Here Comes Trouble: Stories from My Life

"Outstanding…Moore Triumphs! Publishers Weekly

Mike's Letter

November 14th, 2000 12:00 AM

The Presidency -- Just Another Perk

Dear Governor and President-in-Waiting Bush:

This has to be the first time in our history that a candidate who is losing BOTH the popular vote AND the electoral vote insists on being anointed President of the United States.

I can understand why you expect this title to be yours. You have spent your entire life having everything handed to you. You have never had to earn your place. Money and name alone have opened every door for you. Without effort or hard work or intelligence or ingenuity, you have been bequeathed a life of privilege.

You learned at an early age that, in America, all someone like you has to do is show up. You found yourself admitted to a wealthy New England boarding school simply because your name was Bush. You did not have to EARN your place there. It was bought for you.

You then learned you could get into Yale with a "C" average. Other, more deserving, students who had worked hard for 12 years to earn their place at Yale were denied admittance. You got in because your name was Bush.

You got into Harvard the same way. After screwing off during your four years at Yale -- and maintaining your "C" average -- you took someone's else's seat at Harvard, a seat that they had EARNED.

You then pretended to serve a full stint in the Texas Air National Guard. But one day, according to the Boston Globe, you just skipped out and didn't report back for a year and a half to your unit. You didn't have to earn your military record because your name was Bush.

After a number of "lost years" that don't appear in your official biography, you were given job after job by your daddy and other family members -- jobs you didn't have to earn. No matter how many of your business ventures failed, there was always another one waiting to be handed to you. Finally, you got to be a partner in a ball team -- another gift -- even though you put up only 1/100 of the money for the team. And then you convinced the taxpayers of Arlington, Texas, to give you another perk -- a brand-new multi-million dollar stadium.

So it is no wonder to me why you think you deserve to be named President.? You've haven't earned it or won it -- therefore it must be yours!

And you see nothing wrong with this.

Why should you? It is the only life you have ever known.

I will never forget the footage of you sitting in your governor's mansion the night of the election when it was first declared that Gore had won Florida. Surrounded by poppy and mommy, and on the phone to your brother the governor of Florida, you were a picture of calm. You had not a worry in the world. You told the press that your brother had assured you Florida was yours. If a Bush said it was so, it was so. 

But it ain't so. And when it dawned on you that the Presidency had to be earned and won by a vote of the people -- yes, the people! -- you went berserk. You sent in hatchet man James Baker ("F--- the Jews, they don't vote for us anyway" was his advice to Poppy in '92) to tell lies to the American people and stoke the nation's fears. When that didn't work, you went to federal court and sued to stop the votes from being counted because you knew how the vote would turn out. 

What kills me is how you have turned to the big, bad, federal government for help! Was not your mantra, during every campaign stop, the following line: 

"My opponent trusts the federal government. I TRUST YOU, THE PEOPLE!"

So now we learn the truth. You don't trust the people at all. You went running to the FEDERAL court to get your handout ("Trust the machines, not the people," you pleaded). But the judge didn't buy it, and for perhaps the first time in your life, someone said "no" to you.

What will you do now? According to the New York Times, 90% of your campaign funds came from just 775 American millionaires. Oh, that they could bail you out of this mess! I wouldn't count on them -- it's not like they have suffered financially under Clinton/Gore. They know they will do just fine with the Kissin' Fool. I think, my friend, you are on your own.

Mr. Bush, your only hope is that Gore will wimp out and throw in the towel. There is ample evidence of how Democrats love to cave. You and your right-wing friends know the Democrats are weak-kneed and spineless. You remember how Al Gore and all the Democrats voted to put that anti-abortion zealot Scalia on the Supreme Court -- and how 11 Democrats made the difference in placing Clarence Thomas there, too? 

That's your ticket. Spook Gore and his party into believing a focus group is mad at them, take a phony poll that backs that up, get the gasbag pundits to yammer and hammer him and maybe, just maybe, you'll get the latest plum prize that is not yours to have.

Yours,

Michael Moore
http://www.theawfultruth.com/
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
mmflint@aol.com

You must log in to comment.

You must be logged in to leave a comment. Log in | Register

Revealed: the top secret rules that allow NSA to use US data without a warrant www.guardian.co.uk Fisa court submissions show broad scope of procedures...

Jun 21st
8:59 AM
Read More

Michael Hastings' Wife Obliterates New York Times For Dismissive Obituary www.huffingtonpost.com Hastings’ widow, Elise Jordan, is firing back at Times...

Jun 20th
7:58 PM
Read More

From Global Zero -- we can get to a world without nuclear weapons: The World Must Stand Together Matt Damon, Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman,...

Jun 20th
2:27 PM
Read More

RootsAction | Media want war in Syria. We don't. act.rootsaction.org Only 11% of the U.S. public wants the U.S. providing weapons to the Syrian...

Jun 19th
11:58 PM
Read More

Missing Michael Hastings www.buzzfeed.com One of the great reporters of his generation died Tuesday at 33. The stories he wrote, and the ones he didn't...

Jun 19th
7:19 PM
Read More

Rest in peace, Michael Hastings, author of 'The Operators': BuzzFeed Reporter Dies In Car Crash At Age 33 www.huffingtonpost.com Journalist Michael...

Jun 18th
8:20 PM
Read More

After Newtown shooting, mourning parents enter into the lonely quiet www.washingtonpost.com After the shooting and the politics, the Barden family suffers all...

Jun 18th
4:43 PM
Read More

From This Modern World, about Edward Snowden and the NSA: Daily Kos: Sensible thinkers www.dailykos.com Click to embiggen Support independent cartooning:...

Jun 17th
5:35 PM
Read More

Edward Snowden Q&A: NSA whistleblower answers your questions www.guardian.co.uk The whistleblower behind the biggest intelligence leak in NSA history is...

Jun 17th
1:36 PM
Read More

From the Electronic Frontier Foundation: Biden in 2006 debates Obama in 2013 over NSA spying program Watch then-Senator Joe Biden from 2006 as he directly...

Jun 14th
5:45 PM
Read More

Senator caught in strip club with his pants down When money wins, we all lose. Join the fight to stop bribery & corruption at...

Jun 14th
5:42 PM
Read More

RootsAction | No New War in Iran or Syria act.rootsaction.org Sign the petition opposing war by the United States or NATO in Iran or Syria.

Jun 14th
3:15 PM
Read More

ICYMI -- Stop Watching Us | Stop Watching Us optin.stopwatching.us We write to express our concern about recent reports published in the Guardian about the...

Jun 13th
12:42 PM
Read More

We really should have listened to Shia LaBeouf five years ago: Shia Labeouf: One-In-Five Phone Calls Are Recorded (2008-09-16) Clip from The Tonight Show...

Jun 13th
12:13 PM
Read More

Bradley Manning Has Done More for U.S. Security Than SEAL Team 6 ...by Chase Madar www.michaelmoore.com Thanks to Bradley Manning, our disaster-prone elites...

Jun 11th
3:10 PM
Read More

Historic challenge to support the moral actions of Edward Snowden ...by Norman Solomon www.sfbg.com

Jun 10th
11:48 AM
Read More

RootsAction | Thank NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden act.rootsaction.org Sign a thank-you note that will be delivered to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. And...

Jun 10th
11:42 AM
Read More

12pm Union Square: Rally Supporting #NSA Whistle Blower Edward Snowden www.sparrowmedia.net 12pm EST activists, journalists & concerned New Yorkers will...

Jun 10th
10:56 AM
Read More

Daniel Ellsberg: "In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden's release of NSA material – and...

Jun 10th
10:00 AM
Read More

NSA surveillance as told through classic children's books www.guardian.co.uk As news of the NSA's secret surveillance programs spread this weekend,...

Jun 9th
7:28 PM
Read More

Thank you, Edward Snowden -- destined to go down as one of the greatest whistleblowers in American history.

"I don't want to live in a...

Jun 9th
3:44 PM
Read More

ICYMI -- Husain Bazzi of Mike's High School Newspaper will co-chair a panel at the 2013 Left Forum at Pace University in NYC. Today, Sunday at 3 pm,...

Jun 9th
12:34 PM
Read More

Report by Mike's High School Newspaper from day 2 of the Left Forum in New York: Left Forum Day 2 Tweets | Michael Moore | High School Newspaper...

Jun 9th
12:33 PM
Read More

MORE from Glenn Greenwald. Someone near top of the U.S. government is very, very worried about what the NSA is up to: Boundless Informant: the NSA's...

Jun 8th
4:45 PM
Read More

Welcome to PRISM Internet Backup Service jcfrog.com I do hereby declare my allegiance to the USA and swear to their God that I will never try to hide any part...

Jun 8th
1:18 PM
Read More

Jeremy Scahill's film 'Dirty Wars' opens TODAY in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, DC. Couldn't be more timely: Dirty Wars...

Jun 7th
8:15 PM
Read More

MORE from Glenn Greenwald. Someone near the top of the government is very worried about Obama and the ever-growing National Security State: Obama orders US...

Jun 7th
6:25 PM
Read More

Glenn Greenwald's follow up to his blockbuster Verizon story -- it turns out the *all* the biggest internet companies (including Facebook) are turning...

Jun 7th
12:20 PM
Read More

You probably thought Glenn Greenwald's scoop would be the biggest the biggest story about the National Surveillance State this year. Well...

...

Jun 6th
7:09 PM
Read More

Husain Bazzi of Mike's High School Newspaper will co-chair a panel at the 2013 Left Forum at Pace University in NYC. This Sunday at 3 pm, please come if...

Jun 6th
6:56 PM
Read More

Subscribe to Mike's Blog RSS

Click here to suggest an article

Mike's Blog

See More Blogs

Vew the archives

View older articles