beyond Bush's in this case, that the laughter Bush gets is just something from someone trying to be nice to him. Like sympathy chuckles when someone tells a joke you've heard a hundred times but it's obvious they don't realize that joke's been around for years. But Bush does have a sense of humor and it's not really half-bad.

Some things just fell flat. We don't have a transcript here. But when Dave asked him what the best thing was about the campaign, campaigning, Bush said, "Meeting people...I'm a people person." Dave said "Really?" And Bush said, "I'm also a person." Fortunately that line was half-buried in the give and take.

One of the truest statements was Bush's comment about low expectations in the debates. He said, "A lot of folks don't think I can string a sentence together. And so when I was able to do so-- expectations were so low that all I have to say is "Hi, I'm George W. Bush." We haven't really gotten ourselves entirely convinced how this expectations game can actually work. Are people really so fooled by expectations games, especially when they're mentioned all the time in the pre- and post-debate reports. We never literally thought Bush couldn't speak a sentence, or he would have been confined to some mental hospital and wouldn't have been put forward as a candidate. And if your expectations are so low in the first place, it's hard to see how that could translate to support for the man. It's hard to believe anyone would want a genuine, totally-unlearned dunce as President. As dumb as George W. Bush appears to be in comparison with Al Gore, for instance, the man is still smart. We don't care for him, but he's not literally a dunce. His claim on the Oprah Winfrey show that he is smarter than most may be true, depending what the subject is. Especially if you let the phrase "most people" encompass the whole human race. Bush is probably smarter than the average Chinese peasant (all 10 billion of them). And we've met numerous people who have been surprisingly stupid. Makes you wonder how they all get along as well as they do.

Couple more things: Bush's timing in reciting the Top 10 list was a little bad. Coming out and tapping the microphone and saying "I'm always checking these days" was flat and poorly timed.

All in all, it wasn't a bad night. David Letterman might have done a better job interviewing Bush than some of the straight news guys have. But Bush knows where all the wiggle room is, and it's hard to get anything out of him beyond the usual generalities and beyond the discipline of the campaign's script.

One big difference between Gore's appearance and Bush's, Bush didn't engage the audience very much (if at all). Gore went down and shook hands with the Texan in the front row, then ended the show walking along slapping hands with audience members. Bush kept totally separate from the audience. And it seemed like he would have at least gone and seen the fellow in the current events quiz who said he was still undecided, but might vote for Bush.

Just a few thoughts on how it went! Thanks for visiting our site. We have lots of other features. Some are getting so old they might NEED prescription drug benefits and Social Security, but we keep 'em around for sentimental reasons.