Bush: The Great Spigot Opener

From Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis:
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/ (bold emphasis mine)
June 5, 2008  

Sheer Force Of PersonalityDateline June 28th 2000 - The 2000 presidential campaignBush Would Use Power of Persuasion to Raise Oil Supply Gov. George W. Bush of Texas said today that if he was president, he would bring down gasoline prices through sheer force of personality, by creating enough political good will with oil-producing nations that they would increase their supply of crude."I would work with our friends in OPEC to convince them to open up the spigot, to increase the supply," Mr. Bush, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, told reporters here today. "Use the capital that my administration will earn, with the Kuwaitis or the Saudis, and convince them to open up the spigot."Asked why the Clinton administration had not been able to use the power of personal persuasion, Mr. Bush said: "The fundamental question is, 'Will I be a successful president when it comes to foreign policy?' "
and the article referenced above is: http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/062800wh-bush.html

It also contains such gems as:  
Asked why the Clinton administration had not been able to use the power of personal persuasion, Mr. Bush said: "The fundamental question is, 'Will I be a successful president when it comes to foreign policy?' " and He was also asked to respond to remarks made this morning by Chris Lehane, press secretary to Vice President Al Gore, to reporters in Philadelphia. Mr. Lehane had criticized Republicans, and Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, in particular, for releasing reports last week that a Justice Department official had called for a special prosecutor to investigate Mr. Gore's fund-raising activities. 
Mr. Lehane said that the Republicans were "turning the U.S. Congress into a scandal-industrial complex" and that Mr. Bush was "the C.E.O." of that. Mr. Bush dismissed Mr. Lehane's comments, saying, "It's frankly the type of politics people in America are sick of, this kind of finger pointing, calling names and trying to divert attention." 
He returned to the subject after a subsequent question about how he would court independent voters in Michigan. He said he would "make the case that I'm the person that can change the tone of Washington, D.C.," and added, "Just give me a chance to be the president." 

People like Condoleeza Rice say that the Bush Presidency will not be able to be evaluated until some time in the future, until the passions of a country lied to and betrayed will have cooled and the generation for whom the present and future were destroyed have passed away. Then and only then will the incredibly intelligent historians of the future age be able to fairly judge the Bush administration; the administration that presumed to ignore any law passed by Congress which it chose to ignore - an arrogant autocracy far beyond any claimed by George III leading to the American Revolution. I do not know for sure what the historians 100 years from now will say. I DO know that they shall be lecturing in unheated halls and writing with quills.
(resignation now!)