Thinkin’ is Hard Work

US President George W. Bush looks over the crowd and collects his thoughts as he is introduced on stage to deliver remarks on the global war on terror at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. Bush, under fire for ordering unprecedented spying on US citizens, defended the program as limited, legal and critical to thwarting terrorist plots.(AFP/Paul J. Richards)

Collecting his thoughts, eh? No wonder he looks like he’s in excruciating pain.

My favorite bit from that appearance, btw, was when a college sophomore totally stumped him during the unscripted Q&A following his speech.

Q: My name is Tiffany Cooper. I’m a sophomore here at Kansas State and I was just wanting to get your comments about education. Recently 12.7 billion dollars was cut from education. I was just wondering how is that supposed to help our futures?

Bush: Education budget was cut — say it again. What was cut?

Q: 12.7 billion dollars was cut from education. I’m wanting to know how is that supposed to help our futures?

Bush: At the federal level?

Q: Yes.

Bush: I don’t think we’ve actually — for higher education? Student loans?

Q: Yes, student loans.

Bush: Actually, I think what we did was reform the student loan program. We are not cutting money out of it. In other words, people aren’t going to be cut off the program. We’re just making sure it works better as part of the reconciliation package I think she’s talking about? Yeah — It is a form of the program to make sure it functions better. In other words, we’re not taking people off student loans. We’re saving money in the student loan program because it’s inefficient. So I think the thing to look at is whether or not there will be fewer people getting student loans. I don’t think so.

Secondly, on Pell Grants, we are actually expanding the number of Pell grants through our budget. Great question. The key on education is to make sure that we stay focused on how do we stay competitive into the 21st century, and I plan on doing some talking about math and science and engineering programs so that people who graduate out of college will have the skills necessary to compete in this competitive world. But I think i’m right on this. I will check when I get back to Washington, but thank you for your question.

For those of you who have managed to resist learning Bushese, let me translate that last paragraph for you: Blah blah babble-dee-babble-dee-boo blah yadda yadda stammer stutter meh uh blah blah blah.

(Think Progress has the video.)